First, I'm not tech savy..I just has my computer rebuilt. I originally had upgraded as far as possible including a Win 2000 upgrade (from Win 95) I had no problems except slooooow. (266 processor) I had 2 drives - a 6 gig for my OS & some text files, and added 35 gig for all else. The only original stuff I now have is the 35 gig hard drive (why he took out the 6 I can't figure), CD-RW, floppy drive, & zip drive. The processor, power supply, motherboard, Ram, and added video card (in addition to integrated card) are new. The problem is the computer shuts down when I am online and try to type. (Right now I am typing this offline and will then re-connect to submit) It happens on forms or if I try to use another program, Outlook, etc. I can browse forever, just can't email, type, etc. I asked the guy who built this and he said it was an ISP connection problem. I do have a faster connection now, but I had no problems before so this seems not right. My only choice is dial-up, there is nothing else available here. It doesn't disconnect and then shut down - it just shuts down and immediately reboots - with no scan disk either. Is this some kind of conflict? I'm thinking of just having someone else fix this - is that my best course? Anything I can try or look for? Also, if it make any difference, he had wiped the drive (grrrrr.....) and installed a 'new' Win 2000 using my registration code. I was running in NT, but he installed as FAT32 - haven't changed it yet....

Are you monitoring processor and system temps? Look at hardware devices and check resource allocations. You are looking for multiple devices using the same IRQ as your modem. Things that require alot of bandwidth, like sound and video. If two or more of these devices are sharing an IRQ, that can cause problems. The ISP connection may be your problem but before you go off to them you will need to eliminate any hardware problems. That is what your provider will most likely tell you. If your on dialup you may have a choice of numbers to access your ISP. If so, you could try changing to a different number. That should put you into a different server, or maybe not. Memory can cause problems also. You could download and run memtest86. It runs on a floppy from a command prompt.

Where do I check on these? - processor and system temps \ hardware devices and check resource allocations \ multiple devices using the same IRQ as your modem.

If your Motherboard supports it there is a screen in the BIOS which gives these temperatures. You have not posted your system specs as requested at the top of this page. If you had, we would be more likely to be able to help. I assume that your MBoard does have this monitoring as its been standard for some time and you stated this is a new build. Boot to the BIOS by tapping the correct key during startup. The correct key should be displayed on screen during the startup. Delete is the most common. Look for a listing called PC Health. The IRQs can be found using the following proceedure. Right click My computer> properties> hardware> Device manager> computer> view> recourses by connection> click the + next to interupt request. The numbers 1-20 are the IRQs. For future reference there are freeware programs that will do these things and more and do it easier. The temperature monitoring should be done under load while in windows. There are many programs out there. I use Mother Board Monitor. SANDRA will tell you all about your system and perform benchmark tests. Sandra is by sisoft.

I'm sorry - I said I was not tech savy. Tell me what info you need. The mainboard is Biostar - I only know that because I have the box. The user manual say M7NCD. If I right click on my computer it has Athlon XP AT/AT compatible. It seems there should be a number also? I went into device manager and got all the IRQ's. On IRQ 20 there is the following: (from USB controllers) - standard enhanced PCI to USB controller (from network adaptor) - Nvidia Nforce MCP networking controller (from sound, video $ game controllers) - Nvidia(R) n Force (TM) audio codec interface That is the only IRQ with more than one thing. I just dwonloaded the motherboard monitor. I'm not sure how to use it yet but on my tool bar there is the temp for case - 107 degrees F and CPU - 114 degress F It stays at those temps give or take 2 degrees. I went to the Sandra site, but am not sure what to download. I also found out that (so far) I can use notepad with no shutdown.....then copy & paste. Thank you for your patience so far!!!!!!

Hello, I had much the same problem a few months ago, but resolved the issue by installing a new hard drive. My old hard drive was failing with Disk Access errors popping up, usually when I tried doing anything that was memory intensive such as using my graphics programs and/or the internet. I don't think that you mentioned having a hard drive upgrade done along with the other new goodies you dropped into your case. If that is indeed the situation, maybe your "tech" can check out your drives "health". Good luck!

i had random reboot problems in the end after trying temp, new cpu, new ram re-install the works it turned out to be a dodgy modem.. the modem worked no bother but had a dodgy sound out of it but connected as usual.. it used to upset the pci bus and crash the system.. try unplugging everything and reconnecting everything.. remove all your pci devices and try them one at a time... hope this helps let me know.. random reboots on win2k is nearlly always a hardware prob