[SOLVED] Weird Reboot Problem

0siris85 · 03-04-2008, 07:24 PM

Hiya,

I've recently put together a new computer, here are the specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-D3SL
Processor - Intel Q6600 G0
RAM - Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB PC8500 1066Mhz
Video Card - eVGA 7600GT
PSU - Thermaltake Purepower 500 watt.
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar 300GB SATA

For about a week now everything has been gravy, the machine is smoking fast and I am very happy with it...until today. I usually leave my computer on when I'm not working on it, just turn off the monitor.

I got back home this evening and upon turning on the monitor I found my computer doing a redundant reboot. It would post, then it took me to a screen where it gave me the option to boot in safe mode, normal mode, etc...and when I hit boot in normal mode (with the last known working configuration) windows started to load...and immediatedly after a blue screen would show up for just a fraction of a second and the computer rebooted...This happens even when I try to start the computer in safe mode. I can get the computer to boot normally if I turn it off (power sw) for a couple of seconds, and then start it up again.

Another weird thing: The first time this happened...when I restarted using the method mentioned above my computer did not even recognize my video card. My video resolution was changed to the default 800x600 and when I tried to go to right click>properties>settings>advanced - my graphics card was not showing up. This problem is a normal part of the routine now...though I'm pretty sure that the problem does not lie within the video card...perhaps a bad PCI-E slot?

I have a hunch that it might be my memory...as I'm not 100% sure that that particular set is compatible with that motherboard. I've been doing a bit of searching and reading about this and if there's one thing I noticed it's that most of the systems with this particular motherboard are coupled with PC6400 memory. Why? The motherboard does say it supports up to DDR1066 (PC8500) memory. Although because my video card was not recognized; which I don't think has anything to do with memory, I am inclined to suspect that perhaps something is wrong with the motherboard itself. Also, if the memory is the culprit I think the error would have shown up sooner.

I've ran all the memtest86+ tests with 2 successful passes each. I've cleared the bios (jumper on the mainboard) to no avail. The problem still persists.

I've issued an RMA for the motherboard today because it was my last chance to do so, the 30 day return period would have expired. Effectively I've given myself a week or two to diagnose and hopefully fix the problem. With that said, does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong?

I'm really stumped, frustrated, and open to any suggestions :)

Thanks in advance,

Osiris

**TheMatt** · 03-04-2008, 08:40 PM

Sounds like it could be an issue with the RAM. Try running only one stick, then the other. Also, go into the BIOS and either set the FSB:DRAM ration to 1:1 (this will run the RAM at 400MHz (800MHz PC6400 effective) or manually set the RAM speed down.

Also, try running with only one stick, then the other.

Finally, when testing the RAM, let Memtest86 run overnight. You also need to go into the test options and select an uncached test and let that run for awhile as a cached test can hide errors in the memory.

0siris85 · 03-04-2008, 09:03 PM

Hiya Matt,

Here are the options I have to choose from in the bios. I'm not exactly sure which one of these determines the FSB:DRAM ratio. Maybe you could nudge me in the right direction as to what I should do :)

Robust Graphics Booster [Auto]
CPU Clock Ratio [9 X]
CPU Frequency 2.40Ghz (266X9)
CPU Host Clock Control [Disabled]
CPU Host Frequency 266
PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) [Auto]
C.I.A.2 [Disabled]
Performance Enhance [Turbo]
System Memory Multiplier(SPD) [Auto]
Memory Frequency(Mhz) 1066
**************System Voltage Optimized**************
System Voltage Control [auto]
DDR2 OverVoltage Control - Normal
PCI-E OverVoltage Control - Normal
FSB OverVoltage Control - Normal
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control - Normal
CPU Voltage Control - Normal
Normal CPU Vcore - 1.32500V

:edit:

oh and one more thing...about memtest. If I let it run overnight won't it just repeat the same test over and over? Does it eventually move on to other tests?

thanks for the fast reply :)

**TheMatt** · 03-04-2008, 09:22 PM

Right now the RAM is set at 1066MHz (look where it says Memory Frequency right above the voltages). Turn it down to 800MHz and see if the issues go away. Make sure your RAM is running in 128-bit dual channel for maximum performance.

With Memtest you want it to run the same test many times because errors don't always show up the first time. With each pass Memtest runs a bunch of different tests. Also like I said run a bunch of uncached tests.

0siris85 · 03-04-2008, 09:43 PM

Gocha

I'm running the uncached tests @ 1066Mhz first...lets see what happens.

What do you think about the system not recognizing my video card? That can't have anything to do with the RAM can it?

:edit:

now here's something interesting: memtest is currently running test 10, uncached and its at 209%....that can't be right can it? usually it goes to 100% and starts a new pass. It just keeps on going...it's at 213% now

0siris85 · 03-05-2008, 01:29 PM

Well I'll be darned. This is what memtest found after about 13 hours of testing.

So if I'm reading that correct...the memory in slot 1 is the bad one right? Also, how can I know for sure that it is the memory that is bad, and not the slot on the motherboard?

**TheMatt** · 03-05-2008, 09:22 PM

You can't tell (unless you really want to look up the memory address to see which stick it corresponds to). The easiest way is to swap out one stick and run the test again, and repeat this with the other stick (even if the first stick you test is good).

Those uncached tests to seem a little weird in the fact that they just go on forever (thats why you see the 600%+, this is normal). You will just have to run it again. The advantage over cached tests is that the CPU cache can hide errors by storing bits on it rather than the RAM, and you want to use only the RAM and not the CPU cache.

0siris85 · 03-05-2008, 09:29 PM

I plucked out one of the sticks and ran memtest again...it's actually still going. Pass 8, almost 6 hours and no error. I'll stop the test in about 2 hours or so and put the good stick in the slot that the bad one was in. If I don't get errors then I'll know that the motherboard is fine :)

Just out of curiosity, is this sort of thing common? I've been reading a lot of reviews over on newegg with people complaining about receiving bad memory. The PC8500 modules had an especially surprising amount of these types of complaints.

Would you recommend I look into other memory, such as the PC-6400 modules? or am I just really unlucky

**TheMatt** · 03-06-2008, 04:36 PM

The P35 chipset only officially supports PC6400 modules for DDR2 which could be the problem. Try turning back the speed of the memory modules like I mentioned earlier. You can make your chipset "think" it is running PC6400 memory modules by turning down the PC 8500 modules to PC6400 speeds.

0siris85 · 03-06-2008, 04:58 PM

Wouldn't it be better to just return them and get PC-6400 modules instead? I could pocket like 30 bucks that way. It seems kind of pointless to buy PC-8500 ram if you are going to tune it down to run at PC-6400 speeds.

Also, everywhere I look I'm seeing that the P35-D3SL supports 1066Mhz memory It's really frustrating because if I knew that it didn't support it I would have looked into another motherboard.

**TheMatt** · 03-06-2008, 05:47 PM

The board supports it, but when you run it at that speed you are overclocking the memory bus of the chipset. It may not be stable. If you don't want to have to wait for an RMA, turn down the memory speed. If you are OK waiting and want to save some money, go for it.

But first turn down the memory speed just to make sure that is in fact the problem.

0siris85 · 03-14-2008, 05:23 PM

I returned the memory and purchased the 2x1GB Corsair PC-6400 modules. I'm very inexperienced as far as overclocking goes, so I decided not to mess with the memory. I ran memtest for about 15 hours with no errors, so hopefully that problem is solved :)

However, another thing is bugging me that I'm not quite sure about. My processor only gets 25% CPU usage at max, which leads me to believe that only 1 of the cores on the processor is actually being used. Is there any way I could make all 4 cores work and do their share?

Thanks for all your help Matt :)

**TheMatt** · 03-14-2008, 06:55 PM

The RAM is likely OK then. I suspect that the issue has been resolved.

Technically, task manager will show 25% CPU usage when one task uses 100% of one thread. This may seem like it doesn't make sense. Basically, your processor has 4 physical cores and can pay 100% attention to 4 threads. When a process on a single core processor (except for the Pentium 4 HT) uses 100% of one thread, it uses 100% of the CPU.

What the Windows XP multiprocessor kernel does is distributes the total load on the CPU over the 4 cores of the quad-core processor evenly. So if your task manager shows 25% CPU usage, its really a 25% load on all 4 cores, not 100% on 1 core.

Unfortunately, if the application isn't multi-threaded then it will be limited to only one thread and thus (in your case) only "25% CPU usage." If it is a multi-threaded application however then it will create more than 1 thread and use more of the total CPU.

0siris85 · 03-16-2008, 09:45 PM

Awesome, that makes a bit more sense now. Thanks.

Again, thank you for all your help Matt, I think we can call this case closed :)

03-04-2008, 07:24 PM	#1 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	[SOLVED] Weird Reboot Problem Hiya, I've recently put together a new computer, here are the specs: Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-D3SL Processor - Intel Q6600 G0 RAM - Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB PC8500 1066Mhz Video Card - eVGA 7600GT PSU - Thermaltake Purepower 500 watt. Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar 300GB SATA For about a week now everything has been gravy, the machine is smoking fast and I am very happy with it...until today. I usually leave my computer on when I'm not working on it, just turn off the monitor. I got back home this evening and upon turning on the monitor I found my computer doing a redundant reboot. It would post, then it took me to a screen where it gave me the option to boot in safe mode, normal mode, etc...and when I hit boot in normal mode (with the last known working configuration) windows started to load...and immediatedly after a blue screen would show up for just a fraction of a second and the computer rebooted...This happens even when I try to start the computer in safe mode. I can get the computer to boot normally if I turn it off (power sw) for a couple of seconds, and then start it up again. Another weird thing: The first time this happened...when I restarted using the method mentioned above my computer did not even recognize my video card. My video resolution was changed to the default 800x600 and when I tried to go to right click>properties>settings>advanced - my graphics card was not showing up. This problem is a normal part of the routine now...though I'm pretty sure that the problem does not lie within the video card...perhaps a bad PCI-E slot? I have a hunch that it might be my memory...as I'm not 100% sure that that particular set is compatible with that motherboard. I've been doing a bit of searching and reading about this and if there's one thing I noticed it's that most of the systems with this particular motherboard are coupled with PC6400 memory. Why? The motherboard does say it supports up to DDR1066 (PC8500) memory. Although because my video card was not recognized; which I don't think has anything to do with memory, I am inclined to suspect that perhaps something is wrong with the motherboard itself. Also, if the memory is the culprit I think the error would have shown up sooner. I've ran all the memtest86+ tests with 2 successful passes each. I've cleared the bios (jumper on the mainboard) to no avail. The problem still persists. I've issued an RMA for the motherboard today because it was my last chance to do so, the 30 day return period would have expired. Effectively I've given myself a week or two to diagnose and hopefully fix the problem. With that said, does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong? I'm really stumped, frustrated, and open to any suggestions :) Thanks in advance, Osiris

03-04-2008, 08:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Sounds like it could be an issue with the RAM. Try running only one stick, then the other. Also, go into the BIOS and either set the FSB:DRAM ration to 1:1 (this will run the RAM at 400MHz (800MHz PC6400 effective) or manually set the RAM speed down. Also, try running with only one stick, then the other. Finally, when testing the RAM, let Memtest86 run overnight. You also need to go into the test options and select an uncached test and let that run for awhile as a cached test can hide errors in the memory. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-04-2008, 09:03 PM	#3 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Hiya Matt, Here are the options I have to choose from in the bios. I'm not exactly sure which one of these determines the FSB:DRAM ratio. Maybe you could nudge me in the right direction as to what I should do :) Robust Graphics Booster [Auto] CPU Clock Ratio [9 X] CPU Frequency 2.40Ghz (266X9) CPU Host Clock Control [Disabled] CPU Host Frequency 266 PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) [Auto] C.I.A.2 [Disabled] Performance Enhance [Turbo] System Memory Multiplier(SPD) [Auto] Memory Frequency(Mhz) 1066 ************System Voltage Optimized************ System Voltage Control [auto] DDR2 OverVoltage Control - Normal PCI-E OverVoltage Control - Normal FSB OverVoltage Control - Normal (G)MCH OverVoltage Control - Normal CPU Voltage Control - Normal Normal CPU Vcore - 1.32500V :edit: oh and one more thing...about memtest. If I let it run overnight won't it just repeat the same test over and over? Does it eventually move on to other tests? thanks for the fast reply :) Last edited by 0siris85 : 03-04-2008 at 09:13 PM.

03-04-2008, 09:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Right now the RAM is set at 1066MHz (look where it says Memory Frequency right above the voltages). Turn it down to 800MHz and see if the issues go away. Make sure your RAM is running in 128-bit dual channel for maximum performance. With Memtest you want it to run the same test many times because errors don't always show up the first time. With each pass Memtest runs a bunch of different tests. Also like I said run a bunch of uncached tests. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides Last edited by TheMatt : 03-04-2008 at 09:24 PM.

03-04-2008, 09:43 PM	#5 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Gocha I'm running the uncached tests @ 1066Mhz first...lets see what happens. What do you think about the system not recognizing my video card? That can't have anything to do with the RAM can it? :edit: now here's something interesting: memtest is currently running test 10, uncached and its at 209%....that can't be right can it? usually it goes to 100% and starts a new pass. It just keeps on going...it's at 213% now Last edited by 0siris85 : 03-04-2008 at 09:57 PM.

03-05-2008, 01:29 PM	#6 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Well I'll be darned. This is what memtest found after about 13 hours of testing. So if I'm reading that correct...the memory in slot 1 is the bad one right? Also, how can I know for sure that it is the memory that is bad, and not the slot on the motherboard? Last edited by 0siris85 : 03-05-2008 at 01:53 PM.

03-05-2008, 09:22 PM	#7 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem You can't tell (unless you really want to look up the memory address to see which stick it corresponds to). The easiest way is to swap out one stick and run the test again, and repeat this with the other stick (even if the first stick you test is good). Those uncached tests to seem a little weird in the fact that they just go on forever (thats why you see the 600%+, this is normal). You will just have to run it again. The advantage over cached tests is that the CPU cache can hide errors by storing bits on it rather than the RAM, and you want to use only the RAM and not the CPU cache. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-05-2008, 09:29 PM	#8 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem I plucked out one of the sticks and ran memtest again...it's actually still going. Pass 8, almost 6 hours and no error. I'll stop the test in about 2 hours or so and put the good stick in the slot that the bad one was in. If I don't get errors then I'll know that the motherboard is fine :) Just out of curiosity, is this sort of thing common? I've been reading a lot of reviews over on newegg with people complaining about receiving bad memory. The PC8500 modules had an especially surprising amount of these types of complaints. Would you recommend I look into other memory, such as the PC-6400 modules? or am I just really unlucky Last edited by 0siris85 : 03-05-2008 at 09:53 PM.

03-06-2008, 04:36 PM	#9 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem The P35 chipset only officially supports PC6400 modules for DDR2 which could be the problem. Try turning back the speed of the memory modules like I mentioned earlier. You can make your chipset "think" it is running PC6400 memory modules by turning down the PC 8500 modules to PC6400 speeds. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-06-2008, 04:58 PM	#10 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Wouldn't it be better to just return them and get PC-6400 modules instead? I could pocket like 30 bucks that way. It seems kind of pointless to buy PC-8500 ram if you are going to tune it down to run at PC-6400 speeds. Also, everywhere I look I'm seeing that the P35-D3SL supports 1066Mhz memory It's really frustrating because if I knew that it didn't support it I would have looked into another motherboard.

03-06-2008, 05:47 PM	#11 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem The board supports it, but when you run it at that speed you are overclocking the memory bus of the chipset. It may not be stable. If you don't want to have to wait for an RMA, turn down the memory speed. If you are OK waiting and want to save some money, go for it. But first turn down the memory speed just to make sure that is in fact the problem. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-14-2008, 05:23 PM	#12 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem I returned the memory and purchased the 2x1GB Corsair PC-6400 modules. I'm very inexperienced as far as overclocking goes, so I decided not to mess with the memory. I ran memtest for about 15 hours with no errors, so hopefully that problem is solved :) However, another thing is bugging me that I'm not quite sure about. My processor only gets 25% CPU usage at max, which leads me to believe that only 1 of the cores on the processor is actually being used. Is there any way I could make all 4 cores work and do their share? Thanks for all your help Matt :)

03-14-2008, 06:55 PM	#13 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Weird Reboot Problem The RAM is likely OK then. I suspect that the issue has been resolved. Technically, task manager will show 25% CPU usage when one task uses 100% of one thread. This may seem like it doesn't make sense. Basically, your processor has 4 physical cores and can pay 100% attention to 4 threads. When a process on a single core processor (except for the Pentium 4 HT) uses 100% of one thread, it uses 100% of the CPU. What the Windows XP multiprocessor kernel does is distributes the total load on the CPU over the 4 cores of the quad-core processor evenly. So if your task manager shows 25% CPU usage, its really a 25% load on all 4 cores, not 100% on 1 core. Unfortunately, if the application isn't multi-threaded then it will be limited to only one thread and thus (in your case) only "25% CPU usage." If it is a multi-threaded application however then it will create more than 1 thread and use more of the total CPU. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides Last edited by TheMatt : 03-14-2008 at 06:57 PM.

03-16-2008, 09:45 PM	#14 (permalink)
0siris85 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 132 OS: Windows XP Home SP2	Re: Weird Reboot Problem Awesome, that makes a bit more sense now. Thanks. Again, thank you for all your help Matt, I think we can call this case closed :)

03-17-2008, 10:55 AM	#15 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3