New PC rebooting out of the blue

i just built a new pc (specs below) and after i got all the drivers and stuff installed it has just been restarting for no reason. Ill just be doing normal stuff on the internet and the pc will reboot out of the blue, and im clueless on what could be causing it. i downloaded and updated the newest catalyst drivers for the video card, that didnt work. ive checked the bios and nothing there was wrong. my only guess remaining is that Windows 2000 is just causing problems, so i was wondering if i should upgrade to XP. im almost positive its not anything to do with the hardware. anyways if anyone has any advice please let me know.

i thought i did so good building my first pc ;( haha


FIC mobo
P4 2.8GHz w/ HT, 800 fsb
2x512MB dual channel ddr
radeon 9800 Pro
Western Digital 120GB - Master
IBM 80GB - Slave
Windows 2000 Pro

 

Do you get a Blue Screen or does it just reboot

What sort of temps is it running at maybe overheating have you checked the CPU and Heatsink are installed properly and that all your fans are spinning up

Maybe try turning off the hyperthreading in the bios and try each stick of ram on its own in different slots

Try running for a while with just bare specs removing the slave drive ,cd drives, any external devices you have connected like printers etc

Im not sure if this is available in 2000 but right click My computer--Properties--Advanced--Start-up and recovery settings--uncheck the box automatically restart--this will force a BSOD which should give details of any errors

 

no blue screen, just a reboot, like it the power went out.

ive checked the temps frequently and they seem steady. around 40 C

i did what you said about the automatically restart box, so ill see if that fixes it.

i changed my screen res. from 1600x1200 to 1280x1024 and it hasnt restarted yet, so it could be some wierd problems with my video card. ill just wait and see if it happens again.

thanks general

 

OK well if youve checked that box at least if it crashes again you should get the Blue Screen with the exact error, which would hopefully point us in the right direction

 

yes i have all the updates, SP4 and every security update. i know its not blaster b/c it shows that NT authority message, mine doesnt show any kind of messages.

If i do happen to upgrade to xp in a week or so, could i just boot from the cd and format my whole NTFS win2k partition? when i installed 2000 both hdd's were unallocated, so it was a little bit different. anyways i wonder if xp would handle this hardware any better?

 

Yes you can format and everything by booting from the XP cd, and i agree with MA i would personally use XP if i had that option

Anyway keep us posted on how it all works out

 

aenima, I have to agree with the Major and the General, with your hardware there's no reason to not run XP. Not sure if 2k supports hyperthreading...

 

alright thanks all.

im going to see how everything goes the next couple days. ill be back if i have any trouble because you people are pretty awesome!

thanks again.

 

crap...it restarted again and it came up with that blue screen that says beginning dump of physical memory. the file it pointed to was ntoskrnl.exe, which is a default windows file i beleive. anyone know what would cause the ntoskrnl.exe file to be causing problems like this?

 

i'm afraid the file might be corrupted :s

try to replace the file with one you'll find on a win2k CD... or just reinstall a fresh win XP

 

Yes, that's a core OS file, but there are different STOP errors that reference it, so hard to say what it is. Doesn't necessarily mean the file itself is corrupt.

There should be more info on that STOP screen, a description and an alphanumeric code...

 

ok so ive come to the solution that there is an error with my windows installation. so now i have a decision to make. either way i will format my hard drive seeing how this pc is only about 5 days old and anything i need i have cds for plus i backup to my external hdd.

So here's my question, and im mainly just looking for opinions.
Should i freshly reinstall windows 2000 pro? or go ahead and make the big upgrade and install XP fresh?
I know it depends a lot of what i will be using it for, but actually i think either would work equally for what i do. (money for xp isnt a problem either)
Ive heard games are better on XP, but im going to college soon so i wont game very much now. ive heard 2000 is more stable and secure. ive used 2000 for the past 2-3 years on my pc's and its been great, but i like to somewhat keep up to date with the new windows.

So im just looking for opinions from the great folks at majorgeeks. i will mainly be using the pc for everyday use (internet, office applications, few games, multimedia). So what does everyone have to say? reinstall my satisfying 2000 or make an upgrade to XP pro?

 

In my opinion id go with XP Pro if you can afford it (seems you can)

Its very similar to 2000 in many ways but a lot more user friendly, has better driver support, better multimedia options if you use digital cameras etc
Better support for gaming than 2K

XP does have a lot more eye candy though and uses more resources, but you can make it a lot more like 2K if you use Classic view

Still these are just my opinions and im sure theres people here who prefer 2000

 

Hello. I had this same problem for about 5 months. I had 2 256mb sticks of memory. I took one of the sticks out and it quit. I took out the other one and put in the first one I took out and it started again. I had a bad stick of memory causing my problem.

 

I have had this problem twice. Once was bad RAM (brand new), once was bad video drivers.

 

I have to agree with checking the Ram.
I had a computer that would freeze from time to time...I took out a stick of ram and it stopped.

 

You can run duel boot set up.
I have two pc that are dual boot, both are also duel veiw (two monitors) running W2k & XP pro.
One is AMD XP & the other P4, both home built.
Each pc can run the same software, either OS with out conflict.

2000 boots slower, but I feel I have more control than XP.
When I first ran XP I thought I liked 2000 better but I was just used ta 2000.
XP is better.


There is no reason why 2000 wouldnt run just fine on your system, any problems your having are hardware or drivers issues.