random reboots

The_B_Man

Hi,
I'll go with specs first:

MOBO:
MS-7043 PT8 Neo-V
Another link

CPU:
P4 2.4GHz

OS:
XP SP2

RAM:
1GB

GFX:
Pixmania nVidia 6800GS AGP 256MB

Sound:
Creative Audigy 4

PSU:
SilverStone 650w

HDD:
40gb IDE
300GB SATA II (mbo only has sata)

think thats all the relevant stuff.

So right, I keep getting the machine rebooting on me randomly. Sometimes I'll be just about to win in game of StarCraft, other times I'll be shuttin down WinAMP, other times I'll be watchin TV streams of the footy, I was converting a TV series from DicX to a DVD and got it, not too sure if it happens ever when I'm idle.

Windows is only freshly re-installed about 3 weeeks.

So, can anyone help me here? Is there a prgram you can run that goes through a number of tests until it reboots, then logs if the error is with the gfx, sound, CPU, OS, RAM etc?

thanks for the help!

Ruu_Old

Probably is a logfile in Windows somewhere but can't remember. Try testing your memory with memtest anyway.

The_B_Man

OK ill try that tomorrow when i have time to install my floppy drive. doesnt work at the mo. think theres something messed up with it at the moment.

also, when windows loads back up to the desktop, it pops up saying its recovered fro ma serious error. the logfile it generates is unreadable in notepad. jsut a load of garbage text, and the files are deleted once you close the error report popup.

Kazu

the same thing happened to me but i was overclocking my graphics card


could be a overheating issue


Belarc Advisor could be the program

Anti

Sounds like a overheating issue.

Try using the pc as normal but with the side of the case off completly.

tba

yep sounds like over heating, can you check CPU temp in the bios after a restart? Then try it again with the case off, it might be a simple matter of adding another fan.

Also have you added new hardware recently, it could be a power supply problem.

Theta

This was happening to me a couple of months ago and i couldnt figure it out. It took me ages of looking around in my case to figure out it was my PSU. A solder or something had cracked in my PSU and as it got hot would expand and turn restart. I only figured it out because eventually it would turn off completely and when I pushed on the side of the PSU case it would reboot.

The_B_Man

well I've opened the PC and tidied up the wires. they were all over the place. ill try playing games again and see if that changes anything. also, the temps on my LCD little display thing on me case say everything is around 28 celsius tho im not sure if thats right or not as i bought the case off a mate and i'm not sure if i have all the connectors properly done.

I'm not sure if its the PSU. i bought a 650w SilverStone one of root69 here on boards, which was fairly new.

The 6800GS and sound blaster audigy 4 i got off pixmania a few months ago too.

i tried getting my floppy to work but no luck so cant run that memtest yoke. is there a windows alternative? i dont even have a usb key i cud try booting from.


/edit: as regards fans, theres the one at the back of the case, the one on the processor, and one in the side of me case. back fan is blowing inwards, side one is blowing outwards.

Steffano2002

As far as I know you can make a bootable CD-ROM with Memtest86+... Have a look at this link here.

The_B_Man

ok ill give that a go.

fyi: jsut stuck on StarCraft and the thing rebooted after about 5 seconds! not exactly a heavy game for me 6800GS now! i then checked the temps. CPU was 47, a system was 31.

Anti

okay, what is your graphics card temps hitting ?

Download ntune from www.nvidia.com

Also the fans are working the wrong way.

The one at the back should be blowing air out the back. And the one on the side should be sucking in cold air. You should also have one fan at the front sucking in cold air too.

Also completly remove your graphics card drivers from the add/remove software. Then use driver cleaner 3. to remove all traces of the driver. reboot. And reinstall the newest drivers from www.nvidia.com/drivers.

The_B_Man

is there any diff between the nvidia drivers and the spcific TwinTech (its a twintech 6800GS) drivers?

also, i should point out, i reformatted the hard drive coz of a virus and totally re-done me windows install. the drivers are the only drivers that were installed for it in the last 3 weeks!

The_B_Man

OK it happened again. i went into the bios on the reboot and the CPU was 50 degrees C. is that normal for a P4?

Ghost Train

50 degrees sounds fine to me. Were you doing anything particular when it reboots and how often does it happen. Sounds a bit nice a power issue to me, maybe one of the cards isnt doing what the motherboard expects. Have you tried a linux live cd to see if things work outside windows,

The_B_Man

I have that Ubuntu Disc. I'll try the live CD for a while. problem is that its random, and I cant really re-create it. I've been testing it by playing starcraft. Sometimes it reboots after 5 seconds, last night i was playin for over an hour before it rebooted.

Ideally, what I need is a program that can even run in the background and tell me that the reboot is related to the gfx, CPU, sound, mobo, ram, whatever! or even if theres a windows log fine somewhere that'll tell me what DLL or hardware component was responsible.