Computer Troubles

Just a quick note to let you all know that I probably wont be on much in the near future. My computer randomly reboots on me

Im pretty sure ive narrowed down the issue to either the Power supply, RAM, or Motherboard, and Im feverishly hoping its not the Motherboard.
I have a backup Power supply if need be, RAM is quick to RMA, but if its my mainboard I might be out of commision for up to a month or so, ASUS is slow when it comes to returns

Ill keep you posted

-Andre

Ouch, man...hope you get figure out what's wrong and get it fixed.

Definatly check the RAM first. ann had the same issue. turned out one of the memory modules was shot. I would recommend pulling out and rebooting the comp with one at a time installed. See how that goes for you.

Pampered

Tried that last night, and I ran Memtest on each stick individually, both passed, but with both sticks installed Memtest crashed repeatedly durring the 1st test, And With only 1 stick installed it still crashes...

-Andre

Fingers Crossed!

Turns out the newest version of memtest doesnt like my chipset, so I got v3.4 and all my memory passed.

I also Noticed my CPU was running hot (~50-55 dec Celcius Idle), so I took of my Heatsink and fan, cleaned it (although it wasnt that dusty) and re-installed it making extra sure all the pins were solidly in place.

Im running a Prime95 torture test right now and my CPU is running at 40-45 deg celcius with all 4 cores running at 100%

So far so good

Fingers Crossed!

-Andre

Gah! Another 4 days of tests and im still in the dark about the problem.
I pulled the system out of the case and I have memtest running with the MB out on the desk with a minimum of parts installed (MB, CPU, Memory, Video Card and DVD Drive). As of this morning memtest had been running for 18 hours without error or reboot, If its still up when I get home Ill plug in one hard drive, and run some tests in windows, and then Ill keep adding parts and testing untill I find the problem part or rip my head off in frustration

-Andre

I have a whole sequence of suggestions, but I will throw 2 out real quickly for now. If your memory has been passing memtest then time to look elsewhere.

1. Your power supply. It may be a butt kicking 750-1000 watt unit but if its not performing right, poof it can't handle the stress. Do you have another one lying around? As long as its 350+ it should suffice to see if you have that issue. Just unplug extemporanious hardware like floppy, cd drives, dvd drives, extra hard drives. Then see what it does.

2. Run the free program "motherbaord monitor". this can show you if you are having temperature issues around the motherboard and not just the cpu. Also, if your video card manufacturer has a GPU temp program, check it as well. I had video shutdowns after my card hit about 6 months old. Seemed the cards fan just was not sufficient. This has happened to numerous ATI and nVidia cards. My GPU was hitting temps near 90 degrees centigrade. Thats dang near boiling water. Bought a card fan that rests against it and now it hangs out around 60-70 degrees . Not great but far better

Pampered

Yeah, Ive already tried my spare power supply (a 450 w), same thing, random crash.
I actually tried Motherboard monitor 5, it doesnt support my Motherboard . So Ive been using ASUS PCProbe 2 which montors CPU + MB temps as well as Fan speeds and voltages on ther 3 main rails (+12, +5 and +3.3 V) all temps/voltages are fine.
I also use ASUS SmartDoctor to monitor my Video card, its fine (35-45 dec celcius)

as a last ditch effort before I admit defeat and bring the whole kit back to the store for support, I switched the PCIexpress port that my video card is in (I have 3 slots and only 1 video card, so why not?

In case it gives anyone any Ideas here are my system specs
Intel Q6600 CPU, Stock HS and Fan
ASUS P5N-T Deluxe Motherboard
ASUS EN9800GTX+ 512MB Video Card
4 GB Kit (2x2gb) Kingston HyperX 1066 DDR 2 RAM
Hard Drives:
1x Western Digital Velociraptor 10kRPM Sata2 300GB
1x Seagate 320 GB 7200RPM SATA2
LG DVD-RW
Antec NeoPower 650 Power supply

-Andre

Well, 2 hours in with no reboot. If it was just the video card being in PCIe slot 1 causing the computer to do this ill be simultaniously Overjoyed that I found a solution (Admitedly, a band-aid solution, but that'll do for now) and enraged that it took me a week to figure out something so rediculous.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Its only been up for 2 hours, lets wait and see *knock on wood and all that*

Welcome to my Nightmare

Wow....thats a mess! Gunter sometimes knows what hes talking about most of the time....cept when I told him about my memory issues, and he said I was crazy since I had all this new memory...so my computer had problems for 2 months. We finally figured out that my new memory chips were dead just like he said. Now it works....sometimes lol.

Ann

Well it turns out that the PCIe slot didn't affect anything, I'm back to the random reboots, so tomorrow I'm returning my Motherboard for RMA, hopefully it wont be too long to get a replacement board in

-Andre

Well, thanks for posting the photos of your desk. Ann always says mine is too messy. Seems I'm not alone.

Pampered

Your desk is cleaner! Gunter has stuff there he hasnt touched in 4 years...and the plates are getting moldy!