WHy is my CPU rebooting?

Dear Sir or Madam,

I've run into a fairly major problem with my computer. I've got both an MSI

KT3 Ultra2-R motherboard, as well as an MSI G4Ti4600 Geforce 4 video card.

My computer has performed well up until today. In moving my computer I

opened up the case to make sure everything was okay after relocating it. I

noticed that the fan had somehow fallen off the GeForce; something that had

happened once before while working in my case and lightly tapping the video

card. In any event, with the computer off and unplugged I removed the video

card and reattached the heatsink to it. I replaced the card and powered up

the system and it started fine. Windows XP started up and I left the room.

When I returned the screen was blank and the system had locked up. I turned

off the computer and turned it back on. It didn't restart, but scanned the

drives and then beeped some signal: two very quick beeps followed by eight

beeps (beep-beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep). I

restarted and it did the same thing, and I noticed that if I let it sit for

a half-minute or so it would then beep twice and rest and then beep once

more, and remain a blank screen. I restered it several times with the same

result until it actually started up and launched the OS and said it detected

a new video card. I attempted to reinstall the drivers, but after Windows XP

had been running for about two minutes, it randomly locked up and went to a

blank screen again. I restarted several times with the beeping problem again

until I could get it to relaunch the OS. Once I got it to start I went to

"Add Hardware" in the control panel and it seemed to recognize the video

card as being there, and as being a Geforce 4 Ti 4600, so I clicked on it

and tried to update the drivers and it said that I had no newer drivers, so

I clicked finish, and the system locked up. I went through the restarting

thing again until I got the OS to start again, and it gave no indication of

there being a new video card. I went into the Device Manager and tried to

look at the info on the the video drivers and the system locked up. I went

through the restart thing until I got the OS to get going again, and I went

to the System32 folder in the Wondows directory to try and look at the video

drivers manually, and as I scrolled down the system locked up again; seeming

as though it locked up as soon as it tried to access the driver files. I

went through the ordeal again to get the OS started again, and it seemed as

though any time I tried to get the computer to access the video driver files

it would lock up. So then I tried restarting until I got it to begin to boot

again, but I hit "delete" to get into BIOS. I let it sit, and the computer

locked up even in BIOS, before the OS had even been loaded. Then I kept

restarting again and got into XP and just let it sit immediately after

everything had loaded, and it locked up again. I tried flashing the BIOS: no

effect. It seems that whenever I even actually get the system to start up,

it locks up  and goes to a blank screen at random times after powering on

(usually any time within 3 minutes), or whenever I try to access the video

drivers. In any event, that's my situation, and now it rarely boots (takes

about at least ten restarts with all the beeps). Any help would be greatly

appreciated, and I'd be happy to give you any more info on what I've tried

and what's happening. Thanks a lot.

James

This question was answered on September 10, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Try reseating the Video card and RAM modules from the mother board

If that doesnt work and the problem still occurs, if your motherboard has onboard video capabilities try to use that to see if it is infact the video card causing your problem

Also, make sure you are uninstalling the graphics drivers correctly.

About the author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on September 10, 2003

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