Restarts with no provocation

[dadrab]

Good day all.

I have an ongoing issue that’s, thus far, kicking my ass pretty well.

I built a box back around the first of the year. I used an MSI board, 3800 AMD processor, a gig of memory, WD hard drive.

About a month ago, it started auto restarting for no apparent reason. Per the instructions of someone here, I unticked the box that calls for auto-restarts so I could get blue screens in the hope of picking up a clue as to what was going on.

Each time it would BSOD a different code would kick, so not much to gain there.

I replaced the power supply. Things improved for a few days, but went south again.

I reseated the memory stick. Again, things improved for a few days, but the blue screens returned.

Finally, last weekend, and after a visit to my local PC store where I picked the brains of three of their techs, I purchased a new drive and reformatted.

I had to leave the other drives in the box because they had data on them that I needed. They can also be used for additional storage.

I also took no chances on possible infection. I purchased Norton 360 and installed it on the machine even before downloading Windows updates from Microsoft. I then set about the task of reinstalling programs, etc, etc. I also scanned the other two drives in the machine for possible corruption or infection, but Norton gave them clean bills of health.

Things had been just fine for a week until last night. I was clicking away and – ZAP – the system restarted.

Does anyone out there have any clues that might bring an end to this? I’ve got three other systems that run for days – weeks on end and never have a problem. To my way of thinking, I’ve pretty much eliminated power supply, memory and soft-ware issues. The system’s not running hot, so I don’t think that’s it.

About the only other thing I can think to do is replace the memory stick, replace the mother board or replace the processor. All are still under warranty, but I don’t know which one is bad. Hell, I might not even be on the right track.

This is getting pretty frustrating.

Thanks in advance.

[SallyDog]

I had the same problem a few years back. Turns out it was bad memory, so I'd replace that first. No guarantees though

[fatbloke88]

Download and run Memtest86 for a few hours before you go out and buy new memory it'll tell you if your memory is faulty

[filmboss80]

Gotta concur with the other posters. Had the same frustration a few years back. Did just about everything you did with no remedy...until I finally replaced the RAM memory. Some sticks work fine intermittently, only failing occasionally. That's why it's sometimes hard to pinpoint the problem.

[bevills1]

Did you use a new 80 wire IDE cable? I had similar problems that got progressively worse to the point whole partitions were lost on spontaneous restarts, and finally BIOS no longer even recognized drives. About 2 weeks ago I got a new IDE cable, and everything's normal again.

Another possibility if IDE cable isn't the cause is BIOS update which fixed another stability issue I had a little over a year ago. The MSI site also states BIOS update can often fix stability issues.

[dadrab]

Did you use a new 80 wire IDE cable? I had similar problems that got progressively worse to the point whole partitions were lost on spontaneous restarts, and finally BIOS no longer even recognized drives. About 2 weeks ago I got a new IDE cable, and everything's normal again.

Good thought, but the new drive I just bought is SATA. I still have an IDE cable going to the other two internal drives, though. Reckon that could be it?

Another possibility if IDE cable isn't the cause is BIOS update which fixed another stability issue I had a little over a year ago. The MSI site also states BIOS update can often fix stability issues.

I'll have to try a bios update. I have not done that.

Thanks to all for the input.

[dadrab]

duplicate post deleted

[dadrab]

I've downloaded and burned memtest. I ran it for a couple of hours this morning (after a restart during the middle of the night).

The test showed everything with the memory to be fine.

Anyone got anything else?

Thanks.

[Soopafresh]

Pull out one stick of RAM. If it still reboots, try the other stick.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Try booting into safe mode. This will prevent many of the hardware drivers from loading. If it still reboots then either memory or some other circuitry (mobo chipsets, CPU) is flaky - possible due to a bad connection that is sensitive to heat.

[Nelson37]

Unplug all drives, data and power. remove all unnecessary cards, only one stick of RAM. Boot into BIOS setup and let it sit for quite some time, it would appear 24 hours minimum would be necessary. Then add components one by one, repeat test.

You could do the Safe Mode test before or after this, it's a matter of being able to make an educated guess. Something is flaky, and does not seem to be heat or time related, just random. Unless the usage pattern which has not been described would be stressing one or more components before the shutdown period, this unknown stress being less so during functioning periods?

Power supply is about the only thing eliminated, definitely not memory. Reseating doesn't eliminate a faulty chip, neither does testing. Your failure os too random with too long a time period of normal function. The old drives are still connected so they are still in the picture.

BIOS or Windows updates just complicate the picture, since the PC was functioning for some time these are not where the issue lies. Various BSOD codes might have a common factor if you look each of them up.

Simplify the system. A component cannot cause a failure if it is completely disconnected. Unfortunately, you already know that a flaky component can work correctly for an extended period.

Since the board is still under warranty, you might replace it just for giggles. No harm.

[Number Six]

What does it do when you provoke it - get violent :P LOL

But seriously, I had an old computer do exactly the same thing years ago - It drove me crazy. It turned out to be the processor - It was a Cyrix 200mhz chip ( I said it was old ) , but any processor could do the same thing.

[edDV]

If not memory, it sounds like an overclock or heat issue. Have you cleaned the heatsinks and fans? Are all the fans working?

[dadrab]

Thanks for responding y'all.

...remove all unnecessary cards, only one stick of RAM.

There is only one stick of ram. 1GB. Perhaps I should have bought two 512 sticks, but I opted for the other route since it's the family computer.

Since the board is still under warranty, you might replace it just for giggles.

That's about to be my next move.

What does it do when you provoke it - get violent LOL

Nah, it's a pretty passive system. But, if this trend continues it might get the opporunity to be passive wherever it lands in the back yard. 8)
It would seem that while it's fairly peaceful, its owner is not.

If not memory, it sounds like an overclock or heat issue. Have you cleaned the heatsinks and fans? Are all the fans working?

The system's not OC'ed, so no excess heat coming from there. I'm not conviced the processor's not overheating, though. I just used the stock pad on the processor (AMD) for putting on the heat sink. I'm thinking I might pull it and apply some Artic Silver.

I have cleaned the existing heat sinks, fan and about everything else in there.

When all this started, about the first thing I did was pull the fan off the sink and vacuum all the crud out of there.

[filmboss80]

I had one occasion when Memtest did not detect bad memory, and I went around and around trying to diagnose the problem until I learned that Memtest is not perfect. One by one, I took out RAM modules, until lo and behold, everything straightened out. I replaced the RAM stick in question and never had a problem after that. Unfortunately, you have a single RAM stick, and are not able to test what your PC would do if you swapped it out with another.

[Number Six]

Hey dadrab - did you solve this problem?

I picked up a laptop a few weeks ago that would just shut down after approximately 1.5 - 2 hours and refuse to restart again for another hour. I unclogged all the dust out of the heat sink and fan and gave it a new coating of thermal paste - it worked perfectly after that, and ran much cooler. I know that your problem is similar, and could be that the processor is defective.

redwuds posted a link to this hardware monitoring program in another thread - http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php - it is very useful to watch the temps while you are using the computer.

[dadrab]

Hey folks.

I hate reading a post like this one that has no apparent resolution posted, so I'm posting my resolution...

It turned out to be the motherboard. We never could diagnose exactly what the malfunction was, but the shop where I bought all the computer guts warrantied the board and swapped me out for a new one.

It's been running steadily for a week now and there have been no problems.

Thanks very much to all those who posted up with suggestions.