reboot loop hell, help, can't stop it from rebooting
 

my pc goes into a reboot loop. about 2 months ago i built a sweet new pc that kicks much arse. well this weekend i took it completely apart (for the third time) to add another fan to the back of the pull out mobo tray and to finish sleeving the psu and fan wires a nice uv blue. i got all my mods done and put it back together and booted it only to have it start rebooting over and over again. when i first turn it on it the fans fire up and the hd starts humming, but nothing on the moniter, the power light flashes rapidly, and evrything runs for about five seconds then it cuts off only to start back on it's own after about five seconds and runs about five second only to shut down again and then it starts up again and then it shuts down again and then it starts up again and then it shuts down again.......(no happy thoughts while this is happening) only when i switch the psu off it shuts down, but then after about 3 seconds it has like a power surge where the fans light up for a split second and then it dies. i'm guessing i've fried something some how, but don't know what and don't want to have to buy something if it's not burnt. after checking and rechecking all my connections i found that something happened during the psu sleeving, i had to remove the molex connectors to get the sleeving over the wire and when i reassembled the plugs i switched the 5v wire with the 12v on one connector. i don't know if i plugged that connector in to anything and then checked all the other connectors and they were fine. i wish i knew how to check to see what happened. if anybody can help me here i would be very thankful

Sleeving with connector disassembled; the safe bet is to make sure you use a multmeter to check the 5 and 12 volts without mobo connected. This would asure the PSU is okay.;)

i have a cheap minivoltmeter, but i shows if i've got voltage or not. i did check with nothing hooked up to psu and i got voltage on the 12v but nothing on the 5v. i didn't think much of it cause i thought i had to have the mobo connected or a hd (read that somewhere). is there a correct way to check voltage on a psu?
thx

Take the mobo out of the case ( and cpu , mem , hdd and vga ), and try to start it on a table ( wooden ) , if it does , it means you have a short cirquit on the mobo tray .

i followed your advice and took the mobo out of the case and tried it, but it did the exact same thing. i've tried booting with everything connected then took off everything one by one checking all the way. when i got down to the bare-bones installed (CPU, ram,hard drive, and video card) it still was doing it. so i tried without the HD and then video card, then ram, and then cpu.....without the CPU it works, at least it doesn't do the reboot loop, but i it won't do anything more, no monitor, no BIOS, no nothing, it only stops rebooting. also i noticed the the POST code changes from "C1" to "F" not "FF" as in a normal boot, but one "F", i can't find anything in the manual for that one. taking the ram out doesn't seem to change anything so i don't think it's got to do with the ram. i hope that it's not the CPU it's a $230 P4 3.0 Prescott and i don't have a extra CPU to test it with nor do i have any spare ram. what do i do now?

I'm afraid it could be the cpu indeed :-(

bummer :shrug:

well i've replaced both the cpu and the psu with no results :(
this sux.... i'll bet it's my mobo....any chance it could be my ram? what happens when it goes bad? chaintech support is being helpful and responsive, but they're really only telling me to try replacing parts one at a time which is getting very expensive!!!
anybody got any ideas?

thx