My computer has been randomnly shutting down and has been slow the last year. I figured I would do something about it. I bought a new Motherboard and CPU (Asus A8V and AMD Athlon 3800+ Dual Core.) I bought new memory for it (Corsair Twin3200LLPro 1Gig kit.) I sent my Seagate 300Gig hard drive in for warranty. Shipping was quick and I even got a 400Gig in replacement. Thanks Seagate. The slow was fixed from the hard drive being fixed. The computer still restarts. I took out the network card. I bought a new sound card ( Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Gamer.) I even have an Arctic Cooling 64 cooler in there. It keeps the CPU below 90 degrees at ALL TIMES. I have narrowed it down to the power supply, and the video card. Why you may ask? I replaced the video card ( ATI X800 XT PE 256 MB AGP) with a cheapo evga 5200 128MB. The computer has been stable ever since. I think reconnected the other video card and turned up the voltage. It was stable for awhile, then it began to restart again. Which do you think it is? The power supply is an ULTRA Xconnect 500W that came with the chassis from Xoxide.com. Is there any tests that I can do that doesnt involve taking a paper clip, two halogen lights and hooking them to my computer? Thats just too risky for my tastes.

Well it definately sounds like a PSU problem, the only reason why it became more stable when you put in the 5200 is because it draws less power than the X800 XT PE. Look on the sticker on the side of your PSU, on the 12V line it should have a minimum of 18A (Amps) for your setup. The power supplys that come with cases are ussually junk. Grab an Antec or similar. You always get what you pay for with power supplys. Good luck.

Mattwizz3 : )

Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2Ghz
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Socket 7 is my best freind

Actually the Ultra Xconnect is a decent PSU. It only has a single +12v line but I think it has something like 34A. The PSU sells for about $100 by itself. I suppose there's always a chance that it's a lemon?

"Is there any tests that I can do that doesnt involve taking a paper clip, two halogen lights and hooking them to my computer?"

Bending a paperclip into a U-shape & jumping the green wire to any black wire will allow you to fire up the PSU without having it connected to the board. From there you can use a voltmeter to test the various rails...that will tell you if the voltages are within spec at idle, but what you really need to know is what happens under load.

Not that it has anything to do with the problem, but I don't like the configuration. The A8V is a VIA based board...the nForce4 Ultra or SLi chipset would have been a much better choice. The X2 3800+ is equivilent to a 3200+ Venice but it costs twice as much. If you're not taking advantage of the dual core, you would have better off saving on the CPU & investing in a better board, but I suspect AGP had something to do with the choice.

This link was just posted by Derek a couple threads above your's...it may help with the voltage checks:

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/courses/power-supply-basics-inc-pinouts.htm

Doesnt u'r bios have hardware monitoring that can chech the voltage?Did u plug the power connector for u'r graphic card?What driver did u use for u'r x800?