I hope there is someone here with the patience to help a newby with his first computer build project. I really have two issues which may or may not be related. Here are my specs: Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 motherboard nForce3 Ultra chipset AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor (2) 512MB PC3200 184pin DDR DIMM Memory Modules (dual channel) Hitachi 250GB, 7200RPM, Internal SATA/150 Hard Drive Verto GeForce FX 5500 Video Card, 8x AGP, 128MB DDR NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Model ND-3520A BK Mad Dog Multimedia SurePower 600W BTX/ATX Smart Cable Power Supply Antec Super Lanboy case The more significant problem is that the computer will spontaneously restart every few hours or so. It usually happens when opening a new application or website (via DSL) but sometimes will just happen when the machine is sitting idle. I first thought it must be a CPU heat issue but the Gigabyte utility shows it running between 29 and 32 degrees celsius. I did use thermal paste in a thin layer between the CPU and stock cooling fan. When it shuts down I get a very brief flash of what looks like a BSOD but there's not enough time to read it. I am running Windows XP Pro, SP2 and Norton antivirus. I have heard there is a way to turn off the auto restart feature so at least I could get a look at the BSOD, but I'm not sure how to do it. One other piece of info may be helpful. When I look in the Gigabyte utility, it shows me two warning fans signals for system and power fans. The motherboard has the capability to control these fans I think. I didn't have any three pin connector wires so I just hooked the case fans directly to a four-pin molex connector, which seems to work fine but the speeds aren't controlled. Could this be confusing the motherboard? The other problem really has me stumped. Then I use the CD/DVD to load a program or something, it reads the first fine. Then when I remove that CD and put in the next one, the computer still sees the one that has been removed. Is there a Windows setting or something that controls whether the optical drive clears its cache? Is the optical drive just bad? Could this be related to the rebooting issue? I loved the experience of building my own. If only I can get past these last two "minor" issues I will be in love with my new baby. Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to shed some light on these issues.

To turn off automatic restart go into control panel/system/advanced and click on the startup & recobery button. untick automatic restart. You can also look in control panel/ administrative tools/ event viewer for info on the errors. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and his wife will never forgive you.

The crashing when opening new programs usually indicates ram problems. Check that your ram is correctly seated. Get hold of a copy of memtest86 and let that run for a while.

The CD/DVD problem just requires a bit of patience. Most new optical drives are slower recognizing new media than older ones were. I don't know why. I have found that after putting in new media, if I wait for the LED to go out or change color (depending on the drive) before attempting to view the files it is correctly recognized every time.

as for your restart problems. try running your ram in single channel mode. i know that dual channel is useful on a socekt 939. but try it just to see i had similar problems and that solved it for me Athlon xp 2500+ @2.17 pc 3200 512mb ram radeon 9200se win xp home oem