PC reboots after POST! (BX-133 RAID)

[OverclockNStein]

I have spent a week trying to get my old PC back up and running to sell to a friend, but I'm having trouble figuring out whats wrong with it.

1st the PC was running fine, until it started to reboot right at the start of the Windows XP splash screen (where the Windows XP logo fades in and the little blue bar below it shows you it's doing something), but after it rebooted, it would run fine, no problems.

After time, the rebooting has gotten worse, it would reboot 3 or 4 times, then get into windows...but in windows, it would reboot as soon as 5 minutes in, or as long as an hour.

Finily, it just wants to reboot and not load the OS at all.

Things I have tried to solve the problem:

* Completely taken apart the PC, clean it and put it back together.

* whiped out the harddrive, re-partitioned it, formated it, Fresh install of XP (still rebooted at splash screen. [tried NTFS and FAT32]

* tried (4) different sticks of ram

* moved harddrive to RAID controller (IDE3)

* Replaced video card (Geforce 2 GTS to TNT2 Ultra)

* removed sound card + Eithernet card

* Ran Norton to scan boot sector of harddrive

* dug up an old 6 gig harddrive that had Win98 on it. After a couple reboots to setup harddware, it would boot into windows 98, but it would reboot 1-2 minutes in.

* took that harddrive and re-partitioned it, formated it, installed XP, and this time I was able to see the splash screen for a good 5 seconds before a reboot.

* tried a different power supply.

* moved cards around to reduce a IRQ conflict

* F$cked around with the BIOS a bunch (overclocked it while i was there )

* Flashed the BIOS to new "72"

* and a couple other minor things that I cant think of at the top of my head.

I dont have an extra Socket 370 CPU kicking around, thats next on my list. Other than that, I'm lost, could use some feedback.


System Specs:

Abit BX-133 RAID
P3 750 (7.5*100)
448 MB PC133 RAM (256+128+64)
Creative Labs Geforce 2 GTS (AGP)
Soundblaster Live 5.1 (PCI 3)
Linksys 10/100 Net (PCI 1)

 

[OverclockNStein]

BUMP!

 

[auky]

have you updated to sp1?

 

[nodsetse]

Consider the possibility that some of the mobo capacitors may have gone bad. Have you checked to see if any of them are bulging or leaking? Sorry to say it, but I'm glad to see this thread because I'm having the same issue with my BX-133 RAID board too, but haven't had time to investigate. Mine does make it into windoze for about 30sec, then reboots itself, and repeats the process forever. Due to all the recent reports of such around the 'net, I can't help but think I've got some faulty capacitors.

 

[OverclockNStein]

Good call Nodeste, I spent a couple minutes looking at the capacitors and some of them seem slightly larger than others, also, one of them is bulged with some orange-rusty colored stuff on top. I will confirm when I get home from work. O-well, it has served me well. I can justify buying another P3 motherboard. I'll just sell my P3 750 + ram to a friend (who is still using a 366 celeron, then I'll just get a cheap-o althon cpu-motherboard for under $200.

Auky, SP1 has not been installed on this PC

 

[nodsetse]

Good call Nodeste, I spent a couple minutes looking at the capacitors and some of them seem slightly larger than others, also, one of them is bulged with some orange-rusty colored stuff on top.

Sorry to hear, as that's a fairly definite indication of the now infamous capacitor issue. Unfortunately I can't yet determine whether that's my problem or not, because it's not so obvious by looking at them on my board. Regardless, your plan on how to proceed is very sound, and I wish you luck.