Spontaneous rebooting issues

Tarion · 10-07-2009, 05:36 PM

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of help with my computer. Its been rebooting without warning for a while now. I've been working through the things I thought it was, and I'm starting to run out of ideas. (OK, I didn't have many to start with, but when the problem first happened it was minor. Once a day or so. Its currently crashing ~once every 10 minutes, if I'm lucky).

I had my PC built by PC-specialist, who seem to be a fairly reputable UK based company, about a year and a half ago. The spec is as follows (Sorry, copy and paste from their website. I'm not entirely sure on how much info I can get rid of. I decided to throw more down, rather than too little.

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™2 Duo E6850 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM) 2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1
Operating System WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options 8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Graphics Card 1024MB GEFORCE 8600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
Sound Card 8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE)
Power Supply & Case Cooling 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£25)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 19 dBA INTEL CPU COOLER (£14)

Now, the issues: As I mentioned before, it will crash fairly frequently, rebooting straight away. I've turned off the "Automatically restart on error" option, so I think that rules out blue screening. The crashes seem unrelated to what I'm doing at the time - Sometimes when its idle, sometimes when its busy, sometimes before it can even get all the way into Windows.

This last one is encouraging me to think that its not a software issue, but I'm more than willing to be proven wrong here (I'd love nothing more right now than to be able to fix the problem with a clean install of Windows. However, I do have some files I would quite like to keep, so unless its really likely to help, I'm going to avoid it).

When rebooting, I'm sometimes faced with an "Overclocking failed" error message, although I understand that to be a common issue with ASUS Motherboards in response to any problem, as I'm not currently overclocked.

I also occasionally get ChkDsk up.

So, can you guys narrow it down more? I've had my RAM checked (Its apparently fine). I've got hold of a container of pressurised air to remove dust - No obvious improvement. I've opened in Safe Mode - Still crashes.

I'm worried its either the PSU or hard drive. If anyone can give me any ideas on how to narrow it down (Money is an issue at the moment) I'd be grateful.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention. The temperatures are all pretty low (30's to 40's). EDIT again: OK, running PC Probe II. Not sure what to do with the readings though. Voltages: My Vcore is 1.33V, my +3.3 is 3.31V, my +5 is 5.11V and my +12 is 12.04 V. Is that at all helpful? Proves/disproves PSU failure (Would be wonderful to hear!) Update on my temperatures - CPU is at 19'C and my MB is at 24'C. Sorry if that's not helpful.

Sorry for the placement of this. Not knowing what's causing the problem, I was really unsure where to place it

ThurstonPCGuru · 10-07-2009, 07:02 PM

Your HDD could have bad sectors in it, or your memory could be failing. Can you specify how your memory was "checked?"

Tarion · 10-08-2009, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThurstonPCGuru

Your HDD could have bad sectors in it, or your memory could be failing. Can you specify how your memory was "checked?"

Returned it to the company that built my PC and they've said its working fine.

I've tried using RAM checkers like MemTest, but its hard to get a result with the frequent crashes.

Any idea how to see if it is my HDD, and what to do if it is?

xGethsemanex · 10-08-2009, 02:46 AM

Try plugging in your desktop's power into the wall outlet itself and not a power strip and see if that changed it at all. It's possible your power strip is failing. As for the hard drive failing, don't think it would cause a hard reboot. The likely culprit could be the power supply. But it's always best to narrow everything down. Do you have anything really important installed on your computer that you need to salvage? Most problems are unfortunately solved by a new re-install. Did you install anything recently that might have caused this?

dai · 10-08-2009, 03:53 AM

power supply
brand
model

newgringo · 10-08-2009, 03:59 AM

In the very beginning you should try to manually set voltage for northern bridge in BIOS, you could try voltage between 1.4 to 1.5V. It's usual common problem for ASUS boards. If there is a possibility of automatic load voltage balancing for CPU in BIOS, you should enable it too.

Another case is bad PSU. I had very similar issue with my (in fact also very similar) computer. I tried to remove 2 non-system sata disks and additional PCI card and since then my computer has never crashed again. I had 550W PSU purchased in 2007. I did a measure of voltage at two 12V branches while adding another load. The result was that my PSU collapsed at load of 395W. From this I presume in your case it also could be a matter of bad (weak) PSU. If you couldn't measure it by yourself then ask your repair service or dealer for testing. And one more thing - after my computer's BSOD I had to switch off my PSU otherwise my RAM started to show some fail messages during memtest, probably due memory controller's non specified state from low voltage of something like that.

10-07-2009, 05:36 PM	#1 (permalink)
Tarion Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Vista	Spontaneous rebooting issues Hi all, Looking for a bit of help with my computer. Its been rebooting without warning for a while now. I've been working through the things I thought it was, and I'm starting to run out of ideas. (OK, I didn't have many to start with, but when the problem first happened it was minor. Once a day or so. Its currently crashing ~once every 10 minutes, if I'm lucky). I had my PC built by PC-specialist, who seem to be a fairly reputable UK based company, about a year and a half ago. The spec is as follows (Sorry, copy and paste from their website. I'm not entirely sure on how much info I can get rid of. I decided to throw more down, rather than too little. Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™2 Duo E6850 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache Memory (RAM) 2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB) Motherboard ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1 Operating System WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59) USB Options 8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD Memory - 1st Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) Graphics Card 1024MB GEFORCE 8600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT Sound Card 8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE) Power Supply & Case Cooling 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£25) Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 19 dBA INTEL CPU COOLER (£14) Now, the issues: As I mentioned before, it will crash fairly frequently, rebooting straight away. I've turned off the "Automatically restart on error" option, so I think that rules out blue screening. The crashes seem unrelated to what I'm doing at the time - Sometimes when its idle, sometimes when its busy, sometimes before it can even get all the way into Windows. This last one is encouraging me to think that its not a software issue, but I'm more than willing to be proven wrong here (I'd love nothing more right now than to be able to fix the problem with a clean install of Windows. However, I do have some files I would quite like to keep, so unless its really likely to help, I'm going to avoid it). When rebooting, I'm sometimes faced with an "Overclocking failed" error message, although I understand that to be a common issue with ASUS Motherboards in response to any problem, as I'm not currently overclocked. I also occasionally get ChkDsk up. So, can you guys narrow it down more? I've had my RAM checked (Its apparently fine). I've got hold of a container of pressurised air to remove dust - No obvious improvement. I've opened in Safe Mode - Still crashes. I'm worried its either the PSU or hard drive. If anyone can give me any ideas on how to narrow it down (Money is an issue at the moment) I'd be grateful. EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention. The temperatures are all pretty low (30's to 40's). EDIT again: OK, running PC Probe II. Not sure what to do with the readings though. Voltages: My Vcore is 1.33V, my +3.3 is 3.31V, my +5 is 5.11V and my +12 is 12.04 V. Is that at all helpful? Proves/disproves PSU failure (Would be wonderful to hear!) Update on my temperatures - CPU is at 19'C and my MB is at 24'C. Sorry if that's not helpful. Sorry for the placement of this. Not knowing what's causing the problem, I was really unsure where to place it

10-07-2009, 07:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
ThurstonPCGuru Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 3 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit	Re: Spontaneous rebooting issues Your HDD could have bad sectors in it, or your memory could be failing. Can you specify how your memory was "checked?" __________________ I build custom computers! PM me for details.

10-08-2009, 02:46 AM	#4 (permalink)
xGethsemanex Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 16 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM	Re: Spontaneous rebooting issues Try plugging in your desktop's power into the wall outlet itself and not a power strip and see if that changed it at all. It's possible your power strip is failing. As for the hard drive failing, don't think it would cause a hard reboot. The likely culprit could be the power supply. But it's always best to narrow everything down. Do you have anything really important installed on your computer that you need to salvage? Most problems are unfortunately solved by a new re-install. Did you install anything recently that might have caused this?

10-08-2009, 03:53 AM	#5 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,658 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: Spontaneous rebooting issues power supply brand model __________________

10-08-2009, 03:59 AM	#6 (permalink)
newgringo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Vista x64 Ultimate SP2	Re: Spontaneous rebooting issues In the very beginning you should try to manually set voltage for northern bridge in BIOS, you could try voltage between 1.4 to 1.5V. It's usual common problem for ASUS boards. If there is a possibility of automatic load voltage balancing for CPU in BIOS, you should enable it too. Another case is bad PSU. I had very similar issue with my (in fact also very similar) computer. I tried to remove 2 non-system sata disks and additional PCI card and since then my computer has never crashed again. I had 550W PSU purchased in 2007. I did a measure of voltage at two 12V branches while adding another load. The result was that my PSU collapsed at load of 395W. From this I presume in your case it also could be a matter of bad (weak) PSU. If you couldn't measure it by yourself then ask your repair service or dealer for testing. And one more thing - after my computer's BSOD I had to switch off my PSU otherwise my RAM started to show some fail messages during memtest, probably due memory controller's non specified state from low voltage of something like that.