Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Computer randomly reboots on startup

0 helpful
13 replies

by frescalus

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I don't know if this has been asked, but here it goes:

My computer, at random, will restart itself one to two times when the wall paper comes up on bootup. Computer starts up -> wallpaper -> Computer reboots itself -> Scandisk -> Computer boots up

Sometimes it will do that twice. Here are my system specs:
AMD Thunderbird 800 MHzt (athlon based), 16x DVD-ROM, 512 MB SDRAM PC100 (2x256), 3D Prophet II 64MB GeForce2 AGP Video Card, Soundblaster Live! Value, I also have a CD Writer on the secondary IDE Controller with my DVD-ROM, 3.5' floppy, 120MB Super floppy drive, GigaByte GA-7ZX motherboard VIA KT133 Chipset, I can't quite figure out the power supply or how to read the specs off of it - the manuel says it needs to be compliantwith the ATX 2.01 specifications

I saw a website that had a few possible problems on it, but I can't find that page again. Some of the problems it had was bad memory, bad power supply, bad drivers, bad video card, bad video card drivers, and so forth. But I can't seem to figure out the problem nor do I know how to troubleshoot this.

13 replies

by dlindber

There is a problem under Win98 with VIA chipset and the refresh cycle management on some accelerated video cards. Go to your BIOS and look under your power management settings. For video refresh (or something similar depending on your BIOS) make sure your setting is anything but DPMS (Display Power Management System). You can set for Blank Screen or Disable V/H sync or any other setting except DPMS. This problem is especially prevalent with AGP high end cards. Hope this fixes your problem.

by frescalus

I went into BIOS, looked under power management, and could not find any reference to DPMS. I also looked under other settings and still was unable to find any references to that. I am using AMIBIOS.

by dmiles

Open the Control Panel and then double-click the System Icon,click on the device manager tab and first see if their is any yellow exclamation marks on the any devices.
Pay attention to the video card it could be set to high of a refresh rate to thespecs of the monitor,if you think it is memory take out the memory one by one and see if this will help,run scan disk to try locating any disk errors,run the anti-virus to see if this is causing a problem.Device Mnaager will guide you through trouble shooting.

by frescalus

Device Manager? Do you mean Display Settings? I got confused on this one because I can't figure out how I can get Device Manager can help me. I understand it can tell me some problems and tell me what recources are being used and whatnot. Guess it's a Microsoft thing. I'm taking a PC Operating Systems class, but we didn't go in depth about Device Manager too much.

by gizmo5050

I would 1st guess bad memmory, then have you looked at flashing the bios giga boards have some real problems with this i flashed 3 of them and this solved the problem

Christopher L Gay MCSE

by frescalus

This seemed to have cleared up the problem. I flashed my BIOS on Saturday and since then I had no boot problems at all, not even a slight hang up like I normally had. Thanks Chris and to everyone else who helped me with this. I learned something new!

PS. Hey Chris, we're using an MCSE book in our networking class...

by dquig386

had the same problem.. and a rather intersting solution.. It was indeed my video card.. had a rage ATI card and found that if I installed the driver(from ATI) and then reloaded windows no problem.. same problem with other machines and video cards.. go figure.. but try it out

by frescalus

I don't think it's the video card. I update it's drivers every chance I get. Every hardware from the previous system stayed and is on the new motherboard. Although I'm keeping an open mind about the video card because it just might be that, or it may be it's corrupt drivers, who knows.

by mjchekal

This may sound like an extreme solution, but have you tried to re-install the operating system with all required service packs? I have seen that problem come from drivers and apllications conflicting. The only way to fix that is to try and find the combination that is causing the problem. I would start with the base operating system, then re-install all of the current apps and see if it works. Then apply the service pack and then the app. service packs/updates, then check the machine then re-apply the operating service pack. If you get to the end and it still is not malfunctioning you had a corrupt file in the system area.

by frescalus

I have tried to re-install the operating system, reformatting the drive and so forth, but it didn't seem to help. I installed everything and still had the same results.

by bv2

I think you missed what answer #4 was trying to day - For instance, I have an ASUS GeForce DDR - I received errors with the latest and greatest ASUS drivers, but when I went to the NVIDIA site (chipset manufacturer) and downloaded their latest drivers, my problems went away. You may want to check the VIA site for info on the KT 133 chipset - it may be one that requires a driver set to be installed for the mobo. My VIA KX 133 chipset required update to work properly with my Trinty 400 mobo - just a thought...

by frescalus

I just recently downloaded the recent drivers not too long ago for my video card. I don't see a problem with this. So far, Answer #3 seems to be working. I flashed my BIOS and haven't any problems with anything since Saturday. No random restarts, no hang ups after hours and hours of use (10 hours+). So I'm ruling out the video card, I'm also ruling out the memory.

This discussion is closed to new replies.