ATX 12V

So my computer has been rebooting automatically for quite some time. Usually it occurred when it’s playing a video, so I thought either the graphics card or the drivers for it were problematic, but even after upgrading the drivers and switching in a working nVidia GeForce MX420, the system still rebooted by itself.

I then slowly unplugged one thing after another, finally literally leaving just the RAM, CPU and motherboard and the boot drive. I had ran memtest for over 6 hours with no problems found. I even did a full scan disk and no bad sectors were found. I started to think I have a faulty motherboard or cpu. Although the symptoms I’ve been seeing looked really familiar to what happens when the motherboard detects a system is overheating. However, looking at the temperatures in the BIOS showed that everything was pretty normal, even immediately after a reboot.

The motherboard manual had recommended a 300W power supply and it seemed fine with mye 350W PSU, but I even installed a new SuperFlower 450W PSU and the problem was still there.

So the new motherboard I got was a ECS P4M800PRO-M V2.0 which had a power connector I have never seen before. Instead of 20 pins, it had 24 pins. I thought that was odd and started reading through the manual and it turns out that although there’s a 24 pin power connector port, it said can support either 20 or 24pin power connectors. According to my research, ATX refers to the 20 pin power connector and ATX 12V refers to the 24 pin power connector. Many power supplies has what is known as the 20+4 pin power connector which supports both ATX and ATX 12V, which basically means it has a detachable 4 pin on the power connector.

When I had tried to search online in regards to problems with this motherboard, there were many threads saying this motherboard was problematic with 20 pin power connectors. So I decided to get a 24 pin power supply to see if that’ll help. I dropped by Fry’s and started looking at their power supplies. The parking lot was quite a mess. It was the day after Christmas sale and I had to wait 4x at the traffic light before I even got into their parking lot. You know it’s crazy when they have Fry’s people at the entrance directing traffic and forcing you to loop around the back. Still wasn’t as bad as the Black Friday sale I went to a few years back.

However, it appears that most people were there to return stuff. The checkout line was actually only half filled. The other day when I went there to pick up my cpu/motherboard combo, the parking lot was half filled, but the checkout line was completely packed.

I was going to drop $75 on this Antec SmartPower 2.0 450W Power Supply, but ended up picking up a Ultra V Series 500W Power Supply for $60 instead. To my surprise, there was a $40 rebate on top of it, making it only $20 after rebate. However, it appears that their online website has it for FREE after rebate, but I don’t really have much time left around here so, $20 for the convenience was worth it.

After installing this new power supply, my computer hasn’t rebooted by itself yet, and things seem to be normal. Let’s hope I didn’t jinx it and it continues to run w/o any problems.

8 Replies to “ATX 12V”

  1. Hey Krunk,
    My many thanks…im bugged with the same problem when I plug in my GeForce 5200fx card….Man I thought the motherboard was defective…Thanks again

  2. Greetings CPU Bro’s,
    I have the Exact same problem with the Brand new Ultra cool p4m800pro-m V2.. As a matter of fact, I am surprised I can even send this message uniterupted by a “Reboot”! Since i purchased the MBO @ “Fry’s”.. I have bought a new power supply (400 W) ,Ram (2 Sticks 1G Ea) and disabled several Startup routines to try to baby this thing to work! I am At at my Threshold of Pain..
    Help me obiwan Kenobe, Your my Only hope.

  3. I’m sorry to say, but I have yet to figure out the true cause of the reboot. My guess like yours has gone down to either the motherboard or CPU. A friend of mine suggested a reliable 600W power supply (so you may give that try). Just pick one up at Fry’s and if it works, cool. If not, return it and say it wasn’t compatible with your motherboard.

    If that doesn’t work, most likely you can return the board and CPU and get a new combo. If that’s no longer an option, you can try contacting ECS and see what they have to say. I was hoping it’s a firmware issue, but the last time I checked, there was no new firmware.

    Good luck to you young Jedi.

    //krunk (^_^x)

  4. Is it possible that the CPU is overheating? Have you tried stressing your CPU for long periods of time to heat it up? A CPU will not get truly hot unless it is at near 100% utilization for at least a few minutes. Just a thought, but perhaps your cpu is only getting stressed when you start playing your video. If you have a Pentium D in a warm house, the stock intel cooler may not be enough, especially if it’s getting dusty.

  5. That has crossed my mind, but I have yet to test it out. The temperature monitors I have showed the CPU within the normal temperature range and the heatsink is never hot to touch (just mildly warm).

    Unfortunately, I won’t be able to test again until the next time I go home.

    //krunk (^_^x)

  6. I have been having the same problem with an ECS P4M800PRO M2 V2 board. For no reason at all the computer will reboot. Seems to happen randomly except if I try to play World of Warcraft. Motherboard, Ram and CPU, Case are all brand new. I know it is not the PSU as it done the same in an ATX 20pin case. Have reinstalled more times than hot dinners, upgraded all drivers / bios etc. Happens either on onboard video or agp card. Ran all memory tests, diagnostics I can find. Took the whole unit back to the shop and they could not find any fault with it. Left with a machine that is brand new and still reboots for no reason. Windows reports a stop 9c error but no details on a crash point. I’m at my wits end and have had to give my son my own computer to play WOW. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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