constantly restarts on boot

[newbuilder2008]

Hey all,
This is my second build and I'm fairly ok at this (or so I thought).
I haven't been able to solve my problem with start-ups and so here I am.

Email in 3 parts:
1. Problem
2. My system
3. What I've already tried.

1. Basically, when I start up my machine all fans go for a few seconds, Mobo green light goes on, everything's great... until it cuts out. And starts again. And cuts out.
Sometimes it will run for 5 minutes, other times for 5 seconds. I have no monitor on it, haven't touched BIOS or installed windows yet. I just want it to run smoothly at this point and that is not happening.
Possible clue: power LED on my case (it's an LED next to an image that looks like a can of soup) flashes red occasionally. That could be telling me that it's a power issue- but I ran the newegg.com power calculator and and my power supply is fine for what I'm running (please see below).

2. My machine:
ASUS M3N-HT deluxe mempipe motherboard
Hiper 880W PSU
Amd Phenom 9850 2.5ghz cpu
2x 2g memory
2x Geforce 8800 GPUs

Newegg tells me that it will need about 800-850 watts; my power supply is 880. So I'm cutting it pretty close and I might upgrade the power supply. But would it really cut out during start up if it were just a power issue?

I've heard RAM could be a problem, so I popped one out. Still had glitchy start up, although it ran for its longest yet (5 minutes until I stopped it) with only one DIMM in.

Please help. Anything that doesn't involve me buying new equipment to test what's broken is greatly appreciated.
I will buy new stuff if I have to... it's just expensive and I'd rather not. Y'all understand.

Thanks.

[The Wise Monkey]

It sounds like your RAM might be an issue - try using just one stick for a while, then switch sticks and see if the other one works.

Your PSU is more than enough, so you don't need to buy a new one. :)

[newbuilder2008]

swapped the ram, now down to 1 card ram, 1 gpu, still same symptoms.
Got really excited- it ran for as long as I wanted (a few minutes) until I powered off.
Then tried again... and the fans ran for 2 seconds before the system started its reboot pattern again.

[Tigo]

Well I seem to have the same problem!

Tried:
Taking out the bios
Replecing the ram and taking one stick out
Booting up without video card
Switching hdd to sata2

My windows loads then my cursor shows but the background is black. Then it is restarted within 2 seconds

[Tigo]

Yay! Problem fixed! I just needed to slide that recovery disk inside and it did the magic :D

Hey newbuilder08, heres how you can fix your probem:



XP Repair install

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.

2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair.


6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.


^_^

[The Wise Monkey]

Glad you solved your problem Tigo, but he hasn't even installed Windows yet, let alone run a repair... xD

What temperature is your CPU? Go into the BIOS and check the System Monitor for a few mins.

[newbuilder2008]

... let me know if you solve it!
I just ordered a new motherboard (no improvement of course) and now I have to send it back...

next up is trying the ram

it could be a hardware incompatibility but I don't see anything...