Anyone here handy with troubleshooting computers?

[SingleMalt]

My computer has started to reboot it self when I try to play games. First of all here is what I have:
Amd Athlon 3400+
1.5 Gig DDR Ram
Enermax 480W PS
Nividia Geforce 7800 GS 256 RAM
Creative Soundblaster Live
Five 80 mm case fans

A couple of months ago I started getting random reboots when I tried to play any game. Now the reboots are almost constant only when I try to play games. I have recently bought Medieval 2 Total War and sadly can't enjoy it because of the constant reboots. Here is what I have done so far to try to find the problem:

I first suspected that it might be overheating. I have four cats and their hair gets in the comp so I blow out and clean the comp weekly. The reboots still happened so I opened the side of the case and pointed a box fan into the comp. I fired up some games and the reboots still occured. So that rules out overheating. Next I wanted to check my four 256 Ram chips. The weird thing is that when I pull any one of them out the computer starts up but there is nothing on the monitor but a message that reads "monitor is working check the computer". Right now I am suspecting the Ram might be bad, but I am not sure. I would appreciate some direction. Thanks.

[wickerman]

Never assume that simply because a fan is blowing into your computer and it still reboots it is not overheating.  It's helpful, but not a perfect test.

My 3 things I would be looking at are....

1) Cpu overheating - you bios may have a temp monitor - check it of you can

2) bad power supply - I have seen even top end Pwr Supplies burn out in surprisingly short time frames

3) Bad video card - these things can overheat as well and cause major issues.

If you have a second computer swap power supplies and see what happens.  Ditto with the vid cards.  These are the quickest tests.  The cpu is a harder deal.  One thing you can do is watch the fan spin with the case open - if you can see the fan losing speed and then kicking back up again as you watch, that's a sure bet it is dying.

[Panther_Gunn]

Along with what wickerman suggested, don't understimate the power of the easy things.  Delete Temporary Internet Files.  Defrag.  Scan for viruses, trojan horses, and spy/adware.

[SingleMalt]

thanks for your advice guys. I actually replaced my Ultra powersupply with the Enermax months ago when this problem started to rear it's ugly head. Everything pointed at a bad powersupply so I bought a new decent brandname psu. The rebooting still remained however. It looks like my main suspects are my video card, CPU and memory. I am going to run a memory test tonight to see if it finds any errors. It could also be the motherboard too I suppose. I checked my cpu temp and it read 48c. This is at idle though, no game playing.

[wickerman]

48C at idle is decent - not great, but certainly not dangerous.  Bad memory *might* do this, try taking out 2 at a time (512 should at least run you comp without it taking all day to do simple tasks :) ) and trying different combos.  Motherboard and cpu issues are the hardest to troubleshoot as most people don't hav extra of either just lying around.  If you try the mem, the power supply and the fans to no avail, I would suggest a shop to take a look - expensive but at least they have the equipment.

[lugaru]

I would say overheating myself... I play medieval 2 and medieval 2 is the ONLY TIME I have ever gotten an overheating warning from my video cards software. That was on a perfectly normal (maybe even chilly) day.

[SingleMalt]

Ok, I ran a memory test on my Ram and received two errors on test 2. The failing address was 000436cdf245-1078.8MB, whatever that means. So is this good evidence that one or all of my four 256 Ram chips is causing the reboot when I try to game? In case you suggest that I try taking out one chip at a time to troubleshoot the Ram, I already tried that. Whenever I take any one of the chips out, my comp starts but the message "monitor is working, check the computer" displays on a black screen.

[zuludelta]

A test returning a result like you had is far from an accurate diagnostic. The error could still have been propagated from the CPU or the memory modules themselves, or anywhere in between (the mobo itself might be flawed), although it does implicate the memory modules as being most suspect. The best approach is to isolate your machine's known working components.

Do you know your Beep codes?
Try listening to your machine's Power On Self Test (POST) beep codes when it reboots (the beeping noises some computers make when they start up), as they might give you a clue as to what the problem is (go here for a list of beep explanations, it's at the bottom of the page... you'll need to know your computer's BIOS to use the list, which you can find in Windows XP under Start ---> All Programs ---> Accessories ---> System Tools ---> System Information).

Do you have a spare hard drive?
Image the contents of your hard drive into a known working drive and use that second drive on your PC. See if playing the game still causes the rebooting. If the rebooting stops, problem solved. If it still reboots, your original hard drive might still be wonky but since you now have the knowledge that at least one component is in good working order (the replacement drive you have now currently installed), you can start narrowing down the list of possible flawed components by working your way up your PC's list of parts.

Check your memory modules again
You've already tried taking out individual memory modules but you should go one step further: find compatible memory modules that you know work and swap them in for your current memory. Try and replicate the conditions that are associated with the rebooting and see if it occurs. If the rebooting problem persists, then you know that the location of the cause is not limited to your memory modules (your original memory modules might still be damaged, but that could be compounded by some other flaw in the mobo, CPU, case temps, etc.).

Is it the video card?
Maybe the videocard is damaged, or maybe it works fine but it generates too much heat when playing games. Take out your video card, switch to your mobo's onboard video and see if you get the rebooting (if the game won't run under the onboard video, try using a game or software that uses similar memory and processor requirements but whose graphical requirements will allow it to run).

Maybe it's a CPU or motherboard problem
Swapping out your CPU and/or mobo will be a trickier and more complex procedure which might be more trouble than it's worth and the only other alternative I can think of is using one of those PCI/ISA Motherboard diagnostic kits and unless you have access to one, you'll probably need to hire a PC technician to do so. One thing that can clue you in that it might be a flawed CPU/mobo that you're dealing with (once you've eliminated the memory modules and other hardware as the primary culprit) is if you get the rebooting when you're doing some particularly processor-intensive task such as rendering video.

Basically, what you should do is establish one known working component and just work your way up from there. Good luck!

Whenever I take any one of the chips out, my comp starts but the message "monitor is working, check the computer" displays on a black screen.

Sounds like a standard monitor response message when it's connected to an unpowered computer or to a computer that hasn't booted into the BIOS. This leads me to think that it may indeed be a memory, motherboard, or CPU problem you're dealing with and not so much a heat issue. Again, I recommend eliminating faulty memory modules as the problem by swapping in new, working RAM, since it's a fairly simple procedure that will likely shed the most light on your PC conundrum. If it's a problem with the mobo's BIOS, try flashing it (detailed but easy to follow step-by-step instructions on how to do this within Windows can be found here), although if this is the first time you'll attempt it, I recommend doing it with the guidance of somebody who's done it before, since faulty BIOS flashing can render your motherboard unusable.

Of course (and I hate to say this), there is the possibility that your computer's inability to complete the boot process with anything less than the 1024 Kb of RAM that you have may be totally unrelated to your rebooting-while-playing-games problem (but I'd lay down money that it's connected somehow).

[SingleMalt]

I have a Asus Av8 Deluxe motherboard and when I reboot I get this message "Fast track 378 Bios Version 1.00.0.37. No drive is attached to fast track controller, bios not installed." What the heck is a fast track controller? My motherboard still has the first bios it had when I bought it years ago. What is the benefits to flashing to new bios anway? I would certainly need a pro to do this for me as I have no idea what I am doing.

[zuludelta]

Good thing you mentioned that you have an ASUS Av8 motherboard... that message (the "no drives attached" one) you're getting is actually common in mobos of that type that haven't been properly configured for a single hard drive setup... it's nothing serious (and probably has little to do with your rebooting-when-playing-games problem, but heck, you never know) and to be honest, I think the error message is more of an annoyance than anything else.

I'm guessing that you have just one SATA (serial ATA) hard drive, correct? What's probably happening is that your Onboard Promise RAID controller is looking for other drives when there aren't any. To configure your motherboard for a single SATA drive and get rid of the error message permanently, press the Del key when your computer boots up so you can enter the mobo's BIOS... on the menu, go to Advanced ---> Onboard Devices Configuration ---> OnBoard Promise Controller and set the Promise controller to "disabled".

If you actually do have multiple hard drives in a RAID configuration, make sure that the drives are connected and seated properly, since the controller can't detect them.

That still doesn't tell us if your motherboard, CPU, or memory is the cause of the rebooting, though, since it's probably an unrelated issue. The sooner you can swap out your memory modules for known working memory, the sooner we can determine whether or not it is the source of all your gaming problems.

[SingleMalt]

Tomorrow at around 4:30 P.M. central time I will get my two sticks of Kingston 1gig DDR Ram from Newegg. According to Asus this Ram is compatible with my motherboard so I will know if the ram is the problem or not.

[SingleMalt]

Ok, I received my Ram this week and all was good for awhile. It was looking like the old Ram I had was the problem, but today the reboots started again, just like before. In event viewer the error I received was this, "Content index on c:\system volume information\catalog.wci could not be initialized. Error 3221225620."

It looks like the investigation continues, just when it looked like the problem was gone.  :(

[zuludelta]

Well, at least you now know that it isn't the RAM. I guess it's gonna come down to the mobo or processor (that is, if you've made absolutely sure it isn't a heat issue, although from reading your previous posts, it seems the temperatures fall within the normal range). I had a similar problem with my previous PC (except mine kept rebooting whenever I tried compiling Java code) and I went through the chore of eliminating each hardware piece one by one (starting with the hard drive). When I'd eliminated everything except for the mobo (and not just the BIOS) and CPU, I didn't even bother figuring out which of the two was the problem, I went ahead and got a new board and proc. I don't think it's responsible of me to recommend doing the same (it's a pretty significant cost) UNLESS you've done absolutely everything to eliminate any other hardware/software cause for your rebooting problem. If you have (and you'll want to go over this with a professional, to make sure you haven't missed anything), then you might as well bite the bullet and start looking into a new board/proc combo. Just think of it as upgrading early.

[SingleMalt]

I did a lot of reading on many hardware forums and overheating is still on the table from what I read. When I touch the heatsink on my geforce 7800 gs it is pretty hot. I found my old geforce 6600 and switched it with the 7800. I test played and the rebooting stopped. Now I can't say that was the problem because when I switched out the ram the rebooting also stopped, but came back. I have to test it for several days playing hours at a time to really determine if a overheating video card was the problem.