WTH!?!?! PC reboots itself for no reason?!

[obieone]

Built this gaming pc last spring, and it was cutting out and rebooting itself on occasion. Last month, I moved it to my office from my LR, and it worked fine, until NOW. This morning it's happened twice. Specs are:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H M.B.
AMD 64 x2 6000+ 3.0 ghz proc.
Nvidea 8800gt
Earthwatts 650w P.S.
Vista 64 bit
Seagate 500GB HDD
Antec 900 gaming case

I didn't like AMD to begin with, and this BS is not helping THEIR case any:mad::mad::mad:

Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks

[janmike]

The times I have seen this happen were all caused by different problems.
Bad memory, bad power supply, virus. Good luck.

[BAD ASP]

I am no computer expert but FYI, ours would reboot itself after any automatic updates which required rebooting. I'd bet this doesn't apply to yours but until we turned off the auto updates it would happen. good luck.

Happy New Year!!!

[John30_30]

AMD processors typically run hot, and if the case is not properly ventilated, overheating will cause it to reboot. Make sure all the fans are working. If the one in the power-supply has died, it can kill the mainboard, and stock power-supplies are notoriously cheap quality. Take the side or top or whatever off so you can check to see all the fans working properly as it comes up, then down it again.
You should probably open the case and blow it out with a can of compressed air, or if you have a compressor and an adjustable nozzle tip. P.C. power supply fans will typically pull in dust bunnies and all kinds of crap.
Keep in mind that you don't want to be blowing hot, dry 80 psi air into it as that builds enough static to damage or destroy mainboard components.

Edit:
Okay, as I'm checking your specs, it looks like you have a nice custom P.S., but make sure the fan on it is blowing properly.

[VSchneider]

To the list of problems already listed, I'd say most any faulty or overheating PC component can cause a panic reboot (nothing to do with AMD). Check for any obvious Event Log records just around the time of these reboots.

Also, I am assuming you are not overclocking? Check BIOS for one or another "intelligent auto-overclock" feature. I think that was the cause of a couple of panic reboots in my PC before I had the feature disabled.

[obieone]

Thanks for the feedback folks. All the fans are running-4x the case, VG card, and heatsink.
Couldn't find one for the PS though, at least I couldn't see one on the back the PS??
Where do I find the 'event log'??

I think I'll see what it does from here on out, if it keeps happening, I'll probably change out the MB & processor to Intel.

[Fongolio]

I used to work full time as a pc tech and the #1 cause of random reboots is and overheating component. However any one of many many variables could be causing it. Make sure you are clean of spyware. Make sure all your components are properly seated. Make sure heat sinks are properly seated on chips and that fans are clean and running. Make sure power supply fans are running. And lastly......pitch vista and install XP. The last one is a personal preference. Good luck.

[WilliamM2]

Most likely causes would be a bad PS, driver issue, or incompatible/bad memory. Random reboots can be very tricky to diagnose if you don't have spare parts around to swap out. The last one I had turned out to be a bad sound card, swapped out just about everything else first. Who would have guessed?

[disneyjoe7]

I like swapping componets when you're not sure what the problem is. So I would boot the computer on another OE software like Slax on a CD to rule out software from hardware.

[shadowofnight]

Did you add the extra fan on the side panel ? While the 900 has great CPU cooling with the large fans above and at the top rear of the case...if you dont add the missing fan ( I just got the Antec 1200 which I love, but antec cheaped out and left the side panel fan off of that one too...I threw another 120mm fan on ) to the side panel it will have really poor Northbridge/Southbridge cooling.

And seeing that your M/B doesnt use active fans on those ( Just passive heatsinks ) ....I would follow these guys advice and address that issue.

Since this has been sporadic since the build though, it may also be one of your bios settings is tweaked a little fast for your ram...with the AMD chipsets ( Actually your AMD cpu has the memory controller ON the cpu...so when you tweak the bios settings you are tweaking how the cpu is addressed memory wise ) you see this a lot more then with Intel chipsets.

A lot of ram spd chips ( One per memory module ) are incorrectly programmed or the bios doesnt read it and set parameters correctly....I LOVE Gigabyte M/B's ( Just bought their GA-EX58-UD3R for my Intel Core i7 cpu ) but their bioses are set up for overclocking and you usually have to go set most values manually .

Run Memtest ( Get the ISO file and make the bootable cd ) and let it loop for a while to see if you have ANY errors...if so go into the bios and either back off on some of the timings or increase the vdimm voltage ( And in your case the vcore as well just a bit ) a bit to see if it clears up...you may have had a limping module from the build...but that would be what I would do to verify. Good Luck

[obieone]

Well, it happened for a 3rd time since my last posting, and I ran windows Memory diagnostics upon start-up, it was clean. I then ran AVG scan and came back w/ a bunch of cookies, but they were either fixed or removed? I've since cleared all logs. I did check event log on AVG, didn't show anything other than starting and stopping times, no mention of ????
I've got 4 gigs of ram, which Vista sees so???
The fan on the heatsink is working, the coil looks a little dirty, BUT, this was happening back right after I got it so I don't think that's it.

What should I set my BIOS to for this AMD/ MB/ ram set?

BTW, I REALLY appreciate the tech support

[obieone]

UPDATE: The mouse just froze up on me. Couldn't get the keyboard to do anything either???? Had to manually shutdown & restart:mad::mad:

I'm gonna go get a sd card to back up everything and install xp!!!

[jon s]

that's not gonna fix it... check the voltage from your power supply...

[obieone]

Thanks. Any idea how I get to "Windows Error Reports"?? I just did a disk clean up and saw that it had 'archived error reports' and I wanted to look at them. I'm doing a search now but, it's taking forever!?

[VSchneider]

The Windows Event Viewer is one of the links on the Computer Management screen (right-click on "My Computer" -> Manage) or a separate entry under Control Panel -> Administrative Tools, and even easier in Vista - check this link (http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_event_viewer.htm#Launching_the_Vista_Event_V iewer)

I am not sure what the "Error Reports" refers to though.

[obieone]

Update, clarification, and some history: I built this pc at an independent shop, after buying a majority of the components from them. This was my FIRST build, and I had them checking my progress as I went. I just discovered that I installed the PS with the fan facing DOWN against the bottom of the case- DOH! I'm no pc guru, but I'm pretty sure that airflow is important.
2nd, I just discovered which heat sink y'all were talking about-I thought you were talking about the AMD heatsink/ fan. The MB heat sinks were hot.
I do have a an 80mm fan that'll fit on the side panel, but it's 120vac? There room is the case to run a chord thru.
I'll see how long it last this time.
Thanks again for all the input

[PolkThug]

My mom's computer was doing this because heat was triggering it. All I had to do was blow all the dust out from the stock AMD heatsink and fan and it was fine after that.

[lightman1]

...cooties....


I had the same problem with heat build up. Kept a small fan on the heat sinks and the problem stopped.
But yours may have the Cooties.

[WilliamM2]

Update, clarification, and some history: I built this pc at an independent shop, after buying a majority of the components from them. This was my FIRST build, and I had them checking my progress as I went. I just discovered that I installed the PS with the fan facing DOWN against the bottom of the case- DOH! I'm no pc guru, but I'm pretty sure that airflow is important.
2nd, I just discovered which heat sink y'all were talking about-I thought you were talking about the AMD heatsink/ fan. The MB heat sinks were hot.
I do have a an 80mm fan that'll fit on the side panel, but it's 120vac? There room is the case to run a chord thru.
I'll see how long it last this time.
Thanks again for all the input

The fan on the power supply should be facing down, it draws air in and exhausts it out the back of the power supply. Due to the screw pattern, they usually only mount one way anyways.

[nadams]

William- I believe he may have a case where the PSU mounts in the bottom. In this case, you would need to mount the PSU "upside down" so that the fan points UP.

If this is the case, you may have overcooked the PSU slightly by not giving it enough air.

[WilliamM2]

William- I believe he may have a case where the PSU mounts in the bottom. In this case, you would need to mount the PSU "upside down" so that the fan points UP.

If this is the case, you may have overcooked the PSU slightly by not giving it enough air.

I see, I found a picture of the case, and it looks like Antec did design it to mount the PS either way.

[nadams]

PS- Antec power supplies are notorious for having bad capacitors. This would cause the symptoms you are mentioning. I won't touch an Antec PSU with a ten-foot soldering iron. Had too many of them fail. Inexcusable for the price they charge.

[WilliamM2]

PS- Antec power supplies are notorious for having bad capacitors. This would cause the symptoms you are mentioning. I won't touch an Antec PSU with a ten-foot soldering iron. Had too many of them fail. Inexcusable for the price they charge.

I couldn't agree more. At one time, we only used Antec power supplies at work, they were dead reliable, and made by a company called CWT. Three or four years ago they changed suppliers, and started selling these quiet "smart power" supplies. I don't think any of those we bought are still in service, or lasted more than a year. The ones we bought five or more years ago are still all in service.

[nadams]

Rumor has it the newer Earthwatts supplies are being made by Delta, which is a top-notch OEM. CWT is good, as is Seasonic. They all OEM for Antec. Unfortunately, so do a few lower-end suppliers, which mostly cover their SmartPower series. Regardless, my opinion of Antec has been permanently tainted. I've had their PSUs fail and take the board with them more than once.

[obieone]

It happened AGAIN since my last posting- that was after I added the 80mm/ 120vac. fan to the outside panel. When it came back up, I just put it in sleep mode for 45 min. then played with it. Just printed 80+ pages thru a PDF files, and it didn't crash???
I'll probably look at PSU's tommorow.
Thanks again for all the feedback.

[disneyjoe7]

Antec must of came down from a high point. Going back some 20 years ago, when I was in a manufacture position Antec power supply were KING worked and was reliable sorry to see them fallen to a such unreliable level today. Its ashame. :(

[Face]

http://www.pcpower.com/index.html

It'll last longer than the rest of your computer. Their silencer series are perfect if you use your PC as a music server.

[dudeinaroom]

I have seen this a few times. Pull the box apart make sure all of your cards are in tight, and make sure your have the screws in the back of them tightened down. When you use the washer, microwave or any other appliance that uses a lot of power do the lights in your house flicker. I had a HP that when you would use the washer, dryer, heater, microwave, vacuum, or the water pump would kick on the computer would freeze. loose usage of mouse and/or keyboard, to random system error and/or restarts. I fixed that problem by purchasing a line conditioner from tripp lite, I also found that the plug it was pluged into was wired backwards.

Just some point to look at

Later,
Ted

[shadowofnight]

Antec must of came down from a high point. Going back some 20 years ago, when I was in a manufacture position Antec power supply were KING worked and was reliable sorry to see them fallen to a such unreliable level today. Its ashame. :(

All of you hit the nail on the head....in their day Antec was the power supply god....then like a light switch they turned to crap...I had to replace more then I could count.

Then I switched over to PC Power & Cooling like Face mentioned ...and never looked back. I just picked up their Silencer 750 in red for my latest build...rock solid and they use a SINGLE +12volt rail rated at over 60 amps...none of this lower rated current limited multi +12volt rail crap ...they are great supplies.

[Sherardp]

Mine was doing the same thing last yr. Had no clue as to what causing it, then sure enough one day it just crapped out, wouldnt come on or nothing. Replaced the power supply and all is well. I had a thermaltake power supply.

[mmadden28]

I only briefed thru the above posts, and what I say may have already been suggested. As said it really could be any number of issues, less likely related tot he OS but more to be a hardware issue. You may just have an underrated power supply. Could be intermittent becuase the demand on the PS is under the max, but then when you try to do something that requires more juice, it maxes out and shuts down.
You can try to disconnect some of your components just to see if you'r using too much juice. Such as d/c your DVD drive, and maybe a 2nd Hard drive (assuming its only used for data and not any running apps). Don't have any external USB devices connected (which may pull power), etc. You will have to determine what you can pull out and still run the system. Also lower your screen resolution, or switch to a single display (if your using two). If the lock-ups/reboots stop, that may be the cause. The recommendations above are all strictly temp just to determine the cause or rule out an issue.

Of course it could also be just a failing compnent or an overheating issue as stated.
You might also want to check to see that there are no shorts, esp where the motherboard is mounted to the standoffs in the case. This is another typical cause of intermittent issues.

[obieone]

Well....I'm BAAAAACK! It happened again this a.m., so I took it to the place I built it, and the tech. there looked at the 'Event Log', and said it was a driver issue. So I just finished(almost) re-installing Vista, and the hardware drivers. What a PITA!!! I just hope it doesn't happen again.
Just have to wait and see....

Thanks again everyone, for all the help.

[disneyjoe7]

You could of ruled out a driver issue by running Slax from a CD, a complete OS on a disk. But I hope that was it good luck.

Here's a link. I use it to pull files off in the case of BSOD Blue Screen of Death.


http://www.slax.org/

[obieone]

(NOTE: I'm posting from laptop)
That didn't fix it!!!!! Rebooted again last nite & this a.m.. Soooo, I go to update and download 24 optional drivers. One of which is a LAN/ Ethernet driver from Gigabyte.
Well, guess WHAT!! Now I have no internet connection, even though I'm plugged in. And I KNOW it's this driver because I had the same problem last spring when I brought the pc home.
The question now is: How the F*(K do I delete this driver, or do I have to reload Windows, etc. AGAIN!!!!

BTW, I did a search, and nothing came up for Gigabyte, ethernet, nada. I tried to load the original disc, but it just said "all drivers updated"

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

[disneyjoe7]

To uninstall a driver, Start, right click on my computer, Properities, Hardware, Device Manager.

[obieone]

Thanks Joe!!! That did it . Now I still have to fiure out WHY it's rebooting? It appears to only happen when I'm online? I'm gonna download that link to malwarebyte, load it onto a flash, then load it onto my pc.

[disneyjoe7]

Seriously I would build yourself a Slax CD so you can boot the computer outside of windows, you can surf if you are wired to the hub. I do it on my laptop but the wireless doesn't work or I don't know how to turn on. Doing this will rule out software from hardware, I myself thing its a hardware issue. I could be wrong but running it from the Slax CD will prove it one way or the other.

[obieone]

I THINK it's fixed. I downloaded malwarebytes onto my laptop, then load to a flash drive, then onto my pc. Found 1 ?? in the registry, and removed it. Been online for about an hour, no crashes, so HOPEFULLY that was it.
BUT, I couldn't get on here, Audio Advisor, or Audiogon??? Was the web 'F'ed up?
I did load Slax onto the flash as well
Thanks again for everyones help. I hate computers:rolleyes:

[mmadden28]

You could also try Safe mode with networking. Or Safe mode. That will help tell if the reboots are non-standard driver related. Although I would still try a CD or USB bootable OS as well, as DJoe suggested.

[obieone]

Well HOPEFULLY it's fixed. I did load Slax onto a flash, so IF it becomes an issue, I have the tools to address it. It was just funny, the way it was acting, I would have thought it was a hardware issue. Well, at least I discovered that I had installed the PSU upside down! DOH!:o

[disneyjoe7]

I could see the power supply being installed upside down an issue in which it could overheat the power supply itself.

[Face]

Let's hope you didn't ruin it.

[obieone]

I friggin' GIVE UP! It's happened since I thought Malware got it, so I turned off auto update, and I'm still getting a message about trying to install SOME device.

Is there a way to TOTALLY wipe the HD when reinstalling windows? I tried, but when I did it yesterday, Vista basically said it was gonna make a partition, and didn't give me an option?!
I think I'm gonna have to replace the HD, UPS, MB, and Proc. in one swoop, to get rid of this thing once and for all.

This friggin thing is gonna turn me into the next Ted Kyzinski!!!

[disneyjoe7]

Ok why don't you run Slax and see if it is rebooting also? You can run this it will not look at your hard drive you can go to internet forums and see it will reboot also. If so you got a hardware error, replaced the power supply.

[nadams]

Solve all your problems... chuck Vista and load XP.

[obieone]

Posting from laptop:
According to my Event log:"Error:(general)The event logging service encountered an error while proccessing an incoming event published from Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing;(detailed, XML view)<Event xmins="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
And while I was writing this, it happened again! I'm gonna load Slax after startup, see what it does

I tried to open slax, no go? Redownloading it directly to my pc.

[mmadden28]

Try the CD boot version if you can't get the USB version to work.

[sophie]

Solve all your problems... chuck Vista and load XP.

or w2k. 2000 was more reliable than xp for me...i went months without rebooting on my first home built computer.

[obieone]

Wouldn't open from the flash, and wouldn't write to a dvd?!?! So, now I'm TRYING to install an old XP disc I had from my 1st custom pc 6 years ago, but now it's partitioning AGAIN, showing only 131 Gigs out of a 500G HDD!
See what happens after XP installs.

[disneyjoe7]

Slax make a small file on a CD only about 200mg. I would try to get a CD to boot and run the computer. It seems you're spinning your wheels as you don't know for sure what causing what.

[Sami]

Definitely run one of the LiveCD's on it. Slax, Knoppix, Ubuntu. If you have XP disc, I would also download UBCD4Win, becomes very handy if you need to modify a NTFS disc.

If your PC is rebooting, you want to run a burnin test. I don't think it's in Slax by default so you need to add it yourself, which requires a little extra work: http://www.passmark.com/support/bitlinux_boot_cd_slax.htm, or you could just run mprime and cpuburn.

[disneyjoe7]

Sami,

Ubunta question I'm running it now off another hard drive small 20g spare. What does this software do when it run in trail mode? I didn't wish to mess up my windows disk so I ran by itself with another drive. Downloaded it to see if I could run a HTPC with it in the future but I can't ran a DVD and my sound card doesn't work under Linux.

[nadams]

Wouldn't open from the flash, and wouldn't write to a dvd?!?! So, now I'm TRYING to install an old XP disc I had from my 1st custom pc 6 years ago, but now it's partitioning AGAIN, showing only 131 Gigs out of a 500G HDD!
See what happens after XP installs.


obie- you need to have Service Pack 1 or higher for XP to recognize larger than 132gb. My guess is that your old XP disk does not have any Service Pack slipstreamed into it. Install SP3 after XP is loaded and you should be fine. You may have to step from the version you have, to SP1 or 2, and then to SP3.

[Sami]

Trail mode? I'm not familiar with that.

DVD playback, you need to enable encryption, do this from terminal:

sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

What sound card are you running?

[disneyjoe7]

Trail mode maybe demo mode I forgot.

Sound card some Creative model I think I need to take apart to see? I'm wondering if you run Linux in some version you can run into driver issues?


Thanks for the tip on DVD playback :)

[obieone]

Let's see how long this lasts! Installed XP, SP2 & 3, security updates, IE7, graphics are looking a LOT better.
I know I'm spinning my wheels, but, short of replacing the HDD, and the UPS, I figured I'd give this a try and see how long it lasts. If it don't reboot in the next couple of days, then I know it was Vista 64. If not, then, swap stuff out I guess. I just hate to waste $$$, I do that enough as it is.:o

[nadams]

If you got through all that without a reboot, I'd be hard-pressed to point my finger at a hardware issue. Windows Updates stresses a lot of stuff on it's own. Hell, I think SP3 pulls down at least 300mb of memory while installing, and it all gives the hard drive a good thrashing.

[dudeinaroom]

Trail mode maybe demo mode I forgot.

Sound card some Creative model I think I need to take apart to see? I'm wondering if you run Linux in some version you can run into driver issues?


Thanks for the tip on DVD playback :)

you don't have to open it up. Just right click on my computer, click manage, click on device manager. Expand sound, video and game controller( click on the little + in a box) scroll down, and you will see what sound card you have.

[John30_30]

Sami,

Ubunta question I'm running it now off another hard drive small 20g spare. What does this software do when it run in trail mode? I didn't wish to mess up my windows disk so I ran by itself with another drive. Downloaded it to see if I could run a HTPC with it in the future but I can't ran a DVD and my sound card doesn't work under Linux.

If you just run it off the disk, nothing is changed or writtent to the hard drive until you click install. Most all the linux flavors are "Live cd", which is what that means.

True story about a musician friend of mine (*cough* ex brother-in-law) with a bad porn jones. He kept getting his Windows XP infected with jive malware from some of those sites.
Last time I cleaned his machine for him, I made him a Ubuntu CD and told him to use that next time he wants to surf porn sites to his heart's content.
Throw it in the cdrom/dvd, boot up off it, woilla.
You can run Firefox all day long and nothing is written to the hard drive....nor obviously the cd itself.

[disneyjoe7]

If you just run it off the disk, nothing is changed or writtent to the hard drive until you click install. Most all the linux flavors are "Live cd", which is what that means.

True story about a musician friend of mine (*cough* ex brother-in-law) with a bad porn jones. He kept getting his Windows XP infected with jive malware from some of those sites.
Last time I cleaned his machine for him, I made him a Ubuntu CD and told him to use that next time he wants to surf porn sites to his heart's content.
Throw it in the cdrom/dvd, boot up off it, woilla.
You can run Firefox all day long and nothing is written to the hard drive....nor obviously the cd itself.


Funny but yes Well no this is not the reason why :D I just feel Linux is a bit more stable then windows, and cheaper too boot.

[disneyjoe7]

you don't have to open it up. Just right click on my computer, click manage, click on device manager. Expand sound, video and game controller( click on the little + in a box) scroll down, and you will see what sound card you have.


I'm not on that computer nor I'm at home right now. But really?


I seen something like "RealTek" but I seen this on this computer also?

[disneyjoe7]

Ok home now, this computer is using the on board audio so RealTek maybe, MSI K8N mother.

BTW both linux disk won't see it Slax or this Ubuntu

[obieone]

WTF!!! I ran xp for 2 weeks with no issues, I get a nuke cd from the tech.'s that help me build this pos. I used that to run a memory test that took 2.5 hours- came back clean, so I wiped the HDD, reloaded vista, the MB & GC cd's, and then guess what?
It just rebooted again? I'll have to take it to them tommorow and drop it off.
I just don't get WHY it's happening on Vista and not XP. The only difference is, the xp only recognized 3 out the 4 gig's of ram, but the memtest came back clean, so....
I've got the pc run with a cat5e cable to the WR54g. I wonder if there is something incompatible with the router because it's 64 vs. 32??? But again, isn't that something 'updates' would see?
This is f*(ked up!

[ben62670]

Raid controller drivers? They will probably need to get updated raid drivers. I am sure it's a driver issue. I have a dual boot XP Vista. Guess which one I use all the time!

[obieone]

It's running a single hdd, Seagate 500 gb sata. I just down loaded their diagnostic tool, since MS is friggin clueless. I checked the event log, then went windows support, they don't know wtf is causing it. Im typng from my laptop again so I don't get interrupted
The only issue I had w/ XP, was audio, & streaming video would run in fast fwd speed for the 1st 30- 45 seconds, then would settle out???

[unc2701]

Vista could be not ramping up the fan speed under processor load & you get overheating & a shutdown.

See if you can raise the fan idle to max in the BIOS menu (the one you get to by hitting F something key on startup) Max out the fan idle (it'll be loud) and see if you get a shut down after awhile. If not, it's heat.

[mewisemagic]

also you can try this. as soon as it shuts down,restart it and enter the bios and in the hardware section or whatever it maybe called and look at the cpu temp . if it shutdown from over heat it will still have a high temp reading so you can see it. also check if you have a high temp warning/shutdown temp selection while you are in the bios,if you already hadn't.AND you could download windows7 beta and try that for kicks and see if it has the same problem:D

[WilliamM2]

Automatic fan control is handled by the bios, not Windows. If it were overheating I wouldn't expect XP to run any better than Vista. Since it seems to run XP fine, at this point it looks like a driver issue.

[obieone]

I don't know what the connection is, but, if I'm running some sort of diagnostic program, it DOESN'T reboot? I was running the 'SeaTools for Windows'(Seagate HDD) diagnostics, and I surfed for a couple of hours, no problem, then as soon as the scan was done it rebooted. Same thing happened when I was running Malwarebyte a couple of weeks ago.
It almost seems as if, if the system is distracted, I can surf the web???
BTW, I've done a memory test, and hdd test and both are clear, so.... I guess it's a Vista 64 issue.
I'll have to drop it off at the place that help me build it. I don't know what the hell it is.

[sophie]

if distracting it fixes everything install folding at home and put your idle processor time to use.

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ

Payton

[obieone]

Well, the geeks that help me build this thing couldn't find anything wrong, so, they suggested I run 'Ubuntu', which I just finished loading on to the hdd. This page is about 2/3 of the width of the view on my 22" screen. I keep zooming in, but it doesn't widen? I'm gonna have to futz around with it.
Fixed it:D I had 'zoom text only' on.:eek:

[mewisemagic]

have you tried an updated bios?if so it must be a driver conflict of some sort in vista. have you tried a reinstall and run it on windows generic drivers?try it without loading any drivers

[ben62670]

Driver

[obieone]

Well, I've been running Ubuntu for 5 hours now, w/ no hiccups, so, I'm gonna say it's a Vista64 issue.
I just have to get used to this OS, until 7 comes out in the fall HOPEFULLY!!!
I'm having trouble with the speed of ripping music to my music files. It's just WAY slower than vista was.

[ben62670]

So Vista loaded fully then would freeze after running for a while at different times?

[obieone]

It wouldn't freeze, the system would just reboot for no reason. I tried a couple of different diagnostic tools, nothing showed up. Finally took it to the guys that helped me build it, they checked all the hardware, and they couldn't find anything, so they said just try Ubuntu(Linux), and that's what I'm doing.
It's just a little slower, but I need to have something that ISN'T going to reboot while I'm in the middle of downloading files from webmail.

[mmadden28]

You could also try Safe mode with networking. Or Safe mode. That will help tell if the reboots are non-standard driver related. Although I would still try a CD or USB bootable OS as well, as DJoe suggested.

Did you ever try Safe mode when you still had Vista loaded?

[dohcmark8]

Get the 32-bit version of Vista?!?