Help please - Computer rebooting by itself

My girlfriend recently saved up the money to buy all the parts necessary for her new computer. Its an AMD athlon 64 system, nvidia geforce graphics, sound blaster, two western digital harddrives, one sony DVD-RW drive, and a xion case. Everything is put together correctly, and the computer runs fine, but on occasion it will reboot itself, and when windows starts back up, the good ol' "Windows has recovered from a serious error..." alert box pops up. At first I thought it might be a bad install of XP, but after two formats and fresh installs of windows, it continues to do it. The computer for the most part is made up of decent quality hardware, with the exception of the motherboard, which is pretty cheap. Although the board was cheap, it had gotten decent reviews on newegg, and it wasn't so cheap to the point where I would expect it to have problems like this right out of the box. I was just wondering if anyone had run into this problem, and if so, how or did you get it fixed? And if anyone has any ideas or theories, I would love to hear them, because I'm completely clueless on this one. I had a friend in college who, at one point, was running a horrible amd sempron, and when he installed the software that came with his CPU, it threw his computer for a trip. I didn't know if the same could be possible in her case or not. Any feedback is appreciated.

finch

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Comments

tibul

Have you made sure that your CPU isent overheating? check in your BIOS as your computer rebooting by itself is commonly caused by overheating, if the heatsink has been incorrectly installed etc.

It happend recently with a friends computer the CPU was reaching temps of 88c im supprised it dident melt, but as soon as he reseated the cpu with some new thermal paste it was fine.

sprkymrk

Make sure all your fans are working. Also make sure you properly affixed the heat sink and fan to the CPU. Almost every time I have heard of random reboots on new computer builds it ends up being an over heating problem. Does your bios/mb have any temperature monitoring utilities?

I know how annoying it can be to have a new computer give you fits. Hopefully you'lll find the problem. Some members here have a lot of current hardware experience, so you should get some good ideas. Good luck!

Kaminsky

Check the memory capacity of the bios. Too much memory and the bios will still see it but when you try to access past what it can handle... whamo!

I have had this happen to me with 1 gig memory on a board I didn't realise could only handle 750 meg.

finchx6

I really appreciate the quick feedback. As I'm sure you all can imagine, she's fairly ANGRY about the whole situation. I've considered it possibly being an overheating problem. I know there isn't too much memory on the board. With her buying this xion case thats got so many fans on it, I didn't even consider the idea that the heatsink/fan might be seated incorrectly. I'll tear into her machine later when I've got some free time and see if the heatsink/fan are seated properly. I'm hoping it's something as easy as that. I've got some extra "after-market" heat sinks and fans (I bought a 3.2ghz P4 prescott with HT... so I went through several before I found one that did a decent job of keeping it cooled off). If she needs an after-market setup, I'm hoping one of these will fit. I know the one I'm running right now can be seated on AMD and intel, but I'm not sure about the others.

Sie

Add my name to the list of the guys he think overheating.

I would guess either CPU or Video Card.

(possibly even corrupt / out of date Video Card drivers - Had this before myself)

jetdynamics

Got the same problem two days ago I assemble a friends computer here's the spec
Motherboard:ASUS P5NSLI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
GOt 2 video card when I boot up and open the cpu temp for the motherboard from 70C it heats up to 90C then boom it reboot itself what i did is put some thermal paste then turn it on again , The thing is the indicator shows with temp of 70C it is near the red line which is the max temp limit , Do you think i also need to replace the OEM Heatsink w/fan for a better one? What would be the best idle temp for this cpu?

Slowhand

One thing you can check when you're opening up the system is the heatsink compound. A lot of times there is only a little square of it applied to the actual heatsink, and that's not nearly enough to really cool the system. Get yourself some Arctic Silver, if that's the case.

jescab

make sure your hdd is jumpered correctly..............SORRY - I did not read the whole paragraph.........

after reading i saw over heating. Check and make sure you have enough thermal paste of the cpu......cpu may be going out.......try a diff cpu to diagnose.....make sure the video card isn't over heating...........try a diff video card to diagnose......the psu may be going out

Pash

jetdynamics wrote:

Got the same problem two days ago I assemble a friends computer here's the spec
Motherboard:ASUS P5NSLI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
GOt 2 video card when I boot up and open the cpu temp for the motherboard from 70C it heats up to 90C then boom it reboot itself what i did is put some thermal paste then turn it on again , The thing is the indicator shows with temp of 70C it is near the red line which is the max temp limit , Do you think i also need to replace the OEM Heatsink w/fan for a better one? What would be the best idle temp for this cpu?

Check the manufacturer website for the ideal temp performance information. And while it probably would be a good idea to replace the OEM heatsink/fan with a better one, you should still get good performance if you check the sitting of the sink on the CPU and ventalation.

Yeh I recommend artic silver thermal paste as well, very good stuff, still have some left over in my box of tricks.

And at the OP: Yes the most common reason for a computer to restart without an explanation is as others have mentioned....Overheating. You can never cool your system enough...remember that.....although I for example have a thermaltake case for three years with like 7 fans in it, i turn them all on in the summer and it sounds like im actually cooling a server rack....but im upgrading this year and I plan to look in to water cooling or quiter case fans

blargoe

Look in your event viewer for Save **** messages when it reboots, that will tell you which process had the fault and the stop code. Take that information and google for known issues.

boyles23

Check the RAM to make sure it isn't bad, run MEMTEST to check it. I would tend to agree with everyone about checking for overheating but I just had one that would reboot after working for a while and give the same error. It would work for a little while and then reboot. Ran MEMTEST and it was a bad stick, checked other sticks and took the bad one out. Runs great and no problems! You have to just eliminate possibilities one by one, booting up to a RAM checking program takes no time and really no effort to eliminate that idea.

karson wong

I suggest to do some simple thing first is to check dose the power supply had enough power to the system. Because now a day the video card will damp a lot of power. If the power supply can't support will cause the system reboot.

sprkymrk

boyles23 wrote:

Check the RAM to make sure it isn't bad, run MEMTEST to check it. I would tend to agree with everyone about checking for overheating but I just had one that would reboot after working for a while and give the same error. It would work for a little while and then reboot. Ran MEMTEST and it was a bad stick, checked other sticks and took the bad one out. Runs great and no problems! You have to just eliminate possibilities one by one, booting up to a RAM checking program takes no time and really no effort to eliminate that idea.

I agree that memory may be an issue too. I first suspected overheating as I mentioned in my first reply, but boyles post reminded me of an issue with a laptop just a few days ago. We had a dozen older laptops that were running XP and only had 256MB of memory, so we ordered and added an extra 512MB module for each. Afterwards one laptop experienced random shutdowns. We removed the offending stick of RAM and it was fine.

kenny504

I dont beleive it might be memory or even cpu overheating....Your problem is that your motherboard is shorting out on your case.....I've seen this alot of times after guys build systems...they go out and replace everything known to man..but it usually is the fact that the conductor screw-ons you screw into your chassi that connect your screw to your motherboard are loose or not fitted . This will cause certain circuitry on the motherboard to react causing a restart.

Reseat you motherboard before you go out and buy anything...

Simple test..... take out your motherboard place it on a piece of card-board and connect only your power supply..vga cable..mouse and keyboard. Ofcouse have your heat sink on you proccessor. Boot it up by place a piece of metal on the power switch panels and work normally for as long you can doing what u normally do when it restarts..If it doesnt restart you know it was a conductive issue..

Good luck

theseman

I would google the error code that it gives you. I troubleshot a workstation that kept rebooting. It had error code (102) 1003. (Or something like that). Thought it was heat issue but turns out it was a trojan that causes a reboot and a "Windows has recovered from a serious error". Maybe the KB will have an article on your code.

garv221

buy a new one

sprkymrk

garv221 wrote:

buy a new one

Great idea, but you're the one making all the big bucks Garv, why not buy each of us one just because we're friends?

All in favor of Garv buying each of us a computer say "aye".

Disclaimer: Not applicable where local laws prohibit. Offer not available in some countries. Relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Friends of relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Second, third and fourth cousins of friends or relatives of friends of garv221 also ineligible. Offer expires when garv221 runs out of money or when garv221 decides sprkymrk is off his rocker. Other terms and conditions may apply. See garv221 for details.

RussS

I would not be surprised if it was a timing error - RAM or motherboard. We had a local company here in NZ that used '3rds' for many of their parts and they had a huge problem with certain motherboard/RAM combinations causing spontaneous reboots.

crap I forgot my old pwd

Dealt with this a lot at my old job. Check your RAM. There is software you can get that tests all addressable registers in your memory. There are also hardware testers but they are kinda pricey...

theseman

edit: nm

jescab

aye............

garv221

sprkymrk wrote:

garv221 wrote:

buy a new one

Great idea, but you're the one making all the big bucks Garv, why not buy each of us one just because we're friends?

All in favor of Garv buying each of us a computer say "aye".

Disclaimer: Not applicable where local laws prohibit. Offer not available in some countries. Relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Friends of relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Second, third and fourth cousins of friends or relatives of friends of garv221 also ineligible. Offer expires when garv221 runs out of money or when garv221 decides sprkymrk is off his rocker. Other terms and conditions may apply. See garv221 for details.

Aye- disagree! Nice, very nice.

Officially off your rocker.

sprkymrk

garv221 wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

garv221 wrote:

buy a new one

Great idea, but you're the one making all the big bucks Garv, why not buy each of us one just because we're friends?

All in favor of Garv buying each of us a computer say "aye".

Disclaimer: Not applicable where local laws prohibit. Offer not available in some countries. Relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Friends of relatives of garv221 are not eligible for free computer. Second, third and fourth cousins of friends or relatives of friends of garv221 also ineligible. Offer expires when garv221 runs out of money or when garv221 decides sprkymrk is off his rocker. Other terms and conditions may apply. See garv221 for details.

Aye- disagree! Nice, very nice. Officially off your rocker.

Darn! It's official...

taktsoi

what brand of MEMORY and POWER SUPPLY do you have? can you specify more here?

you know what, memory and power supply are the most HIGHLY causes of rebooting problem. if your memory is not a generic one, then i will shoot for the power supply.

Even tho your power supply is sufficiently occupying the current voltage for all components, a little, or single trace of power fluctuation will cause CHEAP power supply happenning like that. If you have a spare power supply, swap it, test it out, and leave it on for a week.

I have had my client's thermaltake power supply gone that has caused this rebooting problem recently just after the power was fluctuated.

just my 2 cents