Hi.
A problem with a new build...
I was given this mobo free from some dude with a long white beard. Kinda like the guy off Kill Bill, just about 10cm shorter... and not asian.

Anyway, he told me the mobo had a few issues with random reboots, which I completely ignored. I put the mobo together with my own parts which were all fully working and whatd'ya know, the motherboard randomly reboots.

This is the motherboard:
MSI Computer Corp. - Product

By reboots I mean one minute you can be installing SP2 for XP then next minute the screen is black and the PC is POSTing..... Then because the SP2 install was interupted you need to re-instal windows. Great.

Sorry i'm dragging slightly here.

I've adjusted the CPU auto-reboot temperature from 75 to 85c, although I don't think this is the problem as I've never seen this cpu get over 63c even wen its working its arse off.

Is there anything else I should try?

Or should I just throw the cheap crap in the bin and get something decent?

Thanks
Tom.

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Try dropping the RAM speed to DDR333.

It was on automatic or something, I've changed it to 333 and now it won't start up or POST, the fins spin and there is just a black screen...

Reset CMOS, starts fine.

333 was the highest speed available... Will it be worth trying something slower?

Cheers,
Tom

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might be - RAM is a common culprit for many problems with random restarts.

A lot of DDR1 motherboards seem to have speed Vs. RAM size allocation issues - my K8N Neo4-f (admittedly an s939 board) had issues with DDR400 over 1.5GB. Maybe yours is suffering from the same?

I'd also suggest considering loosening CAS latencies - 2.5 > 3, for example.

I've just gone a little out of my depth at CAS latencies.... I don't have a clue what they are..! (how the hell am I a super moderator here!?)

Anyway

The available options for CAS latencies were:
2.5/4 (Refused to boot)
1.5/2 (Refused to boot)
2/3 (Refused to boot)
3/5 - Booted
Auto - Booted

And the fastest RAM speed it would boot up at is 200MHz...

So i've got rid of the auto select on both of those and set it at 3/5 & 200MHz...

Hopefully it'll make a difference?

Thanks
Tom.

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Are the sticks of RAM the same, or are they mixed?

Are the sticks of RAM the same, or are they mixed?

What does CPU-z or everest Home / SANDRA tell you about the voltages to the RAM, CPU and motherboard in general? do they fluctuate a lot?

Its just on one stick of 256.

(CPU-Z) The 'Core Voltage'. Lowest I've seen it at is "1.230V", it briefly jumped to 1.405v under stress but seems to stick at 1.250ish..

It also says my RAM is 2.5v... Exactly 2.5v... and not changing even slightly...

CPU-Z won't give me any more voltages.

I don't know how to use SANDRA, shes a complicated woman, I can't find any voltages at all.


Thats all I can find using CPU-Z, SANDRA and everest...

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I replaced the RAM for two sticks of 256mb DDR333, yet still it wouldn't boot in DDR333, only DDR200.

Then the Computer rebooted again.

Then it had a phase of not starting

Then it corrupted some part of its Windows install yet again,

Then it had another phase of not starting

And now it'll only boot DSL, or crash...

Screw it im getting a new board.


Thanks for your help.

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I Beat Anorexia.

If I have helped you, please consider donating a little cash to Cancer Research UK