Random reboot problems

[Cory]

I am having a lot of problems with my system. I have been having problems
with the system randomly rebooting on me. I thought that it might be a
heat issue at first cause it was running a bit hot. I got a new Volcano 12
heatsink and I'm running at about 47-48 degrees (CPU temp) now but I'm
still having the reboot problems. I recently got new RAM as well because I
thought that might be causing the problem but that didn't help either.

My system is an XP3200, MSI KT6V-LSR MB, Mushkin PC-3200 512mb RAM, Raidmax
case with 420W power supply, eVGA FX5700 video card, MSI CD burner, WD 80GB
HDD.

I have updated the BIOS to the newest version and I have the newest version
of all of the drivers. Currently I am running the FSB at 100mhz so that I
can at least use the stupid thing. The reboots occur at different times.
Sometimes it happens right after I boot the system other times it happens
after it has been running for a bit. Usually it won't last longer than
about 10 minutes before it reboots. Many times it won't even make it to
Windows before it reboots. I have installed fresh copies of both Windows
and Linux and neither seems to fix the problem. If anyone could give me
some recommendations I would really appreciate it, otherwise this thing is
going for a long ride tied to the back of my car.

 

[JK]

The first thing that comes to mind with random reboots is a power supply
problem or problem with the power going into the power supply. You did say
reboots, and not crashes or freezes? Those would be more typical of a heat
problem.Some areas have power problems during the summer peak demand periods. Do
you ever notice things like lights momentarily flickering or dimming?
Have you tried plugging the pc in elsewhere? I hope the pc is not on the same
circuit breakeer as an air conditioner.

 

[David Maynard]

I am having a lot of problems with my system. I have been having problems
with the system randomly rebooting on me. I thought that it might be a
heat issue at first cause it was running a bit hot. I got a new Volcano 12
heatsink and I'm running at about 47-48 degrees (CPU temp) now but I'm
still having the reboot problems. I recently got new RAM as well because I
thought that might be causing the problem but that didn't help either.

My system is an XP3200, MSI KT6V-LSR MB, Mushkin PC-3200 512mb RAM, Raidmax
case with 420W power supply, eVGA FX5700 video card, MSI CD burner, WD 80GB
HDD.

I have updated the BIOS to the newest version and I have the newest version
of all of the drivers. Currently I am running the FSB at 100mhz so that I
can at least use the stupid thing. The reboots occur at different times.
Sometimes it happens right after I boot the system other times it happens
after it has been running for a bit. Usually it won't last longer than
about 10 minutes before it reboots. Many times it won't even make it to
Windows before it reboots. I have installed fresh copies of both Windows
and Linux and neither seems to fix the problem. If anyone could give me
some recommendations I would really appreciate it, otherwise this thing is
going for a long ride tied to the back of my car.

Have you looked in the system logs to see if there are any reported errors?

 

[Jim Wilson]

I agree with the other reply to your problem...... I would suspect
the power supply.

There are some motherboards..... Soyo comes to mind, that have a BIOS
setting that will cause the system to either shut down or reboot if
the (CPU) temp is too high. In Soyo it's called ABR... Anti Burn
Regulator. It's a precautionary setting to save the CPU. The thing
is..... the end user can set the particular temp setting in the BIOS.
If that setting is too LOW your system could keep shutting down or
rebooting. (regardless of what else you do) Check your motherboard
manual to see if anything similar to that could be in play.

If not then the next likely suspect, in my opinion, would be the power
supply. You would need to swap out the power supply to eliminate it as
a potential problem. Even if it's new it could still be probematic.

BTW....... You aren't overclocking the system, are you? Obviously,
if you are, then set everything back to "normal" settings.

Good luck!

==================================================================

 

[Cory]

Thank you for the advice. I have checked the BIOS settings and there is
an option for CPU critical Temperature but it is disabled. I also tried
plugging it into another outlet. After trying both of these things it
still reboots. It is rebooting and not freezing. There has been the
occasional lock up, but no more than I would normally expect.

If the system is just sitting there then I don't have a problem but as
soon as I try to install something or run a program it reboots, I can
usually run IE or check email without it rebooting but as soon as I do
something else it's done.

The power supply is new. Unfortunately I do not have another decent
power supply to swap it with. I have tried another 350W PS and it
didn't work either but I suspect that 350W isn't adequate, is it? Any
other ideas?
Thanks


BTW I am not overclocking the system, I have to underclock the friggin
thing to make it work at all




(e-mail address removed) (Jim Wilson) wrote in

 

[JK]

"Many times it won't even make it to Windows before it reboots.
Your hard drive might have a short circuit in it? Since your symptoms sound
like it could be a power problem, there could be a defective power supply or
a short in the hard drive or elsewhere in the system. You could also try
changing the ide cable to the hard drive. Do you have anivirus software?
Could Windows be mucked up? Did you do any major hardware changes
without doing a clean install of Windows? Did you add programs then
uninstall them improperly? if you give us more background information
on what this system has been through, we might get some other ideas.



How old is the system? Have you defragmented the hard drive recently?
are your virtual memory settings reasonable?

 

[Martin dibb]

I am having a lot of problems with my system. I have been having problems
with the system randomly rebooting on me. I thought that it might be a
heat issue at first cause it was running a bit hot. I got a new Volcano 12
heatsink and I'm running at about 47-48 degrees (CPU temp) now but I'm
still having the reboot problems. I recently got new RAM as well because I
thought that might be causing the problem but that didn't help either.

My system is an XP3200, MSI KT6V-LSR MB, Mushkin PC-3200 512mb RAM, Raidmax
case with 420W power supply, eVGA FX5700 video card, MSI CD burner, WD 80GB
HDD.

I have updated the BIOS to the newest version and I have the newest version
of all of the drivers. Currently I am running the FSB at 100mhz so that I
can at least use the stupid thing. The reboots occur at different times.
Sometimes it happens right after I boot the system other times it happens
after it has been running for a bit. Usually it won't last longer than
about 10 minutes before it reboots. Many times it won't even make it to
Windows before it reboots. I have installed fresh copies of both Windows
and Linux and neither seems to fix the problem. If anyone could give me
some recommendations I would really appreciate it, otherwise this thing is
going for a long ride tied to the back of my car.

Your problem sound much like mine!!!

My PC has recently started rebooting itself at random.

I have removed all PCI cards and still the PC reboots by itself
several times a day. Here is my current spec:

Windows XP Pro
Lex BN790E M/Board
Antec 430W PSU (recently ugraded from a 300W PSU which I thought may
have been the cause, but the reboots still occur)
Athlon XP1800
ATI Rage AGP 16MB
Fujitsu 120MB HDD
Maxtor 40MB HDD
1 Pioneer A05 DVD Burner
1 CD-ROM R/RW Burner
I have tried two types of memory 2x256MB 133MHz SDRAM (Crucial memory)
or 1x512MB DDR 333 (Brand new, bought yesterday as I though this may
be the problem)

It doesn't seem to matter whether the PC has been off for several
hours or not, which rules out over heating problems (I think). I have
tried Memtest86 and the MS "Windows Memory Diagnostic" and neither
found any errors with either type of memory (Funnily enough, this may
just be coincidence but the PC didn't crash once during the memory
tests which took approx. 20 hours). The PC will even reboot in
Safemode, which must rule out driver issues (yes?). I have disabled
the Auto reboot in XP and get a blue screen showing different error
messages each time.

I can't understand what is causing it as nothing has changed in the
system for over a year.

I'm about to try a fresh installation of XP in desperation, could it
be an XP issue?

Mart

 

[JK]

It might be an XP issue. If you get you registry mucked up, nasty things
can happen. It is hard to understand exactly how the registry works,
and to fix it if it is mucked up. It is also not so hard for important .dll
files to become lost or corrupted.

 

[Cory]

I don't believe that this is an OS issue, in my case at least. This
happens when I am using XP and it also happens when I am using Linux. I
have done a clean install of both OS's on two different hard drives and
it happens on both. I think that this is a hardware issue. The
consensus here seems to be that it is a power supply issue, which does
make sense, I'm just not sure what I'm going to do to fix it.

 

[JK]

I don't believe that this is an OS issue, in my case at least. This
happens when I am using XP and it also happens when I am using Linux.

You didn't mention that before. So it means you have a hardware problem.

I
have done a clean install of both OS's on two different hard drives and
it happens on both. I think that this is a hardware issue. The
consensus here seems to be that it is a power supply issue, which does
make sense, I'm just not sure what I'm going to do to fix it.

You did say that your case temperatures and cpu temperatures are low,
and that the computer is being run in an air conditioned room? Also
that an auto reboot setting in bios is disabled?

It is probably a power problem, but not necessarily a power supply problem.
It could be the power supply, but it could also be a short circuit in a
component,
or problems with the power coming out of the wall socket. Did the problems
start before the hot weather season? Try taking out everything extra in the
system.
Take out the optical drives. It is a pity that you don't have a spare hard drive

you could try. Perhaps you could place your hard drive in another pc and see
if the system show any ill effects when you try to access it many times?

 

[Chris Fiorentino]

I have a problem with random rebooting too, and it definitely has to
do with my crucial memory. I bought (2) 512 MB memory sticks last
year and installed them in my mom's Compaq, with AMD processor. She
recently bought a new machine, so I took back the sticks and installed
them in my vprMatrix machine, with an Intel processor, and it reboots
my machine within 5-10 minutes just about every time. I put my old
memory back in and it works fine. Guess Crucial doesn't like my
machine??? Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks
Chris

 

[JAD]

did you reset the memory timings? Major changes such as memory, cpu,
etc., should have cmos reset involved in the install. Some boards like
ECS, NEED to have it done.

 

[Devhead]

I'm having the same problem with my computer the last few months. I
have a K7SEM 1.1e Bios and at first I thought it was my power supply
(the one that came with this cheap computer was 300 Watts and
starting making a burning smell, so I replaced it with a cheap
colorcases.com one). I replaced the colorcases power supply with a
better Thermaltake Xaser III 480 puppy and at first things were
great. Then, a few days later the same thing started happening. For
no reason, the computer would reboot, or would half shutdown (the
mouse light would go out, but the power on the computer would stay
on.) I would hit the reset button, but nothing happened. Then other
times the computer would just freeze up. Sometimes when dialing out,
but other times when I'm doing almost nothing on it. Sometimes it
would freeze after the POST. There is no pattern, and I've checked
connections and can't put my finger on anything that it might be.
I'm on the verge of just getting a new motherboard because I can't
take it. The funny thing is, it will do it, and then whig out for a
couple of reboots, then it won't do it for hours or sometimes days!
So it's really hard to diagnose.
I've added so much new hardware to this thing, there's no telling what
is causing the problem. But it hasn't started like right after I put
something new in. Weird.

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