Dimension 2300 random reboots

Hello,

I have a Dell Dimension 2300 that I replaced the motherboard in two months
ago after the orginial motherboard died. It has been sitting here
collecting more dust than anything. Well initially I put XP Pro SP2 on it
and it worked fine, how ever it would periodically reboot instantly for no
reason. For example I could be watching a video and then the screen would
go black, the numlock and other lock keys on the keyboard would flash
indicating the PC was in boot mode. Then it would go through the reboot
process. No bluescreen, no memory dump, nothing. The really strange thing
is that sometimes it'll go a week without a reboot, then like this evening,
it would even reboot while it's booting.

I tried numerous things to troubleshoot. Installed different OS's but that
didn't solve anything. Removed all PCI adapters, disconnected all ide
devices (except the hdd), flashed down to the A01 bios, turned of unneeded
bios settings like USB, etc. Nothing, it still randomly reboots. I even
stuck in MemTest x86 to check the memory and it even rebooted during that
time. The only thing I can remotely think of causing this at this point is
either the powersupply, memory, or motherboard. Are there any ideas for
this? Powersupplies run $35-$45 on eBay and while I would gladly get a
needed one, but get one and find out that isn't it, would be money down the
drain.

Ideas?

Brad

could be a silly as the power cord not being fully seated in the back of the
machine... coul dbe that the processor or memory isn't seated properly, or
the processor isn't cooled properly so overheating... have you looked at
the 4 leds labled abcd on the back of the machine? they show codes that
help pinpoint problems. and what was the event that casused the original
motherboard to fail (perhaps that is related to this issue).

"B. Walker" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a Dell Dimension 2300 that I replaced the motherboard in two months
ago after the orginial motherboard died. It has been sitting here
collecting more dust than anything. Well initially I put XP Pro SP2 on it
and it worked fine, how ever it would periodically reboot instantly for no
reason. For example I could be watching a video and then the screen would
go black, the numlock and other lock keys on the keyboard would flash
indicating the PC was in boot mode. Then it would go through the reboot
process. No bluescreen, no memory dump, nothing. The really strange
thing is that sometimes it'll go a week without a reboot, then like this
evening, it would even reboot while it's booting.

I tried numerous things to troubleshoot. Installed different OS's but
that didn't solve anything. Removed all PCI adapters, disconnected all
ide devices (except the hdd), flashed down to the A01 bios, turned of
unneeded bios settings like USB, etc. Nothing, it still randomly reboots.
I even stuck in MemTest x86 to check the memory and it even rebooted
during that time. The only thing I can remotely think of causing this at
this point is either the powersupply, memory, or motherboard. Are there
any ideas for this? Powersupplies run $35-$45 on eBay and while I would
gladly get a needed one, but get one and find out that isn't it, would be
money down the drain.

Ideas?

Brad

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:Uemff.2$8o6.1@trndny03...
could be a silly as the power cord not being fully seated in the back of
the machine... coul dbe that the processor or memory isn't seated
properly, or the processor isn't cooled properly so overheating... have
you looked at the 4 leds labled abcd on the back of the machine? they
show codes that help pinpoint problems. and what was the event that
casused the original motherboard to fail (perhaps that is related to this
issue).


snip

Sitting here wondering what the failure was on the original motherboard and
wondering if this current problem is not a power supply....

....or something else power related loose or failing, from the power switch
to the board, from the power supply to the board, from the back of the
machine to the wall, including a flaky UPS.....


Stew