I have a dual pentium III motherboard and ever since i can remember it has had a problem where the computer would reset itself at random times. I found that if i took out the second CPU the problem was almost gone, with the exception of the occasional reset...but this wasnt bothering me. Then I decided to reformat last week and now I cant get windows to load. It will get to the windows XP screen with the bar going accross and just reset. Everytime. I switched the pentium III with a celeron 600mhz and it worked for a few times, then it too started resetting before windows loaded. Now I can't even use my computer anymore. Anyone have any suggestions?

when you say reset i take it you mean reboot, not just shut down?


Sean :darth:

Have a look at the capacitors on that motherboard. They could be worn out & causing the stability problems.

PS. Welcome to TechSpot. Hope you enjoy your stay.:wave:

i mean reboot, and how would I tell if i capacitor is worn out?

See if the top of the capacitors aren't popped open or if they don't have a weird look as if certain parts have melted. Also, when they pop open, they release a lot of brown dust in the nearby area.

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

You may also want to take a look at the following thread www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html

As regards your computer rebooting. Right click my computer select properties and then the advanced tab under startup and recovery click on settings and uncheck the box that says automatically restart.

Also set the write debugging information to none.

Now when your system crashes you should receive an error message telling you what caused the stop error.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

i glanced at that thread but im pretty sure my problem is a hardware issue, thanks for the other suggestions though

Heat?

My experiences with spontaneous shutdowns/reboots have generally been associated with heat problems. Two processors create more heat than one. What is your cooling solution... Are your cpu coolers clean, system fans clean, etc... If you have your computer in a cramped location, you may consider moving it so it can “breathe” a little better. A tower that is placed on carpet will retain more heat as well. Just some suggestions... Hope they help!