It's Official, I hate computers.

[Callipygous]

My computer had recently turned to a slow pile of crap, so i decided to reformat. I have a fresh copy of Windows xp pro installed on a blank harddrive, ive installed video, motherboard, and wireless card drivers. ive installed mozilla fire fox.

 

and thats it. there is nothing else installed as far as this os is concerned. it runs perfectly fine until i try to do something online. i can go on the windows update site with no problems, but as soon as i try to browse anything, like SFN or hotmail or google, its a matter of seconds before my computer restarts with no warning or error message.

 

it happens with IE and with firefox, it happens with my wireless card and with my motherboards built in network card.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Restarts as in Windows says "Shutting down..." and then turns off, or as in "bloop" and it's dead?

[Callipygous]

restarts as in the screen stops for about half a second and then turns black and starts loading a post screen.

 

oh yeah, i also installed firewall and antivirus software.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Check the video driver you got. Sometimes computer manufacturers distribute their own versions separately from the card manufacturer.

 

Failing that, buy a sledgehammer.

[Callipygous]

its a home built computer, there is no manufacturer. ive installed the software that came with the graphics card. i had downloaded another version before, i think its still on my second harddrive, i could try that.

[ecoli]

its a home built computer, there is no manufacturer.

manufacturer of the graphics card, he meant.

ive installed the software that came with the graphics card. i had downloaded another version before, i think its still on my second harddrive, i could try that.

you can usually get the latest drivers directly from the manufacturer of the graphics card. If you don't want to wait, use a different computer and download them from the manufacture's website onto a removable disk, and install the software on your computer.

[Callipygous]

manufacturer of the graphics card, he meant.

 

you can usually get the latest drivers directly from the manufacturer of the graphics card. If you don't want to wait, use a different computer and download them from the manufacture's website onto a removable disk, and install the software on your computer.

 

 

he said both card manufacturer and computer manufacturer. i was referring to the latter.

 

id try the download but the only other computer i have available is my mothers and she is very finicky about downloads. id have to talk to her before i tried anything, and shes out with some friends.

 

 

and i just tried the one i had and it doesnt make a difference.

[Klaynos]

Have you changed anything in terms of hardware with the computer? Anything at all?

[Ndi]

Try to install (and play) a game. The load usually brings forth any hardware issues. Also, when it suddenly reboots, try to enter setup and check voltages and temperature. Maybe something went haywire.

 

As Klaynos said, did you touch the hardware? In addition, did you even open and clean it, even if nothing changed? Dropped it?

[Klaynos]

Try to install (and play) a game. The load usually brings forth any hardware issues. Also, when it suddenly reboots, try to enter setup and check voltages and temperature. Maybe something went haywire.

 

As Klaynos said, did you touch the hardware? In addition, did you even open and clean it, even if nothing changed? Dropped it?

 

I'm thinking power problems... But if it downloads and installs win updates fine, then I would think that that's less likely....

[Ndi]

Power or heat. In any case, sudden reboots of clean installs smells of hardware more than anything else.

 

If hardware wasn't touched, I'd recheck all wires inside, just in case (pun not intended). You can also check the wires not in case, but outside the case too (now it is). Also make sure all expansions are well seated. Graphics card dislodged can also be a reason, e.g.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

manufacturer of the graphics card, he meant.

No, I meant manufacturer of the computer.

[Callipygous]

yes, due to the set up of my computer i had to change hardware.

 

last christmas i got a new mother board, processor, and graphics card. the new mother board only had one IDE slot, with the intention that the harddrives would be SATA. i didnt have SATA hds.

 

i have a pci adapter that i had my harddrives plugged into and the cd roms plugged in the mobo becuase the ide cables wouldnt reach the cd drives from the adapter.

 

windows setup doesnt recognize the adapter so i plugged in my OS hard drive and one cd drive to the mobo leaving the adapter out entirely.

 

after i got it booted up i tried to install drivers for the adapter (which is another problem, the instructions for it say that windows xp will find the drivers automatically, but it hasnt

 

so yes, when i went to reinstall everything but the graphics card came out of it (soundcard, wireless card, ultra ata adapter) ive checked and rechecked to make sure they are all seated properly.

 

i dont think its a heat or power issue because the thing runs fine for hours, i can do all sorts of things on it, as long as it doesnt involve browsing the internet.

[raivo]

i dont think its a heat or power issue because the thing runs fine for hours, i can do all sorts of things on it, as long as it doesnt involve browsing the internet.

 

Maybe network card or drivers? Years ago i had similar problem with Windows 98. All worked fine but windows crahsed always after i used internet for some time. Maybe it even rebooted itself. I can not recall what exactly i did to overcome this but it was something with network drivers or ADSL software.

[Callipygous]

my thought was network card or drivers, until i ran a wire through the house to plug it straight into the router. it happens both with my wireless card and with my mobo's built in adapter. they use seperate drivers and i have a hard time believing they both have the same thing wrong with them.

 

my best bet at this point is that something is wrong with my windows cd, my friend has another one so im going to try intalling with his CD as soon as i get a chance to borrow it from him.

[Callipygous]

so im reinstalling windows right now, i just deleted the partition windows was installed on.

 

now the installer has 3 things on its list of places i can install, 12g, 7g, and 8m. all labeled as unpartitioned space. if they are all unpartitioned why doesnt it list them as one space, and why cant i make a 19g partition?

[Klaynos]

Are there other partitions on the disk? They could be between the blank ones.

[Callipygous]

no other partitions that i know of, or that show up on the list.

[Klaynos]

I can't help much, not had much experiance of the dows installer, have you formatted the disk?

[Callipygous]

first post from my now functional computer : D

 

yes, formatted the disk, but i think it only formatted the partition where windows was installed (12g)

[MattC]

Fix a mans computer, and he knows where to go to get his computer fixed. Teach a man to fix his computer, and you just destroyed your market base!

[Callipygous]

for the first time since i got this mobo/proc (2 years ago) ive managed to install its temperature monitoring software. you have to install it before your video drivers because it wants to install directx 9 before it will do what i want.

 

it says my processor is never lower than about 65C and gets as high as about 95C which is beyond its range of safe temperatures. from what im reading online it seems like it should be a good 30-50 degrees lower than that.

 

the thing is, i know my processor has been a lot hotter than it is right now, because when it really gets hot (before i opened the case and a put a fan next to it) the processor fan starts to go nuts. so nuts that my mom thought someone was using powertools next door when she walked by my room.

 

i just replaced the thermal goo on the processor today, and i dont think i screwed it up, but im curious if theres really anything more for me to do or if its a decent assumption that the reading software is inaccurate.

 

the ambient temperature in the rest of my computer is well within the safe zone, running at about 35C.

 

it seems like the kind of thing i should be concerned about, but its been running with this general configuration and i would guess this temperature for the past 2 years. : P

[Dave]

Yes, you should be concerned about temperatures as high as 95C - they can cause permanent damage to your processor quite happily. You might want to consider whether you're using too much thermal paste; you only need a reasonably sized blob in the middle of the head spreader for it to do its job efficiently. Other than that, make sure the fan on your heatsink is not caked up with dust, or otherwise buy yourself a better heatsink.

[Dak]

doesn't it depend on the processor?

 

my mate's laptop's processor can take up to 90^oC

[Dave]

Yes, it does depend on the processor. But temperatures around 100C are just not going to be good if run like that for long periods of time. It doesn't take a whole bunch of effort to cool your processor down effectively; if your current heatsink isn't doing a good enough job, then just buy another one and slap some Arctic Silver on there.

 

Out of interest, which processor do you currently have in that machine, Callipygous?