Olivil

Alright, not so sure about where this thread should be posted, I hope you guys can help me.

So, I've been building my gaming-oriented PC for a while and finally bought it. Here are the specs:

MSI P7N Diamond
Q6600 G0 (Stock with Stock fan, 39C Idle, 57C 100% Load)
BFG 9800GTX OCX (41C Idle, 57 Load)
2GB Crucial Ballistix PC8500 1066mhz RAM (2x1GB)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB
Antec TruePower Quattro 850 watts
All this running XP SP3

I've been setting all this up when a problem just came, it reboots with no apparent reason, on random place, with no BSOD. (I disabled auto-restart, so I could see if there was any.) It however seems to restart more often on ressource-hungry application (mostly games: Bioshock, Crysis, Oblivion, etc.) but I have it frequently restarting on simple thing like browsing on Firefox while talking on Windows Live Messenger.

I've came here as my last resort, here are the things I've tried and/or facts:

- No Errors or Warning in Windows Event Log, under EVERY categories.
- It reboot on a Windows clean install (SP1) With AND without drivers installed
- It restarts ranging from 2 mins (Windows "welcome"s song) to 6 hours (Maximum I've had, while playing Half-Life 2). (It however restart in about 10 mins while playing more hungry games. (Bioshock, Crysis)
- It won't or have not restarted while installing or reinstalling windows (even tho that's a 2 hours process, including reformatting, I've reinstalled about 5 times)
- Reboot with or without an internet connection
- Scanned for virus or whatever with NOD32, nothing.
- Made a diagnostic the HDD without errors
- Made a diagnostic the RAM with Memtest86+ 2.01, 6 passes and no errors
- Made a diagnostic the CPU with CPU Burn-In 1.01, 4x open (quad-core) at 100% load for an hour without restarting
- Made a "diagnostic" on the GPU with multiple benchmark (3dMark06, rthdribl,...) without any problem.
- IN MY OPINION has nothing to do with overheating as the Q6600 G0 can go up to 72C and my GPU up to 120C (however that is the point of liquification of lead)
- IN MY OPINION the PSU is sufficient, even at everything 100% Load

Thanks ALOT if you can lighten me on what to do next.

Doby

Seeing as it just flat out shutsdown without any bsod suggests that its either the psu, heat or motherboard.

Running a cpu burn in program for a hour without shutdown tells me its not heat.

Yes the psu is sufficient but I wonder if its not flaky meaning it drops voltages on one of its rails at any given time causing the shutdown.

I would run the cpu burn in for a full 24 hours to see what happens and to really stress the system or prime95's torture test for 24 hours with max meat and power to see what happens, all the while monitoring the voltages and temps with software to see how stable the voltages are

Olivil

Thanks alot for the reply, what software would you recommand to monitor all these? SpeedFan?

Olivil

Okay, I just tested with 4 CPU Burn-In for 24 hours, monitored everything through SpeedFan, the CPU temps is between 53 and 58 all the times, and the voltage dont go farther than a .02V difference. Is that the problem?

Doby

What were the voltage readings of the +12, +3.3 and +5v when running the test?

.02 is not much of a fluctuation and if the readings were within spec that would not be the problem.

This is very hard to diagnose without swaping parts the best thing you could do is barrow a psu to try in it at least that might eliminate that as a possibility.

Olivil

+5: 5.13V
+12: 7.39V
I don't see a +3.3, however here are the one that contain a 3 in their names on SpeedFan

VCC3V: 3.25V
VSB3V: 3.26V

I'll try to borrow a spare PSU or I may consider buying a 2nd one.

Pharaohz

Hope you find the issue. Seems your doing a great job trouble shooting.

Doby

Speed fan is reporting the +12V way low but that could be that its reading it wrong.

I doubt the computer would even boot with the 12V at 7.39

It may not tell us much because the system won't be under stress but could you boot into bios and see what the +12V is listed there?

Doby

One other thing MSI should have monitoring software to monitor the temps and voltages it should be on your motherboard cd, this software is made to work with your board, give it a try and report back with the voltages but I would also loke to see what bios reports them as

Olivil

I effectively doubt its reading it right, not under stress the +12 is at 5.XX

Under the BIOS the +12 is at 12.144V
+5 is at 5.129V
+3.3 is at 3.264V

I'll install the MSI monitor and will post back the results.

Oh, and to Pharaohz, well thank you, it's my 1st experience as this is my 1st "true" computer, I'm 15.

Doby

Olivil,

You are doing a great job as Pharaohz said but this will take some time, your at a nice age to be learning this hang in there.

Your bios readings look good, notice how the +12 the +5 and the +3. are all a bit above there repective voltages.

When you install the MSI software monitor the voltages while defraging the hdd, playing a music cd and running the cpu burn test and report them here.

What we are trying to do is load the system and see if the voltages drop

Olivil

In MSI's DualCore Center (dumbest name ever for a monitor)

+3.3: 3.26V
+5 : 5.04V
+12: 12.14V

EDIT: That is unstessed, I will stress and then post voltages

Oh and even if it took like a year to save up for this PC, I'm kind of happy that it's restarting ahaha, I seem to like to mess with stuff. What is sure is that I learned more here than ever.

Doby

That tells me you will make a very good tech one day, like to be a problem solver, like a challenge, most importantly like to learn!

I have to go for tonite but will check in tomarrow

Olivil

Alright, okay so... I started by defragging, it restarted at about 26% through the progress the voltages were the exact same as unstressed and I could not see a change on the monitor when it rebooted. I then played a CD in iTunes, exact voltages. Ran 4 CPU Burn-In (100% Load) and everything was the same, exept for the 3.3V which lowered to 3.25.. lol. So if I understand, it's my Mobo?

Doby

Do the defrag again and see if it reboots, it could have been random, if it does it again go to the hardrive manufactures website and download there tools to check the drive.

I think you have already done this but just for the heck of it do it again.

Still if you can barrow a psu just to try that would be best because even though the voltage read good I have seen them just drop the voltages for a second that the monitoring software cannot detect and cause a rebbot

Olivil

I did not try to defrag again, I directly went on Seagate's website to download SeaTools, I however already tested it on a DOS Floppy so I downloaded the Windows version. It gives me a SMART error, I try it and then says SMART Fail, however it pass the short test, I can't manage to finish the long test (I tried two times, rebooted at different places). It's currently on it's 3rd HDD diagnostic in DOS (Ultimate Boot CD) without errors. What's wrong? Why is SeaTools giving me an error if all the other test (even SeaTools DOS) don't give me one? And wouldn't it BSOD if it was a HDD problem? I have no other HDD I could swap or try for the moment.

dai

check the crucial site for what the voltage range is for the ram
some m/boards default to low and it needs to be lifted
this problem has been cropping up a lot in the last few weeks,and it does not produce the bsod error message you expect for ram

Olivil

dai thanks for the hint, Crucial's site state my RAM at 2.0V, It is currently at 2.0V and it still restart.

I did many DOS based test on my HDD, including HDAT2, it gave me an error and did not respond. I rebooted, and now I can't boot from my HDD. Is that the problem?? (the error was at writing at like the start (around 200.11mb/500.1G)

Olivil

OKAY, I could not repair my Windows install because the installer said it could not find any Windows install, so I re-installed. It rebooted right in the middle of the installation process. (It's a first). What could cause this??

Olivil

Okay, it's my mobo. It restart even while booting from a Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD