My Desktop reboots by itself....... How is that possible ? And sometimes its just flickers into a black screen all of a sudden...... Does anyone else sence hardware failure?

Have you recently added or replaced any hardware devices? (i.e. video card, etc.) If so, make sure that those cards are connected properly. If that isn't the issue, you may want to look for updated device drivers for your video card. That may explain the issues with the video flickering. As for the PC shutting down, that could be Power Management settings. Which OS do you use? Windows is known to have issues with Power Management not working properly.

I'm using Windows ME..... Before I was running WinXP Professional until one day it got on my nerves so I had to format and install WinME.

The only new hardware I've installed was the drivers for the AOL DSL Internal Modem but the thing is that peice of hardware is already inside the Minitower a year ago as I nevered installed the drivers for it until recently...... Really bums me out as its not compatible with WinXP.

Strange. It may be the drivers for the modem. It doesn't make sense but recently Comcast switched half their customers to a new network and sent out installation CD-ROM's. The CD wasn't needed since their Cable Internet is setup using DHCP IP addresses. The people that did install the software, for the most part, had problems afterwards. I didn't install it and had no problems but others I know had to reformat to remove the changes it made to the OS. Just a thought since I've seen that happen before.

Originally posted by Synergy
My Desktop reboots by itself....... How is that possible ? And sometimes its just flickers into a black screen all of a sudden......


Did you get struck by lightning by any chance? :D

Sounds stupid I know, but similar things have happened to me when thunderstorms are about. Makes me think it could be power surges or something like that?

LOL!

Lawrence, you've just made me laugh and that's a really good thing in the rainy morning we are having here.

Hmm... I'm gonny ask that question next time I have a friend/customer with similar problems :)

Don't get me wrong, power surges could be it. A faulty power supply or any number of other reasons come to mind. These kinds of faults are hard to pinpoint unless you start to dissasemble and reinstall the pc...

Is the modem by any chance on the same IRQ as the graphic card...?

Ales

random reboots are usually caused by bad RAM. If you have more then one stick in there try to remove all but 1 then run your computer and try to see if that is the problem

Hi!
Here are some tips.
1) Dump ME and go to WIN98.
2) Or even better dump Win and go to Linux
3) Tighten your RAM
4) See if the processor fan is working. It could be because the processor is getting heated up.
5) Set the bios settings to default.
6) Check all other hardware....

I hope it starts working soon.


Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Actually, I had this problem about one year ago. I fixed it by moving the cards in the PCI slots around. Specifically, there was an issue with my video card and NIC. Moving the NIC to the slot furthest away from the vid card fixed everything for me.

so i have 3 pci slots

slot 1) ATI Radeon
Slot 2) 56 MODEM
Slot 3) DSL Modem

it is away...........

I've took 1 RAM out and the computer reboots when i click something so i guess that ram is bad so i took out the final one and put the one back in......... Now the computer reboots after a few minutes and the screen flickers and reboots when i tried to Play Wing Commander Spec OPs (old game :) ) So now its video problem? I mean this never happend to me.......... So can I assume my computer has RAM / VID CARD / Power Supply Problem?

Problem found.....

Now my computer shows a black screen and wont even boot up and my optical mouse has no power going to it anymore so I assume its a faulty motherboard. Any recommendations for a new motherboard? ASUS or Generic?

Originally posted by Synergy
ASUS or Generic?

Strangely enough, I'm pricing motherboards out right now. Personally I have found that I tend to look at all boards to see which is best but somehow I end up back with Asus. Not that they're bad because they are not. My personal favorites are Asus, Giga-byte, and FIC (at one time :) )

Definitely sounds like a motherboard issue, though. Good luck...

Originally posted by markblair


Strangely enough, I'm pricing motherboards out right now. Personally I have found that I tend to look at all boards to see which is best but somehow I end up back with Asus. Not that they're bad because they are not. My personal favorites are Asus, Giga-byte, and FIC (at one time :) )

Definitely sounds like a motherboard issue, though. Good luck...

Know of any sites online where i can get a board (asus hopefully)
for like around a $100-150? I want to keep my p3 800 :) unless there is a combo deal somewhere :)

I can't believe my MicronPC broke in a couple of months and it was supposed to be a hosting server as claimed on their advertisement. Good thing i never sent it for co location and used it for personal use instead.

Originally posted by Synergy
Know of any sites online where i can get a board (asus hopefully) for like around a $100-150?

Beyond Computer Inc. - pc-beyond.com
Computer Geeks Discount Outlet - compgeeks.com
Price Watch - pricewatch.com

There are many many others but this should help. Price Watch is the best because you can go to Asus, find the board you want, then price it out using Price Watch. Just make sure to deal with companies that you could hunt down should something go wrong...:D

Mwave.com is one of the least expensive places to buy components. I love 'em.

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=M6VCF

This looks like the one I have right now but mine has 3 pci slots instead of 2 pci and 1 agp..... But its for $30 bucks? Now I know why my board failed.:bawling:

Sometimes, this kind of problem can come from an earth leakage between the motherboard and the case. Not all of the holes in the mb are meant to be used for positive mounting, some are used with plastic locators on some boards, they may have metal film on the board that sometimes people mistake as a hole to fasten down with a screw. This is probibly not your problem but similar faults may arrise if a box has a slightly loose mb and is moved, or if a tech was in too much of a hurry and put the srews in the wrong place. It has been known, this was suggested to me when I had the same problem, I took the board and mounted it again with no problems.

Hope this may give you some ideas.