PC reboots when pushed hard

[braddds]

I am re-posting this problem as I unknowingly made a reference to a "game's" name. I found out you aren't allowed to do this....sorry!

Anyways, the long and short of it is that my computer keeps restarting when the pushed hard...no errors reported, just like I pushed the reset button.

ski had suggested serveral areas for me to look that maybe contributing to this problem.

Memmory...I tested this overnight with a software tester and it came up OK!

Reseated and cards and cpu...done!

Changed out video card for know good one...the pc rebooted even quicker when push so I replaced original vid card!

Vid Card shared IRQ...check it and IRQ not shared!

He may have mentioned others but I can't remember!

I also did the full system maintenance, defraged, updated all software and OS (winXP Home), removed all spyware and viruses.

One other thing I mentioned in the orginal post was that the cpu fan was acting up so I replaced it but am pretty sure that the cpu got overheated and maybe damaged...have asked the pc owner to get new one.

I ran two CPU Tester (burnin programs) and the pc reboots within a couple of minutes or less after starting each, seperately.

If there is anything else I should check please feel free...


Cheers

 

[Freestone]

Sounds as if the CPU is not being cooled properly.

Was the CPU boxed or OEM? If OEM, are you using a thermal pad or thermal grease? If grease, only a thin layer on the CPU core is need. A good site for grease installation is here:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

The following is for AMD processors:

Is the heatsink oriented properly? The recessed portion of the bottom of the heatsink should be over, but not on, the raised portion of the CPU socket.

AMD Processor Installation Guide:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/23986.pdf

AMD Processor and Heatsink Installation Videos:

[ignore]

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/SellAMDProducts/0,,30_177_3641_1202^1073^6678,00.html

[/ignore]

 

[SkipCox]

By all means, get thru freestone's response first then post back your results.

From your description of the problem it sounds like a classic "overclocked to far" deal (I'm not saying you did).

Point is all the same troubleshooting applies...we gotta start from square one. Insure everything is set to default and let us know what helps.

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~skip9/index.html

http://scc.i8.com

 

[BadBigBen]

YES, do post back here...

things to check are also, PSU is there enough wattage, thermal issues like enough case fans, and another that is mostly overseen, check the BIOS settings for CPU thermal, this could well be one of the problems...

Ben

 

[braddds]

thx all

Freestone...yes all is as it should be, I replaced the existing cpu fan with a new and better model. It had the pad/grease already in place! I'm not a professional builder but rather an enthusiast ...not saying I can't screw up but I followed these very instructions when replacing the cpu and fan...thx!

Skipcox...yeah I hear ya' The first thing I did was reset to default in the bios. Since I didn't build this pc I follow this as part of my trouble shooting process...even if I did build it who knows what the user's done. In this case they didn't have a firewall (with cable modem) no spyware protection and their anti-virus had run out several months prior! Needless to say the system was infected with 734 spys and 7 viruses...which I clean out.

BigBadBen...I checked the temps in the bios and the system was steady, before and after sudden reboots, @ 31 C system and 41 C cpu. This would indicate that the problem wasn't a thermal issue...but I know that the cpu can overheat in as little as a few seconds but am not sure about recovery time to normal temperatures? As for the PS it is a 300W Enermax model... since he's only running one HD, cdburner, cdrom, nic and low end vid card I'm sure he's not pushing the limits! But you're right, it still is suspect!

I'm pretty sure at this point that the problem is with the cpu...I can almost garantee that it overheated several times due to a bad cpu fan...as reported by the user and witnessed by me.

Cheers

 

[allteltec]

I just replaced the Mother board in a HP 1.1G, I tried every thing first, PS, memory, CPU, HD, rebuild XP 2or3 times.
The mother board fixed it. It would reboot at randow, more if under a load ever couple of min. could go for a couple hrs. if not being used.

 

[TrojanSquirrel]

I've heard of this problem related to one game in particular, but if this is not the one (FPS by the people that left EA?) then it may be something other than heat.

One problem I came accross with one of my machines was a failing CMOS battery that caused random crashes and re-boots. Perhaps on this older PC this could be a contributing factor. Does the PC fail without this software running?

Also, is the graphics card fan cooled? If not then it may just be loosing heat upwards (I presume the CPU is above?) onto the CPU heatsink, athough the temps you gave seem ok to me.

 

[TrojanSquirrel]

ok, I've now seen your orig post... I would say that it's either a dodgy memory stick or a jumper issue on one of your drives (or a failed ODD)...

Have you rebuilt this PC recently? If so then check your drive jumpers and HDDs and ODDs.

If all is well with those then I would say it's a failed ODD.

It could be failing on the install of windows, and also failing to do the CD check when you try to run the game. Try a different CD drive if all else fails.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there, what I mentioned was a CMOS setting withing the BIOS that at a certain temperature that the system slowsdown or restarts... Temps sound OK...

the PC restarts under load... this sounds like a thermal issue, or as you might suspect a CPU damage...

the reason why I suspected the PSU is simply that once you changed to another GFX card that the system rebooted faster, ergo a newer or better GFX card possibly draws more wattage than the old... Try another PSU and see...

Ben

 

[braddds]

thx all

allteltec and NeoR77V...I think can address your issues together. This pc doesn't reboot unless I'm running a cpu burnin/tester program or demanding (newer) games. Otherwise it works perfectly. I'm able to run office, email, web, scans, etc. without a hitch. The only exception was when I first defraged it rebooted once but the defrag ran for nearly two days with no further problems. Also, the vid card is fan cooled! The memory passed a memory tester progam without a hitch that I left run for 20+ hours...so I'm relatively sure this is OK! I didn't play with the HD but did disable the cdrom and cdrw drives because I was told his machine would reboot when they were accessed. However, I could not isolate the problem to this configuration...the reboot occured whether the cd's were hooked up or not! As for the cd check (games)I got around it with a no-cd program...no difference the system would still reboot.

With regards to ODD, I'm not sure I know what your are talking about...could you explain further!?

BigBadBen...yeah, sorry I should have explained this feature better, the system has the ability to monitor/alarm the temps but no ability to shutdown or reboot if these are exceeded. I guess an alarm or message would appear during the reboot if exccess temps were still being reported. I could install a monitor to report the temps in windows and provide a nicer shutdown if this is the problem but I'm not convinced this is the issue...but hey, it would hurt to investigate further. As for PSU and vid card I should explain that I changed to a lesser card so there was probably less demand on the PSU rather than more...I maybe wrong on this point and will change out the PSU when I get another.



Cheers

 

[ibmtech65]

Try running DXDIAG.EXE and on the sound acceleration move it back a notch.

 

[Freestone]

Just to clarify a point you made earlier in which you said "It had the pad/grease already in place!". You used a pad or grease, but not both, right?

Memory can still be bad even though memory testing program(s) run. A program cannot ever emulate the best tester, which is an OS itself.

Are the capacitors on the motherboard okay? Bad electrolytic capacitors were a big problem not to long ago, but is currently on the way out as manufacturers have stopped using the bad caps. Some pictures are at (amongst many sites):

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

and

http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm

Some history of the capacitor problem is at:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/feb03/ncap.html

 

[swayda]

I had a problem like that. I replaced every thing but the motherboard and the damned thing just kept spontaneously rebooting. This went on for about three months. I finally decided to pull the machine and replace the mother board. I put another machine running Linux in its place. This maching had been up for almost two years with no problems. I plugged it in where the first machine was and it started spontaneously rebooting. It was the wall outlet socket.

Don Swayser
swayser@optonline.net

 

[braddds]

thx all

ibmtech65...I haven't had a chance to run the DXDIAG.EXE yet! Will do so tonight.

Freestone...I meant that the new fan already had a grease pad applied so didn't add anything myself when installing the fan....and yes, you are right, memory problems cannot be fully diagnosed with test programs but they are a tool to help discover many problems, I just didn't have the extra ram to test further. Interesting articles concerning MB capacitors, I recently had an old BH6 MB go down after years of service and I looked at the MB very carefully to determine the cause...no leaks but identifying "bulges" could be little more difficult, as for my present problem I see no obvious problems with the board...but ya never know!

swayda...dirty power can be problem, agreed! However, since this is not my pc and the problem can be replicated elsewhere...and I've had a pc running in this spot for 1+ years without problems...and I use surge suppresors on all outlets I'm going to rule this out as a likely cause, but thx for the input as this may helpful to others with similar problems!



Cheers

 

[Freestone]

Have a look in the System Log via the Event Viewer and see if any errors are logged at the time your system resets itself. By default Windows 2000 and XP are set to automatically reboot when an error is detected. This can be modified by right-clicking My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery Settings, Automatically restart checkbox in the System failure section. With this setting unchecked, the system will normally give you a blue screen (aka BSOD).

 

[garebo]

I would also have another look at that psu. Any chance you could try another psu?

 

[braddds]

Sorry for the long delay in replying! The pc owner finally got back to me and will be dropping off a new CPU and MB...it seems he can't get his ol' Athlon anymore.

ibmtech65...I ran the dxdiag tests in all possible modes, no luck! It would reboot anyways!

Freestone...I did check the "logs" and nothing! XP doesn't even notice that it rebooted and the restart checkbox was unchecked!

garebo...I admit that I have not looked at this as a possible cause but because of the CPU fan failure I'm going to go in this direction first...but this is a possible problem area and I will try that if the new hardware doesn't work...besides, he needed to upgrade anyways!

Cheers

 

[Freestone]

The fact that the restart wasn't logged by XP leads me to suspect a power supply problem as garebo suggested. Please keep us posted on your further adventures with this problem.

 

[braddds]

Freestone...further adventures, yeah that's perfect!

The latest in the saga...tried a new (known good) PS and was able to complete the system benchmarking, however as soon as I tried a game, it rebooted...same as before. Back to square one!

Still waiting for the parts from the owner...and am now convinced that the problem is in the CPU...the catch is that his current MB may not support a newer CPU! So, I've told him to get get both! At least I'll be able to eliminate these from my troubleshooting list and are now the last remaining common denominators (except the case itself)...this should resolve the problem!

Will keep you posted.

Cheers

 

[braddds]

Long time since my last post, finally got the new parts from the owner. Replaced both the CPU and MB, all is working fine!

Now I'm stuck with the old CPU and MB. Can't get anything to work on it just craps out no matter what I try when I install any OS: WinXP PRO, Home, 98 or Linux (Xandros). I did have a working partition copy of his WinXP Home but toasted it as wasn't a legal copy...wish I didn't do that as I said it at least worked...go figure! I'm going to see if I can get an old athlon 2000 or less, as this is the MB limit. I'm still pretty sure that this was the problem to whole time!

Thanks to all who gave advice and just wanted to keep you updated!


Cheers