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We thinks my motherboard is fried. I get frequent random restarts as soon as the computer is even slightly loaded.

basically we´re thinking of switch the motherboard of my old computer.
so we´re going from 2.66ghz --> 1.66ghz

how much of a difference would it make?

these are my stuffs
- windows xp
- 512 MB ram
- Geforce Ti4200 with agp8x 128mb

how much would it **** up my gaming experience?
I don't really play a lot of modern games. the hardest on the computer games I'll play will be age of empires 3, maybe granado espada...

You're computer might just be over heating and doing an auto shut down/restart to save itself, may be worth checking into that before switching mobos.

And I GE's soundtrack and would probably love the game even more if I actually knew anyone to play it with

No I'm quite sure it's not overheating. it's taking a whole lot hotter temperatures before. it just goes:
start...
load 5 mins to desktop...
I opening something...
restart...
repeat 7x...
at the eight or so it stops restarting and goes on normally.
sometimes I get 'failed to load windows correctly' messages as well.

your gaming with under 1gb of RAM?

A heat problem could cause that. Have you checked your pc's temperatures? Check that all the fans are working. Also try taking the BIOS battery and putting it back.
The MB may not be faulty, bad RAM, GPU or power suppily unit or even the CPU could cause that...

You'd probably still be able to play the games you play with the older hardware. By the way... Are you some kind of antique collector?

@awake
yah
it's going surprisingly well, though age3 is suffering from some fps lag

@shadow
how do I check the temperatures?
I've never noticed it getting all that hot, and when it does I open both CD cases and the temperature is decreased momentarily.

and no I'm not an antique collector. I just don't plan on being the one to pay for a new computer. So I need to wait till it breaks down completely before my parents buy me a new one...

Your pc will restart when you run out of memory. Try to add more RAM or increase the page file memory of your system.
Or it restarts because of other things...

worth a try, but I don't have any spare RAM's
both of my computer have 2x 256mb

poehalcho wrote:@shadow
how do I check the temperatures?
I've never noticed it getting all that hot, and when it does I open both CD cases and the temperature is decreased momentarily.

and no I'm not an antique collector. I just don't plan on being the one to pay for a new computer. So I need to wait till it breaks down completely before my parents buy me a new one...

there are different programs that show your system's voltages and temperatures. Often the MB comes with such software, as well as many graphics cards. if you don't have such software, you could download SpeedFan, it's freeware. If I recall you can see temperatures in the BIOS too.

You can test the RAM with Memtest86. If your pc manages to stay running while doing that, lol. That program doesnt even need to have windows started, you can run it from cd at start-up.

oh, the antique thing was a joke.

CPUID Hardware Monitor is good for temps. Could also run some sort of memory test.

poehalcho wrote:worth a try, but I don't have any spare RAM's
both of my computer have 2x 256mb

Right click My computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance setting-> Advanced -> Virtual Memory Change -> Custom number (choose about 1000-1500) -> Set -> OK -> OK

NuclearSilo wrote:

poehalcho wrote:worth a try, but I don't have any spare RAM's
both of my computer have 2x 256mb

Right click My computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance setting-> Advanced -> Virtual Memory Change -> Custom number (choose about 1000-1500) -> Set -> OK -> OK

twas standardly set on 768-1536 or something like that
set on 1000-1536 now

NuclearSilo wrote:

poehalcho wrote:worth a try, but I don't have any spare RAM's
both of my computer have 2x 256mb

Right click My computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance setting-> Advanced -> Virtual Memory Change -> Custom number (choose about 1000-1500) -> Set -> OK -> OK

Virtual memory has nothing to do with ram.. Just everything thats in your ram, is written in your virtual memory as well for easy access, the typical rule is: Virtual memory = (Amount of ram) *2, that'll work best. Increasing your virtual memory won't solve the crashing.

You could just try to reinstall windows, or check your temperatures with speedfan. But my guess would be if reinstalling windows doesnt work, your ram is fried. Memtest86 can see if your ram is fried or not, Memtest86 does take a huge ass time to do, about 5-10 hrs most of the time, and is run of a CD or diskette

My laptop used to have this same problem. I took it to repair and after the job was done I heard that RAM was broken.

Faulty RAM would be my best bet.

well if the RAM is what's fried then I'm pretty happy with that cus, i've got 2x 256mb spares.
so that's not really a great problem.

ps i'm not contradicting myself.
last time I meant that I didn't have any better RAM. so I had nothign to switch it with (assuming it wasn't broken).

Could be RAM, PSU, Mobo, HDD, anything really..

Sometimes it's a blue screen that restarts so fast you can't see it..

Before buying ANYTHING you should

1) check temps
2) safe mode and see if it crashes
3) check temps again
4) take out all but one stick of ram, test to see if it crashes, try again with other stick (you can find the faulty stick)


well..the list could go on, but guessing the PC part that is faulty isn't the smartest (or cost effective) way to go especially when it could be software.

it sounds like a core issue. test your memory. surch gewgle for a ram testing program, and make sure it doesnt have an ass-load of malwarez.

CeLL wrote:it sounds like a core issue. test your memory. surch gewgle for a ram testing program, and make sure it doesnt have an ass-load of malwarez.

Guess I could mention

http://www.memtest.org/

You have to put in on a cd/floppy and boot from it..might be a little advanced.

more detail please, is everything very slow? does it take eons to open simple programs? i don't exactly know the situation entirely that you are describing.