'Round and 'round we go . . . .
"the fact that it did not restart at all earlier in the week when it wuz cool and does now that it is hot makes me believe moreso that it is the heat."
There you go, you nailed it. I'd still like to know if you took the fan off the HS and cleaned it. A small, soft paint brush will cost maybe 49 cents at WalMart. If the HS is clogged with dust and dirt six case fans won't cure the heat problem because the CPU overheating is what's causing the restarts.
"i did not do the floor fan test b/c i didnt have one to use."
A small fan at WalMart cost me 5 bucks and the fan test will remove all doubt. Look at Eckerds, KMart, Wallgreen, Dollar General, any place like that and they usually have them on sale this time of year. Borrow one if you have to but just do it.
This is elementary but check the connections and make sure they are properly seated.
"could there be nething else that would cause the problem??"
Maybe the power supply is overheating from dust and dirt or may be going bad. It's easy to remove, four screws, take the top off and do the same thing you did with the paint brush and clean and vacuum it good but make sure it is unplugged first. Did they change the memory modules or add another to what was in there to begin with? Mismatched memory causes lock-ups and general instability but never heard of it causing a restart.
"also, there is a cardboard panel behind the comp [where the exhaust fan is]... would cutting a hole in that to let exhaust out help significantly?"
WHOA! Surely the exaust fan vent isn't blocked, is it? Yes, definitely cut the hole or whatever it takes to let the fans do their job and blow the hot air out and away from the computer. Back of the computer should be a minimum of a foot from the wall, preferably 18 inches.
"she has pc 3200 in there and the clock is at 400Mhz, but ive heard ppl talking about how they cant get their mem to actually run that fast.. could this be the prob?....
her fsb is 133 and the vcore is on auto, but registers at like 1.504"
I seriously doubt any of that is the problem IF the CMOS-BIOS setting haven't been changed. When it's booting go into the BIOS, check and see if there is a Default setting and set the BIOS to Default. If it's store bought or home built that should set the BIOS correct. Memory should be set to AUTO. The vcore voltage sounds right to me. The AMD 1700 should handle fsb 133 OK but if you have the option knock it back to say 120 or even 100. IMHO, you're barking up the wrong tree because HEAT is the problem.
Once again, here it is:
1. Unplug the computer from the wall and remove the fan and clean the CPU Heat Sink and if there's a fan on the video chip clean that to.
2. Use the paint brush and carefully clean the MB and whole insides of the computer and the HDD, hard disk drive. Vacuum up the dust & dirt.
3. Get a fan and do the floor fan test and if it runs OK you'll know heat is the problem. Put the side on and run it and if it restarts that will confirm heat is the problem.
The Arctic Silver will probably buy you five degrees cooler but you're not doing this restart problem solving in the proper sequence. Please do the three steps above before you use the Arctic Silver and let us know how it goes.
Listen up: Your car has a high speed vibration and take it to the shop and the mechanic says balance the tires but instead of having the tires balanced you change the oil. You catch my drift here? Let's do first things first and if that doesn't solve the restarts we'll go from there. We'd certainly like to help you resolve the problem but beginning to feel somewhat frustrated because you're not doing things in the proper order.
Sorry if I got long winded but I sincerely want to help you. . . OldBird
