I think there may be something incorrect in my BIOS because my computer has been crashing and rebooting itself off and on for the past few days since I installed a new video card.

Has anyone experienced something similar to this? What should I check first? I'm lost here.

 

First thing to do is remove the new video card and put the old video card back in. If the problem goes away then it's related to your new video card. It may be as simple as getting updated video drivers from the card manufacturer or it may be a conflict between the card and your Operating System. You can check the website of the video card manufacturer. They usually have troubleshooting sections which would list any known compatibility issues.

 

you know what? There was a widespread virus a year back that used to restart the computer.....REALLY annoying....

 

Number one cause of the system resetting itself is HEAT. I'd bet money that the newly added video card is generating more heat than your box can handle and therefore causing your processor to overheat. First thing to do is to make sure all the fans are working and none of the vents are blocked by dust. Take a vacuum cleaner and suck out all the dust and stuff, make sure the heat-sink and cooling fan on the processor is working and there is no blockage to the air flow. You can try to open up the box and aim a fan at the processor (without removing anything from the box) and run your system that way and see if it still resets. If it does not reset/reboot itself, then you know for sure it is a heat problem. Good luck.

 

he's right...heat is the biggie.

also, power supplies. if the vid card draws too much current, voltage drops, causing lockups and restarts. AC line voltage dips cause this, too.

memory errors cause this as well.

Did you buy a high end card? If so, the power supply is my suspect. If so, upgrade it to a brand name high power unit. chinese crap won't cut it.

 

steven975 got it, I will be you 12 cents that it is the PSU not being able to put forth the effort. I dont know what you system is Honda but PM me and I will help you pick out a new PSU.

If you jumped up to a Geforce 6800 anymodel, or a ATI X800 anymodel, that was the straw that broke the camels back.

If I am wrong and it was HEAT (which it very well could be) I will forward you 12 cents.



on second thought I wont, but it is a kind jesture.

 

good brands are antec, vantec, thermaltake, enermax, pc power and cooling, and a few others. I'd go for something in the 400W area. With even mid-range graphic cards, 350W is recommended. The PSU that came with a Dell (or any other big brand for that matter) is NO GOOD.

A PC power supply is exactly like the DC blocks used for portable electronics, except they put out 3.3, 5, and 12V, and must provide a lot of current. Cheap chinese power supplies have highly varying output voltages, and they are often too low. PC equipment is VERY sensitive to varying voltage. All equipment has a specified current draw; if the voltage is too low, they don't get enough power.

Also, a new load from a graphics card can bring total system voltage down, putting the data on your hard drive at risk

 

Antecs are great (I have one) but dont get a "Antec Smartpower" from everything I read this is not a good PSU. True power is thier best line for preformance vs cost.

 

right. truepower is best because it has dedicated circuitry for 3.3, 5, and 12V. Smartpower combines 3.3 and 5V. they are still above average, though.

 

Are you on Windows XP? It sounds like the video card might be related, but there are several things to check here.
1. Boot into safe mode (F8 during boot gives you menu option).
2. go to start/run type eventvwr and it should bring up the event viewer in which you can check the machine system log to see if any errors are occurring everytime it has rebooted (generally will be a 6008 unexpected reboot) but if there is some driver/hardware error you may see it here.
3. launch msconfig from start/run and go to services tab and choose "hide all microsoft services" then choose disable all (to disable only 3rd party services).
> Also disable startup items on startup tab.
4. Now boot back up into normal mode, get latest video drivers and let the machine run for a day or two to see if it happens again. If you didnt find any related errors in the system log then you should gradually start bringing 3rd party services back online via msconfig (re-enabling them).

If you did see errors in the system log about the time of reboots, then tell us what they are....