PC Reboots Continuously

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RajanM

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Jul 10, 2014
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I have an Alienware Aurora R2 PC. A couple of weeks ago, it started rebooting randomly once or twice a day. More recently, over the past week, the problem has grown. It tends to reboot and goes into a cycle where it reboots continuously without loading Windows. This continues until I either force shut-off the PC or pull the power cord from the back.

I have tried to go into the BIOS setup and loaded default values, as well as run startup repair. Running startup repair came back with the message that it could not repair the problem automatically. I also re-installed Windows from the original disk that came with the PC. It worked for a few hours but then came back again. When I let the PC rest for a bit by pulling the power cord from the supply, it loads windows and tends to work for a short while. Now, even reloading default values does not seem to work.

From the little that I read about the problem on the net, it seems that it could be a few things including corrupted BIOS, bad BIOS chip or bad power supply. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
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herrwizo

herrwizo

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Feb 17, 2009
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It all points out to one of the following:

1) a failing PSU
2) overheating issue
3) failing RAM or motherboard

Check your temperatures first, sir. Clean all heatsinks, check all fans whether they are spinning. Then try with another PSU, and then pull out all RAM and return only 1 stick inside, then the other one instead of the first one to find out whether one of them is failing. Try running memtest.
 
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RajanM

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Thanks for your response, herrwizo.

I did the following:
- Ran CPUID and got a report on the hardware temperatures. The temperatures showed were:
Motherboard: 52C and 51C
CPU: 53C and 48C
HD: 40C
Graphic Cards: 65C and 68C
I understand that these are within the suggested limits, which some threads listed as being below 90C.
- Updated the chipset drivers from the Dell site
- Ran the memtest. It showed no problems with the installed memory. I have not done the individual memory stick test as yet since the memtest came back ok. Do you recommend that as well?
- Let the PC run all day without any apps etc. It seems to be running fine for now.
However, I do run some graphic-intensive apps for work and have noticed that at times, the apps give a 'Memory Low' message, but have not shut down before.

Does this narrow down the possibilities yet? Thanks.
 
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herrwizo

herrwizo

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If the temperatures are from idle computrer, that likely means that they are too high under load. They are usually 20-30 degrees C higher under load. You might have an overheating issue on both the CPU and GPU, if that's the case. Please, fire up any modern game and have the hwmonitor to record your temps, report back the highest recorded.
 
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RajanM

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Thanks SR-71. Please note below:
Model: Alienware Aurora_R2
Processor: Intel Core i3 CPU 540@3.07GHz
RAM: 6GB
64-Bit Operating System
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Graphic Cards: 2 ATI Radeon HD5670
Hard Drive: ST350041

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you need any other information. Thanks.
 
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RajanM

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Thanks herrwizo. A quick background on the issue...

- I recently changed a bad battery (a few days ago) on my UPS which is connected to the PC. The bad battery would cause the UPS to charge continuously and go into 'fault' mode whenever the inverter behind it would kick-in. That would result in the PC getting turned off momentarily and would need to be restarted. This happened a few times over the past month.
- As mentioned before, I ran Startup Repair, which came back as saying that it could not repair the PC automatically.
- I tried System Restore but it gave an unspecified error (0x80071a91). Apparently, that code implies that the common log file system (CLFS) transaction logs were in an inconsistent state.
- There were several windows updates that were loading on the PC when I turned it off previously. After a couple of cycles, it gave an error saying there was a failure configuring windows updates, and that it was reverting changes.
- I figured that my Windows OS was probably corrupted, so ran a system restore from the recovery disks created initially when I had received it from the factory. It went through the whole process of formatting the disk, creating a recovery partition etc. and reloaded the OS. However, after it was completed and I was setting it up for backups, it mentioned that the recovery partition did not get created, that it was probably missing or corrupted, and would not allow system backups. It suggested to run the system recovery disks again, but I have not done so as yet.
- While I was loading some of the software, antivirus etc., the PC rebooted again a couple of times even though I wasn't running anything intensive on it, i.e. games/graphics. I ran CPUID immediately after it rebooted and noticed that the temperature values were almost the same (or even lower) than those I had forwarded to you previously.

I hope this background gives you a better idea to help diagnose the problem. Thanks.
 
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RajanM

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I took the PC in to a tech shop and they changed the IC unit on the north side of the MoBo which is supposed to control the boot process. The continuous rebooting seems to have been fixed. However, now I am unable to upload the OS onto the PC. I am trying to do a clean install and each time I do so, it reboots before the completion of the process. It also gives an error saying 'BootMgr is missing'.

The one time that I was able to get the OS on, it was very slow in downloading any software from the internet, including the service pack, antivirus definitions update and even the Firefox browser. I am starting to wonder if my HD might be the problem.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
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