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Solve : Random Restarts on giga EP45UD3L?

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Hello all, I'd like to thank everyone in advance for any help they can give and for past posts that I have been following to help me solve this problem(s)

I will try to be brief but thourough=My computer died--after a week of trying to pin down the problem I have now ended up essentially building a new computer.

New mobo is the gigabyte EP45-UD3L (Have seen I am not alone in dealing with this boards quirks apparently)

New processor=Intel core duo 2 E82000 2.66 ghz l2 cache 1333mhz fsb 45nm

New power supply OCZ stealth stream 500 watt

Memory is (from old system) x2 Adata 1 gig each and 1 new adata 1 gig ddr2 240pin/667

Hard drive was WAS a samsung 300 gig--i suspect it is dead/dying/damaged so i am using a WD 1200 I had lating around--not new but appears to be working--yet cannot remember why I didnt have it in one of my systems.

Video card is a radeonx1900xt

After switching hard drives i was able to FINALLY install WIN XP (pro) and get the system up and running.
The problem now is random restarts but especially bad when trying to install any programs or updating windows/AVG antivirus. I was successful with installing the mobo programs that came on the disk--but some of them (not all) will crash my system when i try to start them up as well. When the system crashes and I finally get back onto windows it does give me errors BUT--There are usually 3 window error reports ATM and when i try to copy the first error and then switch to the second REPORT and CLOSE the FIRST report--the system crashes again.

I have succesfully flashed the bios to version 7 and used the motherboard software in windows to update all the programs listed EXCEPT for the Norton 30 day trial. I also should MENTION this XP version is service pack 2--I have been unsuccessful at windows updating to service pack 3...or any updates at all. At random times when I have tried to update windows--the update window opens and it begins to download--then the completion bar races across the window says "update complete" then changes to "Update has failed" and usually crashes.

If any additional info is needed I will be glad to post--I have tried many things from reading other posts here, but I am hoping I missed something along the way. I am not a beginner but I am no expert either--It would make my day for anyone to humble me and give any advice as to the next steps I should take--it's ok I have no pride
This is a great site with helpful info--please help me--I only have a little hair left as I have ripped the rest out over the past week!Drop the system RAM back to 2G and re-install any drivers/apps that are acting up...including SP3.Do you have 2 anti-virus installed? You mention AVG and Norton. I have avg installed but it will not update the database--Norton trial came on the disk but I HAVE NOT installed it, good question though hehe


The sp3 is NOT on my system as i cannot get windows to update, I know i have oredered service pack one and two on disks from microsoft in the past, I wonder if i can get service pack 3 on disk or maybe they arent doing that since the release of Vista/windows 7 soon.
I will try using just 2 mem chips and see if it stabilizes thank you everyone for the advice/tips anything will be appreciated, keep them coming please!SP3 CD's can be ordered from the Mothership...

Good Luck.Quote from: elitenoob on October 02, 2009, 10:19:43 AM

...Norton trial came on the disk but I HAVE NOT installed it...
I do not know what you mean by this. Please answer the question I asked.
Do you have 2 anti-virus installed?Quote
Norton trial came on the disk but I HAVE NOT installed it, good question though hehe

Alright then, I dropped the ram mem back down to 2 chips and for the past 20 minutes i havnt had a single crash.
That MEANS you are my new hero Patio!

While i am trying to get these updates into action, I am posting a couple more questions if any one has time:

My mobo has 4 memory slots and the computer "salesman" (magic word)
told me nowdays I could put various kinds of memory chips on my board=meaning i could put a 4 gig chip, a 2 gig chip and say 2 one gig chips. My question is--is he right? It's been 2 years since i built a pc, and i thought all the memory had to be the same "amounts".

Next question--asking patio or anyone else that can/wants to answer--i took my 3rd memory chip out of my system and now its stable--why?
I know thats a broad question, what i mean is, can i put this chip back in LATER or do i need to buy ANOTHER memory chip the same as the others i currently have in the system? The above paragraph explains why I am asking this. Make no mistake I know that many "computer technicians" are actually smooth talking salesmen who will say anything to sell me more tech.

By the way, I just purchased a 500 gig WD SATA drive--I'm new to this technology--I have heard these are much faster then IDE/ribbon cable hard disk drives. I have also seen several posts about needing to change the bios to ...IDE drive so the board can "see" the sata drive for whatever reason. So now I'm wondering if i should start over with my new SATA drive, or just hold off now that I ma finally coming close to perfecting the stability on this mobo/system now. So...any opinions or advice? Thank you all in advance!


PS--commando, I guess what confused you was when i said "Norton trial" on disk--you thought i mean "Hard disk"?
What I mean was the the CD disk that came with my motherboard that had several programs/drivers and a trial version Of Norton Anti-virus not the Hard disk itself.


Been running my system for a few hours now, even played world of warcraft for about 45 minutes and no crashes at all!
So in closing, I would like to thank everyone who has ever posted on this forum as your problems and solutions helped me diagnose problems i was having fairly easily and thank you to all who responded to my cries for help quickly.
I have still not put any additional memory in my board as of yet ((Still just running 2 adata 1 gig chips)) perhaps tomorrow i will put the 3rd chip in and see if my system becomes unstable=I have been getting 2 different opinions on whether i can place odd number memory chips in the board and/or different value memory chips as well, hopefully i can get a definitive answer soon. Thanks again this is a great site!The best place for a definitive answer on the RAM setups available to you would be the board manuf. site...
Although newer boards have greatly increased RAM capacities i've found thru system building experience that today's boards are actually more finicky about RAM speeds; timings and caps then the older boards ever were...
If anything they are less flexible...not more as is commonly thrown around.

PS...give that Norton CD to an ex=girlfriend or someone else you like that much...


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