PC Randomly Reboots

jrwagh333

jrwagh333

jrwagh333

Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2008
Posts
6,956
Hello. Lately for some unknown reason my PC will reboot itself.
I can be watching a video, or browsing the web, or even doing nothing just sitting at the desktop and the PC will reboot.

There is no BSOD or anything, its just like someone comes along an pushes the reset button.

At first I thought it would be overheating, but that is not an issue at all as all temps on CPU and GPU are good, the when the computer reboots itself. It comes right back to Windows.

Any ideas on how I can work out the problem?
 
jrwagh333 said:
Hello. Lately for some unknown reason my PC will reboot itself.
I can be watching a video, or browsing the web, or even doing nothing just sitting at the desktop and the PC will reboot.

There is no BSOD or anything, its just like someone comes along an pushes the reset button.

At first I thought it would be overheating, but that is not an issue at all as all temps on CPU and GPU are good, the when the computer reboots itself. It comes right back to Windows.

Any ideas on how I can work out the problem?
Click to expand...

Have you got the reboot on BSOD thing turned off? Default Windows behaviour is to reboot as soon as the system blue screens and it goes so fast you don't notice that it has blue screened.

Seee if you can beg/borrow/steal a PSU from someone.
 
Hello,
Today I recived a new PSU and whacked that in the Computer.
After 5 hours of watching HD videos and browsing the internet it was all fine. Then suddenly, once again a random reboot.

And just to say, yeah I have got the BSOD thing turned on. Any idea what could be causing this? Temps are fine so its not that, its not obviously not the PSU. And there is No BSOD so it can not be a hardware fault as far as I know?

Going crazy here as you can imagine. Any ideas?
 
Other than heat and power issues, the other source for random reboots I've seen turned out to be memory. Try working with the system with one memory stick removed for a while, then move on to the next one and so on. If you find that it works with one particular stick removed then you've narrowed down the search. Next you need to try swapping sticks into different sockets to determine whether it's the memory stick itself or the socket that's the problem. It's even possible that it's not one particular stick or socket, but the number of sticks installed at any one time. You can run something like Memtest86 to test the memory instead if you don't fancy mucking about inside the PC, but in my experience the more direct approach of physically removing memory sticks is usually a more reliable way to look for faulty RAM.
 
I will go for all of this thanks CBJ. But I thought that if any hardware was at fault then it would flash on a BSOD then reboot.
No idea why im not getting the BSOD but just straight into a reboot, Im 100% sure ive got the BSOD enabled to stay on the screen until I hit a key

EDIT: Just ran memtest and all came back fine with 0 errors.
95thrifles, I fail to see how a fresh install would help?
 
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Random reboots can be caused by driver issues, which is why a fresh install may help.

What PSU did you used to have, and what have you got now? (Make, Model, Power output) Also, what is in your PC? Mostly we need to know the Mobo, CPU and GPU. Then we can compare this to your power supply, and see if you've made a mistake there.

Also, check your RAM on the manufacturers website to see what voltage it needs. Then go into the BIOS and see if its running at this. If you've got the RAM voltage set too high or too low, then this is the problem.

This won't always show up in memtest... Should do, but not always.


*edit* Just to make sure, does your GPU require an external power by a PCI-e connector? did you remember to plug it in? - Anyone can do this... I did once! Depending on the card, it could look like its running fine, but then when you do anything that uses the graphics card (like, for instance, watching videos!) then it'll fail and cause a reboot.
 
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Hi SMAndy,
Mobo:CrossHair II
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 6000+
RAM: Corsair Dominator 1066mhz CAS5 - 2.1volts
GPU: 2 EVGA GTX 260 Core216's in SLI. - Yes double checked that all PCIe connectors are plugged in! :)

Old PSU: Corsair 1000W
New PSU: Corsair 850W

Recently updated my Nvidia drivers and it still reboots.

Must say as well thanks for all the help your giving me guys, really appreciate this :)
 
Not got a spare SLi bridge? or tried it with just one card? If its restarting and not a blue screen, chances are this is something other than memory, as this will usually give a BSOD.

Try reseating all connectors. the ATX, CPU, all PCIe, and hdd power, as well as the SATA data cables. I find that reseating does a good job of clearing dust, which can cause some crazy problems.

edit

is that 4GB RAM, or 2GB? if you've got the 2GB set, its rated to 2.2v. If its the 4GB, ignore this as thats rated to 2.1v, which you've set. I very much doubt you'd make the mistake of running 2GB with those graphics cards though... worth checking
 
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Yeah SMAndy im running the 4GB kit.
Ive unpluggede my PSU from the surge protector it was in and plugged it straight into the wall, see how that goes.

If it still reboots I'm going to unplug one graphics card and see how that goes.

Thanks again for all the advice. Ill write back how things go. Don't know how long it will be though lol. I'm aiming for a week without reboots before I call it stable
 
Fresh install worked fine for about 2 days and now started to reboot again. I have taken out a graphics card that I think might be faulty... now play the waiting game again
 
I ran memtest on it Souldjacker and both sticks passed. As I said ive taken the GPU out but if that doesn't solve it... I'll give different RAM slots a try
 
jrwagh333 said:
  • Mobo:CrossHair II
  • CPU: AMD Athlon X2 6000+
  • RAM: Corsair Dominator 1066mhz CAS5 - 2.1volts
  • GPU: 2 EVGA GTX 260 Core216's in SLI
  • Old PSU: Corsair 1000W
  • New PSU: Corsair 850W
Click to expand...

Hello jrwagh333,

Is the system overclocked or running bone stock? (i.e load CMOS defaults)
 
How big was the overclock, was it huge and ragged edge, I ask because sometimes it's possible to bOrk an operating system with a violent overclock such that the system will still be flakey even once you reset the hardware back to stock! :(

Most serious overclockers make a few backups of the O/S partition prior to overclocking to cover themselves in case the O/S gets eaten! :p

Also has been mentioned it is easy for a set of bad drivers to cause a reboot, in particular I have recently seen this with some LAN drivers, again not saying thats the problem but keep it in mind . . .

When the system is running and under load deploy ye old faithful finger-thermometer into the nether regions of the case innards, touch all the different areas of your motherboard, heatsinks, memory etc to see if anything is *scorching* hot? . . . if everything is well cooled then you should lose no skin from your fingertips, if anything is really super hot let me know, careful and wash your hands before getting grubby finger prints on everything! :cool:
 
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