testing a mobo or cpu
 

anyone know of a way to definitively test a mobo or cpu?

i recently had a problem with my comptuer rebooting all by itself. many times, it wouldn't even make it to windows. and once it did, it would reboot whenever it pleased. i tried checking logs, but found nothing.

so i've narrowed it down to psu, mobo, or cpu. i swapped out the psu, nothing. but i can't swap out the cpu or mobo because i don't have anything lying around the house that works with it. is there a way to test it without getting another mobo and cpu combo and swapping them?

it's an 850 and can be used for dad who only reads e-mail. but if i bought a cpu thinking it was a cpu only to find that it wasn't, then i would be stuck with another cpu and have to buy a mobo. so about 100 bucks spent into outdated stuff when i can get an amd for around 200 bucks.

thanks all

umm..you sure you checked the RAM? I'm just wondering..
it sounds alot like a problem I had with some bad RAM

I had a similiar issue with a PC not booting into windows and restarting. It would blue screen for a second, to quick to see what was causing the failure. I replaced the RAM and all was well.

i had 2 sticks of it in there and tried singles of each, but i'll look for some around the house and see if it's better.

memtest86 or memtest86+ is good for testing memory.

As far as motherboards, I use these: http://www.pcengines.ch/test.htm
but I usually use them when a system won't boot at all.

I suppose to test a CPU you could try CPU Burn-in
http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/

You might consider investing in a POST probe. This is a decent and low-priced one, and is available at chain stores and online resellers.