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Thread: Really Bizarre Restarts

  1. #16
    Member DKJones96's Avatar
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    You can rule out a short. If it was shorting out it would completely shut off and need unplugged for about 5-10 seconds before you could plug it back in and turn it on. All power supplies have a breaker in them incase of a short and that's the only way to reset them unless your PSU has a switch on the back i think that works.
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  2. #17
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    Well, it's been well over a week now without any issues.. until about two hours ago, when the random restarts began kicking in again. The system seems fine when doing relatively untaxing things, typing this post right now, playing games etc - it doesn't burp at all.

    However I've been doing video editing stuff again and after several hours, its started again, and fairly hard, every ten to fifteen minutes when working with video stuff. I've had a look at the caps and they all look fine and dandy - I've also disconnected and reconnected just about all the drives and additional devices and that hasnt helped any this time.

    So, PSU's probably biting the big one - (voltages readings are low, but not dangerously so:+12v = 11.90 / +5v = 4.91 / +3.3v = 3.28v NB This is at Idle ) - so much for Antec eh. I'm a bit short finance wise at the moment, so if it does need replacing, its going to have to be done on the economic side - although i dont really wanna skimp on the PSU of all things, so, cast your opinions over this selection of what i can afford to pick up:

    535Watt Enermax Noisetaker - £65
    580Watt Hiper - £53 (I've had a hiper PSU in the past though and it went BANG! in a big way)
    Sparkle 500Watt - £60

    I cant really go for much more than that price wise at present i'm afraid. I'm suprised the Antec's died, at 430Watts i'd have thought it would have been able to carry this system fairly happily - obviously not. I'm hoping i wont need more than around 500Watts though.

    Thoughts and opinions are appreciates as per usual

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  3. #18
    Ultimate Member Comage's Avatar
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    I once tried using some Mushkin BH-5s on an Abit IS7-E, at default settings as I do not overclock.

    The RAMs were running at SPD (2.5-2-2-5) at the default motherboard's voltage of 2.6V.

    Random reboots were occurring at the most unexpected times, until I figured out that it was the RAMs, and bumped the voltage up to the maximum 2.8V.

    Problem solved.

  4. #19
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    The thing that has really got me puzzeled in it all is the fact that its actually not that "random".

    For instance, i've spent several hours straight now watching DVD's and gaming on the machine, and not a single blip. But i can more or less guarantee that if i were to start encoding a DVD or something now, it woudl be belly up in a matter of minutes. All i can really think of is that if it is the PSU, its strugglign to cope with the machine under full load, all disks blazing and the CPU working its socks off...

    As it is, in my travels now im hearing a lot of people with complaints regarding the quality of Antec PSU's nowadays - in particular the Truepower range - if it does turn out to be the problem then i wish i'd known earlier

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  5. #20
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    Well, i tried to hammer the living hell out of it last night late on. I had Prime95 running in the background, NeroVision Express encoding a DVD and an AVI Movie running all simultaneously for over an hour. I set the Asus monitor up to take a log of the system voltages during this period.

    While they were still lower that the desirable spec, they all seemed to be well within range, the +5v stayed fairly solid at 4.919v throughout, +12v never went any lower than 11.84v, Vcore stayed steadily at 1.392-1.40v. Indeed the only rail with any major fluctuations was the +3.3v line which on occasion dropped as low as 2.6v.

    With this said, i couldn't get it to crash on me come hell or high water. If the PSU was the culprit though, i would have expected it to wobble a bit more voltage wise under essentially full load

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  6. #21
    Member SJG437's Avatar
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    My 2 cents.... It's the P.S.U. RAM tends to be a bit more "predictable" in reference to recyclical reboots, your problem definitely appears to stem from load in most cases which would make me think PSU. Although you have load tested your PC, I once had a machine that would reboot, what I thought was randomly, it turned out to be me bumping the tower with my foot causing some random short in the PSU.

    Dollars to Donuts - replace the PSU and you'll be all good.

    Cheers,
    SJG

  7. #22
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    I ran Memtest 86 for over an hour last night without a single hickup (its my experience, that Memtest 86 usually picks up any problems reasonably rapidly) - so yep, i think RAM's out.

    I also slaughtered the CPU for an hour or so, running Si-Soft Sandra Burn-In's, Prime95, CPU Burn and Video encoding software with no real problems (the highest the CPU temp ever rose to was 46C from its stock of around 40C which tbh impressed me)

    So yep, i too am now pretty much of the option that the only Mechanical component that can be misbehaving is the PSU, despite it seemingly holding up well under load according to my voltage monitors.

    With this said, its gone another two days soldi now and i cant recreate the crash for the life of me which is a bit annoying.

    The only thng i've done in the meantime is removed Daemon Tools, although im sceptical that it would have any influence on this (as im pretty sure this is a hardware issue)- it has only been installed relatively recently, a friend of mine experienced some similar funkness a year or so a ago abnd foudn the culprit to be Daemon tools

    I'll see if i can crash it over the next few days (as i say, it snot having any, i can game for several hours straight for a week without any issues, and then out of the blue it'll fall over every twenty minutes one night) - see if i can narrow anything down further

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  8. #23
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    ARRRRGH!!

    It seems to be back!

    Since my lat post, i've replaced my PSU with a Hiper 580Watter (Voltages are much healtheir now, im actually getting more than 3.3V on the +3.3v, more than 5v on the +5v etc. etc.). However, the last couple of days ive been getting the restarts again. Once more, it seems to be totally random and tbh occurs very rarely, the machine can run for hours at a time one day with no issue, and then the next day (as just now) it'll reboot itself just a few minutes in. I've also been having problems recently where the machine will just continually reboot itself after posting, sometimes even a power down doesnt solve anything. The only solution i have foudn to that particular scnario is to enter the BIOS, open all the CD-ROM drawers, close then again, and then restart the machine.

    I'm thoroughly stumped at present, gonna run some more diagnostics and see if anything turns up, but at present im reaching...

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  9. #24
    Ultimate Member G Ray88's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigjakkstaffa
    ARRRRGH!!

    It seems to be back!

    Since my lat post, i've replaced my PSU with a Hiper 580Watter (Voltages are much healtheir now, im actually getting more than 3.3V on the +3.3v, more than 5v on the +5v etc. etc.). However, the last couple of days ive been getting the restarts again. Once more, it seems to be totally random and tbh occurs very rarely, the machine can run for hours at a time one day with no issue, and then the next day (as just now) it'll reboot itself just a few minutes in. I've also been having problems recently where the machine will just continually reboot itself after posting, sometimes even a power down doesnt solve anything. The only solution i have foudn to that particular scnario is to enter the BIOS, open all the CD-ROM drawers, close then again, and then restart the machine.

    I'm thoroughly stumped at present, gonna run some more diagnostics and see if anything turns up, but at present im reaching...

    --Jakk
    Could it be some kind of a software problem or virus thing?
    Good Luck

  10. #25
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    Not trying to jump in but it sounds like your start button may be shorting out from heatups..try unplugging your start switch from Motherboard and shorting the pins to startup @ see if that helps/ if so change start buttons.
    Lencojoe.

  11. #26
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    PSU.........!

  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by tinwindow
    PSU.........!
    See above, that avenue has been ruled out IMO

    Good shout on the powerswitch, i'll give that a try and report back (not for a few days though most likely)

    Cheers

    --Jakk
    "You don't know Jakk..."

    Windows Vista Business x64
    Hiper 580Watt PSU -- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L -- Intel Core2Quad 6600 -- 4GB PC6400 -- 256MB GeForce FX7800GT
    SATA-II HDD 1x500Gb/1x400GB/1x250GB-- 1x120GB ATA-100 HDD
    [/B]

  13. #28
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    he already changed the PSU. Well you know this option very well jakk, run all the components outside the case on the non conductive surfaces for a few days, as this will also let you watch for any kind of ESD that might cause it to reboot, also, i know your strapped for cash, so you have 2 options on that optical drive. 1. replace it with a different brand. 2. Do a firmware upgrade on it. I had similar issues with my Asus A8N-E SLi Premium board and i replaced the board with a different brand and voiala, it worked and no problems since.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

  14. #29
    Senior Member mcool61's Avatar
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    Not to pick on anybody in particular but as a casual observer I notice quite often everybody says psu! Psu! & quite often that isn't it.
    This enables be to continue to feel superior because I always disagree & therefore am often right.

  15. #30
    Ultimate Member mobo57's Avatar
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    Hey jakk, did you check to see if you are getting vdroop on your core? I have had that happen a couple of times on both AMD and Intel procs. Had to manually set the Vcore a little above stock when it happened. Problem gone.
    Profanity: a weak mind trying to express itself forcibly.
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