somethings wrong

[walla]

i dont know whats wrong, i have built my first comp, and theres something wrong. the system will just shutdown and restart without notice. it doesnt matter what im doing. it does happen a lot during installations though. when im playing cod 2 that crashes too, but doesn't restart the system, so i think thats something else. im positive its not restarting because of overheating issues.

system specs-
xp pro with sp2
corsair 2x512mb ram
epox 4vkmi
nec dvd-rw
intel p4 2.4ghz
ati radeon x700pro
antec 300watt psu

[ktkendall]

Could be the memory timing settings in the BIOS or that PSU. Is it a good quality brand name PSU???

[cannone83]

Check the power supply, running a video game such has Call of Duty or a half-life time game can take a lot of power, especially when running programs in the background. A 300 Watt power supply may be the reason for its shut down, the supply may have a overload back up where it shuts down when the system is requiring more watts than it can handle. I ran into a similiar problem with my computer while playing half-life 2, except at that point i had a 450 Watt ATX power supply that im sure was not built correctly. Look into the power situation, but dont go ahead and buy a $80 power supply because that might not be the problem. Sorry to hear you're having problems but good luck.

[flattius_maximus]

It could be overheating too.

[walla]

how could i adjust the timings, and what do i adjust them to, i think its 0123 or something like that

[MaxRat]

I'd run memtest on it to check the memory staability....

Basically you need to see what the ram timings are and make sure they match whats in the bios...

Sometimes with Corsair ram it will boot slower than it's rated and that may glitch the pc....switching the timings in the bios to match the stick often corrects the problem....not saying that is the problem but, a good place to start...

[ktkendall]

Or if you just set the timings to BY SPD which lets the board detect the settings that should work for best stability, but I'm much more inclined to wonder about that 300w psu.

[MaxRat]

some Corsair will boot at different timings than rated....Even if set SPD
especially the XMS series

[walla]

its corsair value select btw.

i think ill try getting a 400 watt psu

[cannone83]

Yea chances are its the power supply because i had the same type of issue, also make sure your computer is properly aired out, because sometimes the PSU's have or for the most part they have over-heat/over-power shut offs where too much heat, or too much power is being drawed from the PSU it turns off, look in to a good power supply before you buy one, and how old is the 300Watt psu in your computer now?

[ktkendall]

Sorry I did not pay close enough attention to your specs cause I do see it is an Antec PSU, which is a quality name brand. Is it a bottom end Antec though, or as asked above how old is it??

[walla]

how can i peform a memory test?

[Gizmo]

Memtest There is a choice to either download the disk ISO image file or the zipped version for a floppy diskette. Make sure you make it bootable.