Random Reboot PC Issue - please help!

[hockey2112]

Random Reboot PC Issue - please help!


I recently built a new computer, and had some power issues about a month back. That issue has been resolved, and it was an extremely stupid mistake on my part (had the power supply switched to 220 instead of 110... I live in the US... wrong voltage was listed in the guide I was using... duh...).

Anyway, I have built my computer, and I am having an issue that is driving me insane. On a completely random basis, my computer freezes momentarily (2 or 3 seconds), and then reboots itself. I receive no error message at the time of reboot, nor do I receive one when Windows pulls back up. My device manager shows all hardware as working correctly, and the computer is virus-free, according to Norton Systemworks with the latest virus definitions.

I was having these issues a week or so ago, and decided to reinstall windows completely. I took all components out of my case, put them back in, and built the PC component by component. I pretty much did the longest install ever, to make sure that all drivers were loaded properly. Evertything was working fine, until last night when I plugged my external hard drive into my firewire PCI card. I plugged it in, very closely following the manufacturer's instructions, and it seemed to be installing fne. All of a sudden, the PC rebooted, without freezing first. I cussed and fussed, and waited for Windows to pull back up. It did, and the hard drive appeared in MY Computer, and I was able to access it quite easily.

A little later that night, I plugged a MS Pro Duo into my case's card reader, and accessed several folders on the card. I hit the "back" button so that I would eventually return to My Computer, and my PC froze and rebooted when I reached the PSP root folder on the stick. (Side note: when I was having these issues a week ago, this same thing would happen to me when I accessed a PSP memory card via the Mobo's built-in USB ports). A little later still, I was using IE to browse DCEmu, and the PC froze and rebooted while I was using the mouse's scroll wheel (basic PC mouse, corded, ball). I let it reboot, went back to DCEmu, and it froze and rebooted while I was idley reading a page. It did this several more times before I gave up. This morning, I had the same thing happen while I was reading a page on CNN using FireFox, so it is not a browser-specific issue.

Any ideas on why this would be happening? Did plugging in my external HD overload the power supply or the capabilities of the Mobo or something? Is another piece of hardware (like my card reader, for instance) a piece of crap, and should I trash it completely?

I am using Windows XP, SP1, by the way. I installed from an older Windows disk, and updated to SP1.

Computer specs are listed below this next brief issue...



Another issue I have been having: When I use Firefox to browse the internet, everything runs smoothly (as long as I do not reboot). However, when I use IE, I experience huge delays in page loads. For instance, I will come to DCEmu, the top banner and blue background color load up, and the status bar on the IE browser says that it is done loading. A good ten or 15 seconds later, the page content finally displays in my browser. The funny thing is that the content loaded basically loads up like it had loaded when I first got to the page.

Sounds confusing, I know. For example, let's say that I had the topmost post on the page I was trying to load. As you can see, I have an animated GIF as a signature image. When the page finally loads, my signature is on the last frame or two of its animation. So it is like the content is loaded up that whole time, only I am experiencing the 10-15 second delay before I can actually view the content. Any ideas on this one?



Finally, my computer's parts:




Main parts:

Motherboard/CPU combo: ECS nForce4A-939 & Athlon x2 4600+
http://www.portatech.com/catalog/vie...D=13568&O=4336

eVGA 256-P2-N615-TX Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...rdware_vga_sky

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145449

Ultra (2 x 512MB) PC3200 DDR 400MHz CL3 Memory - I HAVE NOT ADDED THIS TO MY COMPUTER YET
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...p?EdpNo=586829

Broadway Com Corp Okia-black-650 ATX 650W Power Supply 115/230 V cUL , UL , CSA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817162014

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
This is my main drive, on which my Windows OS is installed. Please see the IDE settings on the two drives below this one-- would this be a potential problem?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148144

Western Digital 120 GB hard drive from old computer (was the Slave in old computer, is now the master on the IDE chain)
WDC WD1200JB-00FUA0

Western Digital 60 GB hard drive from old computer (was the Master in old computer, is now the slave on the IDE chain)
WDC WD600BB-75CAA0

Western Digital External Firewire & USB Hard Drive (both Firewire and USB cables are connected, per the manufacturer's instructions. Also, the file system is FAT32, and the rest of my drives are NTFS... would this matter with an external HD?)
WD 2500JB External IEEE 1394 SPB2 Device

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068



Extraneous items:

MyHD TV Tuner Card: - I HAVE NOT ADDED THIS TO MY COMPUTER YET
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...deo/mdp130.asp

Zonet ZFN2600 IEEE1394 3+1-Port Firewire PCI Host Card
http://www.amazon.com/Plus-Port-Fire...116110-2756845

USB card - I HAVE NOT ADDED THIS TO MY COMPUTER YET
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...X0DER&v=glance

LINKSKEY LKA-CR15BW 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal 3.5" USB Card Reader
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820309001


(NOTE: some of these links may now be dead)

You can also see here for a JPG of my device manager screen: http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/965...manageraa8.jpg
Maybe someone will see something in there that is amiss.

Additionally, here is my HijackThis log, again just in case: http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/...718#post779718

THANK YOU for any help you can provide!!!!!

[gimpy530]

I just love it when some one actually posts plently of info (some people simply post nothing more than "My puter broked, it won't do stuff, FIX IT YOU NERDS!")

Anyway........random system crashes could be caused by 100 things, bad memory, bad hard drive, overheating, blah, blah, blah

Did you install all newest drivers form the manufacturer websites? (video, sound, LAN, wireless, firewire PCI, chipset, etc.)

What we can try is to check everything one at a time since this is a new build and any component could be causing it

Go here and download the memory checker, test your computers RAM

Stop and post back if there are any errors (you should test with only 1 stick of RAM in at a time)

No errors? well then your RAM is fine, yay!, now let's check your hard drive for errors.....start - my computer - right click local disk C - properties - tools tab - check now - check both boxes - ok - ok - restart and let it scan, post back the results (anything found or repaired, volume dirty, etc.)

If bot came back clean then it's possible it is overheating, go here and download speedfan, tell me the temp of your computer's CPU and if possible the temp of the GPU (you can find that in the Nvidia control thingy, somewhere, idk where) at about the time the computer crashes (and also if the temp is C or F)