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HELP! Random Restarts!

This problem has been happening for me for the last month or so, sometimes it restarts up to 5 times a day totally randomly. Its usually when i'm playing games, but happens when i'm not also.

I just formatted my computer because of a virus, and it still occurs (and i dont have any games installed yet). I believe its my ram, but someone told me I should flash my bios or something.

Anyone got any ideas why my computer would just randomly restart like that? Heres my system stats:

geforce 4 TI 4200
512 MB PC2700
60 GB HDD
Soyotek Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition (mo-board)
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II (sound card)
AMD Athlon XP 2000+

Its so weird, any help would be greatly appreciated. Its most likely my ram, in which case i'lls end it back to get another one, but any other input is great.

Thanks in advance!

it could be a cooling issue i.e your cpu or gpu is getting to hot and causing your system to crash, or it could be your powersupply or the ram as you said, what wattage powersupply is it?

I agree with jonsimmonds. My computer began randomly restarting itself about 4 months ago. It turned out that the Power Supply Unit had failed and was sending out the wrong voltages, so the BIOS was automatically rebooting to protect the CPU etc. While my PC was still booting the start-up procedure came up with "Check System Health - !" instead of "Check System Health - OK" I imagine that your BIOS performs a similar check, so look out for it next time your PC reboots.

After the PSU was replaced on my PC it was fine again, so my guess is that you could have a similar problem Srezic.

Its either a 350 or 400, i can't remember. It came with my case. Was a pretty cheap case/PSU combo. for those system stats, what would you recommend i get? another 350 or 400? and what brand?

you got anything on your usb ?


like dsl modem or what not ?

Nah, i only have my mouse on USB.

From what i've found from a couple other forums/techsites it seems that my problem is most likely either my ram or my power supply. I am thinkin of sendin the ram back and gettin a replacement cuz its lifetime warranty, and if it still is busted, i'll replace power supply (cuz it came with my case -- 400W nobrand).

U don't say what OS you are using.

my PC has been doing random reboots since i installed win 2k pro

old OS was win 98 and the only other difference is that i now have 2 hard drives in my PC.
and it's not the 2nd HD thats causing the reboots cos i ran the PC without it, to check.

I belive it has something to do with the way win2k pro clears it's memory cache, on my machine i sometimes catch it as it's about to do a random reboot and very quickly i see a blue screen where it says it's dumping memory.

i'm still looking for an answer to this myself.
at my office we have several machines that run Win2K pro and they suffer the same problem from time to time.

Well, my machine reboots too, have WinXP and Win98SE (2 HD, 20+60GB)... Think it could be the USB? I have a mouse on it...

BTW all of you check your fragmentation levels... Mine are off the scale, lol

I have XP Pro.

I have gone to a tech-support website(pretty good one too, and free =P) www.protonic.com

The guy there told me it could have been one of many things:

-Memory(which i'm going ot replace for the hell of it)
-Power Supply
-Driver Conflict(with this I figured this could be the problem, but I dont know where to start because I thought I got all current drivers).
-Heat problems (theres not a problem with the CPU running at 110 F is there?)

By the way, if you want to possibly check why your computer was restarting, type in 'eventvwr' in the Run box from the start menu. Search in that list for the time when the computer restarted and It will tell you why it happened. For example, my computer was giving me "save dumps" and telling me it was because from some memory allocations 0x0000007f.

Also, he told me that I could check what possibly could happen. Here is the e-mail he sent to me in-detail just in case you guys wanna relate, or help me find out where to start hehe.



"Hello Ryan,


Thank you for your quick reply.


Ok this is what the 7F stop code means, Do not think the worse we will just have to go down the list and find out what it may be.
Stop Message 7F
Stop 0x7F messages are typically due to defective, malfunctioning, or failed memory hardware. If you added new hardware recently, remove and replace it to determine if it is causing or contributing to the problem. Run diagnostics software supplied by the system manufacturer to determine if the component has failed.


Running the CPU beyond the rated specification, known as "overclocking," can cause Stop 0x7F or other error messages due to heat buildup. When diagnosing problems on overclocked systems, first restore all clock and bus speed settings to the manufacturer recommended values to determine if this resolves the issues.


The problem might also be due to cracks, scratched traces, or defective components on the motherboard. If all else fails, take the system motherboard to a repair facility for diagnostic testing.


Stop 0x7F messages can occur after installing incompatible applications, drivers, or system services. Contact the software manufacturer about possible Windows XP Professional-specific updates. Using updated software is especially important for backup programs, multimedia applications, antivirus scanners, and CD mastering tools.


I think it is a conflict of drivers and a heat problem My system runs about 40 degrees and 70 degrees top.


Spontaneous rebooting is caused by many things.
Dirty Power is a big one. It is possible your voltages are off either from the line, surge suppress or the Power supply itself. If you have a meter check your voltages. If you have a spare Power supply try it and see if the problem goes away.

My next thing would be to test the Memory chips. Remove additional chips discharge static electricity first by touching your grounded power supply for 4 sec or so. Then remove the chips and try each of them in different slots.


If the chips seem to check out then try re seating the video card. Check to see if it is seating properly in the AGP slot. I have come across AGP slots that are slightly looser then they should be and this can cause problems.


Try another Power Cord. If after determining that the PS is ok, The Memory is ok, The AGP slot is ok try removing all other cards but the video and all other devices but the Hard Drive and see if the problem goes away.


If so reattach and reinsert your cards and devices like cdroms 1 at a time booting each time until the offending device/card is discovered.


If you are still having a problem there are only a few things left. The BIOS settings. Try Optimal default or safe load or whatever your board specifies. If the problem goes away you know its a setting in the BIOS.


If at this point the Computer is still rebooting then you have narrowed it down to the Hard Drive, A Virus, Corruption of the Software, or a bad Motherboard. For the Hard Drive run the Diag from the company support site.
Check for a virus. Windows XP is set to automatically reboot instead of giving you a blue screen. Microsoft was just a bit sneaky in not making this clear. In other words instead of crashing XP will reboot the machine if it finds a problem running itself such as conflicting drivers.


The last thing to check now is the Motherboard. Motherboards go bad. Sometimes they are bad right out of the box. I had an Board that caused spontaneous rebooting exactly as you are describing it but it is still better to follow the troubleshooting elimination process.


Try these things and let me know.


Please use the link provided at the bottom of this email to respond to this message. Thanks for visiting protonic.com!


Keith Lott, Computer Support Technician"

Hope any of this helps, or any of you could let me know where to start(after replacing the ram).

Thanks

~Ryan

I once had this issue a while ago. I was using Windows 2000 and my machine would sometime randomly reboot, mostly when I'm playing a video file on Windows Media Player. I found out that I didn't have the latest nVidia drivers installed for my video card. After installing the latest drivers, my PC was as good as gold

Well its a common problem with athlons. I think it is your power supply, i have the same problem if i put mine up from 1.1ghz to 1.4ghz. Athlons need a steady flow of power. And my voodoo5 has its own power lead, as well as hard drives, cd burner, floppy, etc etc.

So my advice is get a really power full power supply. Mine is 400w and not good enough, look at getting 500w+

That will sort out the problem

i have had this problem

myy stats arew 2.51 Ghz Windows XP Pro Epox 4g4a+ mobo 512 mb ddr pc2700 ram with a 350v ps. i solved it by upgrading to xp pro from 2000

yes, i think i know what ur problem is, that is exactly what happened to mine, it ended up going off completly and wouldnt switch back on.

i took it to the shop where i baught it from and they said my 'mother board' had gone (dont know what that is) but i replaced it and i dont have any more problems. though when replacing it i was unable to save any of my 3000 mp3's so i had to start from scratch.

this is probably obvious, but if it is the mother board and u decide to replace it, save all ur files on disc!

hope ou fix ur problem!

dreamer

Ive run into a problem many times with the athlons and that problem. generally what it turns out to be is that the die on the cpu is not getting the proper contact with the heatsink and is thus overheating. The tape that comes ont he retail version of the heatsink can become brittle and can lose some of the contact. It is also possible that the heatsink was placed on a bit of an angle, and that would cause the same issue.

Being that this is a possible scenario, u may consider purchasing some heatsink goop and removing that which is currently there. This cannot worsen the system, it can only help it even if it wasnt the original issue.

I really think it's heat I have a watercooling sytem for my dulie 2200+ MP system and it needs every bit of it.....

XP/MPs run extremely hot...

Now the reason I think this is because it primarily happens when your playing games (a taxing task for it), and I'm willing to guess it'll reboot when you have 2-3 IE windows open, winamp, and a couple other things like notepad...

Both IE 5+ and winamp 2.x+ are taxing as hell to your system...which makes your computer work harder which in turn doesn't give it a chance to cool down... which there's a nice function on some newer motherboards... it'll cut power if the CPU temp gets too high...

Like I said I really thionk it's heat.... try taking the side of the case off and have a regular fan blow into the computer, then get your most graphic intense games and make the computer almost bog down... if your computer shows a significantly less number of reboots then I think it's safe to say it might be heat

quote:

Originally posted by Harri Ive run into a problem many times with the athlons and that problem. generally what it turns out to be is that the die on the cpu is not getting the proper contact with the heatsink and is thus overheating. The tape that comes ont he retail version of the heatsink can become brittle and can lose some of the contact. It is also possible that the heatsink was placed on a bit of an angle, and that would cause the same issue. Being that this is a possible scenario, u may consider purchasing some heatsink goop and removing that which is currently there. This cannot worsen the system, it can only help it even if it wasnt the original issue.

Amen

Great suggesstion

I think my problem is fixed now. It turned out to be a problem with both power, and driver conflict.

I upgraded to a 500W power supply, and got most recent drivers for Motherboard and graphics card, and now I dont restart anymore at all.

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