Random restarts

[Rogue5]

It first began happening quite often when loading a level in Half Life 2, or sometimes even loading to the menu after starting the game. However, it has also happened at seemingly random times when sitting at the desktop with very little running (such as itunes and AIM plus an IE window)

I suspected my video card because of the half life problem, all my temps seemed ok, so I reinstalled older drivers for the video card, and then managed to play Half life 2 for about 45 minutes with no problem (I don't think I had been able to get past like 20 minutes before), I figured maybe that was the problem.
unfortunately this morning it restarted while at the desktop again, with only AIM and an IE window.

I'm running an ecs K7S5A board with an AMD xp 2400+ pny 6800gt, dvd drive, cd burner, one additional case fan on a 530w fortron PSU... should be plenty of juice. Oh, also running WinXP pro

using sisoftware sandra it says my PSU Voltages are as follows; ( At desktop)
CPU; 1.65v
+3.3; 3.33v
+5; 4.95v
+12; 11.73v

and these look decent except for maybe the +12, could that be a possible problem?

I've also scanned my HD and found no problems, have scanned for viruses since it started, though will do so again later today.


Any suggestions/solutions?

Thanks

 

[Arcuivie]

What is the voltage on your memory?

 

[Rogue5]

hmmm under mainboard info, it shows "supported memory voltages" as +3.3v
that's only place I can find a voltage in reference to the memory.
miht not be looking in the right places though.

 

[KBtn]

If your CPU temps are good, don't rule out a bad power supply. A bad or underpowered power supply can sometimes do some whacky things including random restarts

 

[Uncle Bob]

sounds like a heat problem to me. you're cpu temp may be ok but other components can act up if they get too hot.

you say you've got one additional fan installed, I'd assume that's at the rear of the case? check the airflow direction - you should have it blowing air from inside the case to the outside. I'd also consider investing in at least one extra fan and try to install that on the front of the case if possible, sucking air from outside into the case to provide some airflow across the motherboard.

hth

 

[Rogue5]

well, as far as heat, the additional fan is an exhaust fan, and I also have an intake fan near the front of the case, but it is not currently connected because this time of year it probably never tops 65 degrees in the room where the system is located, plus the same setup (minus video card) ran fine last summer when it was probably closer to 90 at times. (although I had the intake fan running as well.)

cpu temp reads as 41c (105.8f)
system temp reads as 25c (77f)
video card shows 50c

do any of those seem unusually high?
I'll probably hook up the intake fan just in case too.

another thing that makes me wonder about the PSU is that the setup including video card has run fine since september, and only started having problems in the past couple weeks, would a PSU just start causing problems all of a sudden? (then again, I can't think of any changes I've made that seemed to bring about the problem, so something must have suddenly gone awry)

 

[Uncle Bob]

Well seeing as how you've got an extra fan installed, it wouldn't do any harm to reconnect it to see if it makes the difference.

also, turn off auto-restart in XP (right-click on MyComputer, select Properties, select Advanced, select Startup and Recovery-Settings and untick 'Automatically Restart' and tick 'Write an event to the system log') - this will allow you see what XP thinks is causing the system to crash.

As regards the PSU, you may be right. Given that you've recently upgraded your Gfx card and this presumably consumes more power than your old one, you may just have pushed it a little too far. However, given that your rig will crash from idle (or close to it) would indicate that it's not necessarily the psu although it does have a relatively puny 12V rail at only 18A (an Enermax or Tagan would be around 25A to 28A)..

(actually an Enermax noisetaker would have dual 12V rails with 18A available on each)

 

[seasea]

hey,
I am getting random restarts too. I am wondering if it is due to overloading my computer. If I run a AV while watching a movie is it possible that my computer can't handle it and reboot.

my 512 mb pc2700 seems to be used from 33-66% idle (sometimes maxing out when busy).
also my cpu (athlon 1800+ xp) using has a tendency to max out too (when busy).

yet my rails seem stable @ 12.544, 5.026, 3.392, 1.536
and my cpu/mb temps seem fine @ 43C/30C.

Note: Only when I changed by fans did i start getting reboots. Yet with my new fans my temp has dropped about 10C.