Stock rig crashing 30 seconds after bootup.

[Myhre]

I have a A64 3200+ newcastle in a K8V SE Dlx. I'm using a Antec 430W PSU. 512 Kingston ValueRAM. The rig is completely stock. No overclock at all. Here is my problem. A few times in the past the rig would be running fine and then just out of the blue it would restart for no reason. Now Exactly 30 seconds after it loads into WinXP it restarts. Every single time. Any ideas as to what it could be? My temps are normal around 38C and I can't think of anything else that could be causing the problem. I'm going to be checking the memory here in a few minutes in another rig, but I don't think it's the RAM. I'm probably going to have to RMA the mobo and cpu. It has never been overclocked, since this was a rig I put together for my sister so I can definatly rule that out. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

-Myhre

 

[Know Nuttin]

Run Memtest.

what are the memory timings set to?

 

[Myhre]

Run Memtest.

what are the memory timings set to?

mem timings are stock. Whatever they are at auto. No way for me to cpuid right now since it won't fully load into windows.

 

[oc_byagi]

what happens if you boot into safe mode?

 

[David]

When tackling random reboots you want to look at the following three things:

= Heat - what is the cooling like? What are the temps?
= PSU - What are the PSU rails like? Possibly a failing PSU?
= RAM - test the RAM with memtest to be sure.

 

[Myhre]

When tackling random reboots you want to look at the following three things:

= Heat - what is the cooling like? What are the temps?
= PSU - What are the PSU rails like? Possibly a failing PSU?
= RAM - test the RAM with memtest to be sure.

Aye those were the first things I tested. The PSU rails are fine, I checked it out with a dmm. The temps are good, and I checked the heatsink seating. The ram is fine. First I tested it in another rig and it had no problems. Then I put a different stick in the problem rig and it still gave me the same reboot. I then ram memtest on the memory on a different rig and no errors after 10 minutes. I have narrowed it down to either the CPU or the Mobo. I've tried underclocking the CPU to see if that would help. It didn't. It still reboots within 30 seconds of loading windows. Every time. I strongly beleive it's the motherboard. But right now this is the only 754 board I own. I guess I'll just have to RMA them both on monday, since they came in the AMD combo bundle. I'm fresh out of ideas. I'm not sure whats going on with it. I'm going to try updating the bios here in a few, but I've heard people having major problems updating the bios on this board. I think this is the crappiest board Asus has made to date. Thankyou for the suggestions.

-Myhre

 

[Myhre]

what happens if you boot into safe mode?

I'll try booting into safe mode now. Good idea.

 

[Myhre]

what happens if you boot into safe mode?

And we have a winner. It was not a hardware problem after all. Apparantly my sister decided to update to SP2. I don't quite understand why SP2 would tear up a system that is practically brand new with a 2 month old install of WinXP. Just doesn't make sense. I thought only the beta SP2 was messing up rigs. Well anyway I was able to get into safe mode, and saw that SP2 had been loaded when she started having the problems. Time to rip that abomination out of XP.