Spontaneouse rebooting on a P4P800 Deluxe

[Dennis]

've used Asus motherboards twice in the past and have never had
anything like this before. After having the sytem together and
working for a couple of days, out of the blue, the system will just
reboot. I could be in Windows using a program or maybe just part way
through a boot, and it'll reboot again. The CPU and mobo are both in
the 28-30 degree-C range and I'm using the latest BIOS (p4p81012).
Updating the BIOS seemed to fix the problem for about a day, but right
after I added a 2nd DVD player, it started going bad again. All the
settings in the BIOS are default. Does anyone know what is causing
this? My system specs are below. Thanks, Dennis.

Asus P4P800 deluxe
intel P4 2AG 512K 400mhz
512 mb (1 stick) Crucial PC-3200 DDRAM
3 IDE hard drives (80GB - 120GB)
2 optical drives (8x HP CD burner and new Plextor DVD player)
Antec Sonata case (380 watt psu)

 

[Craig Matchan]

Hi,

've used Asus motherboards twice in the past and have never had
anything like this before. After having the sytem together and
working for a couple of days, out of the blue, the system will just
reboot. I could be in Windows using a program or maybe just part way
through a boot, and it'll reboot again. The CPU and mobo are both in
the 28-30 degree-C range and I'm using the latest BIOS (p4p81012).
Updating the BIOS seemed to fix the problem for about a day, but right
after I added a 2nd DVD player, it started going bad again. All the
settings in the BIOS are default. Does anyone know what is causing
this? My system specs are below. Thanks, Dennis.

Asus P4P800 deluxe
intel P4 2AG 512K 400mhz
512 mb (1 stick) Crucial PC-3200 DDRAM
3 IDE hard drives (80GB - 120GB)
2 optical drives (8x HP CD burner and new Plextor DVD player)
Antec Sonata case (380 watt psu)

It could be your PSU. I have a simular setup and run with a 450W PSU. You
could just be on the margin with 380W. You haven't mentioned what sort of
GFX card you have but it you have one of the highend Nvidia's or ATI's then
I really would consider a beefier PSU.

Best of luck

Craig

 

[RickB]

Good luck. I had this happen with an Asus A7M266-D and I never got it
resolved. I searched the net and found quite a few cases like mine. I
ended up replacing the MB.

Asus USED to be great.

 

[Paul]

Good luck. I had this happen with an Asus A7M266-D and I never got it
resolved. I searched the net and found quite a few cases like mine. I
ended up replacing the MB.

Asus USED to be great.

You have to start by identifying what kind of crash you are having.
Get a copy of MEMTEST86 from memtest86.com . This program will format
and prepare a bootable floppy for you, and the program tests all of the
memory, even the area that the program is sitting in. If you can run
this test overnight without errors, then you are ready to boot a real
operating system. If there are errors shown, either adjust the memory
timings until the errors are gone, or replace the memory.

Once memory is verified as OK, test the AGP/video next. Use a program
that generates a lot of 3D traffic, like 3DMark. As with memory test,
if you can run 3DMark all night in Demo mode without crashing, then
chances are the video card and AGP are OK.

If you are using an OS with an Event Log, you might want to examine
the log, to see if any messages about the crash/error are in there.
You can also adjust Windows, so that on a crash, you get a BSOD instead
of the computer immediately rebooting. Using the information on the
BSOD screen, you might get a hint as to what is wrong (i.e. if the
errors are the same all the time, it could be a driver issue, whereas
if the errors are randomly distributed, then it could even be that
the processor is flaky).

You need to do more testing before condemning any hardware.

HTH,
Paul

 

[David Shorthouse]

It could be your PSU. I have a simular setup and run with a 450W PSU. You
could just be on the margin with 380W. You haven't mentioned what sort of
GFX card you have but it you have one of the highend Nvidia's or ATI's then
I really would consider a beefier PSU.

Best of luck

Craig

That Antec 380W PSU is plenty powerful enough. It's not so much that power,
but the stability and quality of the PSU that is important.

I had exactly the same issue and it wasn't until I upped the RAM voltage in
the BIOS to 2.75 that the issue was resolved. Another post suggested you run
memtest86 and I would suggest that for the voltage you are running now and
at 2.75, although I never showed any errors when I did so at any voltage;
just seemed to gat greater stability (and throughput!) at a slightly higher
voltage.

Hope this helps,

Dave

 

[James Bondo]

've used Asus motherboards twice in the past and have never had
anything like this before. After having the sytem together and
working for a couple of days, out of the blue, the system will just
reboot. I could be in Windows using a program or maybe just part way
through a boot, and it'll reboot again. The CPU and mobo are both in
the 28-30 degree-C range and I'm using the latest BIOS (p4p81012).
Updating the BIOS seemed to fix the problem for about a day, but right
after I added a 2nd DVD player, it started going bad again. All the
settings in the BIOS are default. Does anyone know what is causing
this? My system specs are below. Thanks, Dennis.

Asus P4P800 deluxe
intel P4 2AG 512K 400mhz
512 mb (1 stick) Crucial PC-3200 DDRAM
3 IDE hard drives (80GB - 120GB)
2 optical drives (8x HP CD burner and new Plextor DVD player)
Antec Sonata case (380 watt psu)

Hi Dennis,

I have a P4c800-E Deluxe that had the same problem
during the first week of operation. Reboots at random
times with no warning and no errors in the Event Viewer.
I couldn't keep the system running for more than several
hrs, especially when the CPU was under load.
The problem was the Vcore voltage was to low for the CPU.
I raised the Vcore voltage setting from 1.525v to 1.55v
and it stopped the ramdom reboots dead in it's tracks.
So far my system has been running for 2 weeks constant
with no random reboots.

Hope this helps, good luck
Tom

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel P-4 2.8ghz 512k 400mhz
2 512mb Corsair XMS PC-3500 (1GB total in Dual Channel mode)
ATI All In Wonder pro 128mb video card
ASUS DRW-0402P/D Dual DVD+-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive
Acer 40x read only CD Drive
3 IBM U-320 15k RPM SCSI drives
Adaptec 19160 SCSI controller
Antec TrueControl 550 PS
Lian-Li PC-76 case (6 fans, massive size!)

 

[Dennis]

Hi Dennis,

I have a P4c800-E Deluxe that had the same problem
during the first week of operation. Reboots at random
times with no warning and no errors in the Event Viewer.
I couldn't keep the system running for more than several
hrs, especially when the CPU was under load.
The problem was the Vcore voltage was to low for the CPU.
I raised the Vcore voltage setting from 1.525v to 1.55v
and it stopped the ramdom reboots dead in it's tracks.
So far my system has been running for 2 weeks constant
with no random reboots.

Hope this helps, good luck
Tom

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel P-4 2.8ghz 512k 400mhz
2 512mb Corsair XMS PC-3500 (1GB total in Dual Channel mode)
ATI All In Wonder pro 128mb video card
ASUS DRW-0402P/D Dual DVD+-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive
Acer 40x read only CD Drive
3 IBM U-320 15k RPM SCSI drives
Adaptec 19160 SCSI controller
Antec TrueControl 550 PS
Lian-Li PC-76 case (6 fans, massive size!)

Thanks for that Tom. I will try that. Along the same line, right now
I've tried raising the DDR reference voltage from Auto to 2.75V on the
suggestion of a post somewhere concering the P4P800. So far so good,
but since your experience speaks directly to our common issue, I'll
try that first. I see your PSU is quite a bit beefier than the one
I'm using and if YOU had spontaneous reboots with THAT, it sure makes
me less eager to go out and buy another power supply --which was going
to be my next step.

Dennis

 

[Dennis]

That Antec 380W PSU is plenty powerful enough. It's not so much that power,
but the stability and quality of the PSU that is important.

I had exactly the same issue and it wasn't until I upped the RAM voltage in
the BIOS to 2.75 that the issue was resolved. Another post suggested you run
memtest86 and I would suggest that for the voltage you are running now and
at 2.75, although I never showed any errors when I did so at any voltage;
just seemed to gat greater stability (and throughput!) at a slightly higher
voltage.

Hope this helps,

Dave

Thanks Dave. I'm trying that right now! Research on a tangential
matter turned up that 2.75V solution, but your remarks now corroborate
that. .. And I was just about to go to Circuit City and plunk down
$99+tax for an antec 530W PSU. Merry Christmas to me!

Dennis

 

[Zap]

Dennis,
I just experienced the same scenario you are describing with my
P4P880-D. I did everything from memtest to swapping out video cards, power
supplies, etc. Finally returned my MB for another P4P and the problem was
still there. Changed out my P4 2.4C with another 2.4 (533 not 800) and the
problem disappeared. Bought another 2.4C from NewEgg and haven't had the
problem since (two weeks). Intel did replace the faulty chip. Another
thing to check that I should have recognized before all that swapping was
the chip would only reboot the machine when in 32bit mode. Ex. when loading
WinXp the computer would always make it through formatting, and loading
files. Once XP rebooted and the system was in 32bit mode the random reboots
would start. Hope that makes sense.

Zap

 

[Dennis]

Hey Zap. Did your system ever start a new reboot WHILE booting and
never actually making it to windows? That's what mine was doing.
Thanks for sharing your story. You've paid some dues.

Dennis

 

[Zap]

No, can't say it did that but it has not made it passed the bios screen
before saying that "overclocking failed" and I'm not overclocking. Forgot to
show you what I'm running in the last post>
P4P800-D rev. 2.00
2.4C
2x256 Corsair XMS 3500
Antec Case w/ 330ps True Blue
Audigy I
FIC 9800 Pro
2x80Gb SATA Maxtor
Mitsubishi 2040 Diamond Pro Monitor
Zap

 

[Paul Ferguson]

Hey Zap. Did your system ever start a new reboot WHILE booting and
never actually making it to windows? That's what mine was doing.
Thanks for sharing your story. You've paid some dues.

I had a simialr problem to Zaps. I was using a P4P800 Deluxe with a
Pentium 4 -- 2.4 Ghz 800 FSB. It worked for a few weeks then started
random reboots. I was able to turn off Hyperthreading and it was
better but not fixed.

The machine started having problems when booting after power had been
off -- seemed to be a cold problem.. It happened everytime power was
down for 15 minutes or more. It would take a few to 10 minutes to
become stable enough to get into windows and stay up for a while.

I replaced every component in the machine -- power supply, disk,
video, memory, motherboard, and P4. It was the last thing I suspected
-- the P4. Since replacing it a few weeks ago, there have been no
reboots.

PaulF

 

[Zap]

Paul. Glad to see you fixed your problem too. I'm on three weeks with a
new P4 and no reboots. X my fingers that it stays that way. Alot work to
find that eh?

Zap

 

[Paul Ferguson]

Paul. Glad to see you fixed your problem too. I'm on three weeks with a
new P4 and no reboots. X my fingers that it stays that way. Alot work to
find that eh?

It was a lot of work.Fortunately I had a friend who builds computers
for his customers. I sold him all my barely used spare parts that I
used to find the problem. He has been building computers for years and
has never had a bad Pentium. The local computer store told me it was
unlikely to be the P4 -- they either work or don't.

Looks like Intel had a batch of bad P4 2.4 GHz ones -- well at least 2
we know of.

PaulF