I work on computers for a living, but this has me stumped. Having a random restarting, apparently due to memory dumps in Windows (according to event logs and dmp files), and I am completely unable to isolate anything as the culprit.

Whenever I'm playing a game (ie: CS:S, LOTRO, etc) I get random mem dumps. The machine freezes for a second or two, clicks, then just blanks out and reboots. It may not do it for 2 or 3 hours, then all of the sudden hiccup. Usually after the first time, it does it again shortly after. This happens repeatedly.

I've run a crapload of hardware diagnostics multiple times and have had zero failures. Suspected RAM first, ran Memtest86 a few times, including about 10hrs straight yesterday (32 passes) and no problems. Even brought home a new pair of 512's to test and it still acted up. So that pretty much rules the RAM out.

I ran a couple video RAM tests that all passed, and 3DMark 05 -and- 06 both ran through the basic test fine. I had the issue with both my old PSU and my new 430W Thermaltake. HDD tests out fine for read/write/stress. CPU stress tests fine. It's definitely not a heat issue. I have no frickin clue whats left.

I'm beginning to suspect the motherboard. Does this seem like the only remaining possibility? If so, I'm about to just upgrade mobo/CPU/RAM anyway. Any suggestions or advice appreciated. TIA

Anyone?? Below is the dumpcheck log file. Appears to be Southbridge? So should this tip me off that it's a bad motherboard?

Mmmmm... There are a lot of sound related files. I would suggest you that you disable automatic reboot of the system to see any blue screens that may appear.

Alternatively, you may try to disable the sound card in the BIOS and see what happens.

I'm pretty sure the issue is within the Mobo, but maybe is a driver problem.

Hmm. So possibly an issue with the onboard sound....


Disabled auto restart, but didnt think about it until later, so havent caught any BSOD's yet, but I'm waiting for one. I'll post up when I do.

I checked both MS Update and Epox for any hardware/chipset driver updates, and there are none. Everything is as recent as possible.

I'll keep posted.

Any idea what's making the 'clicking' sound ?, does that PSU have thermal cut out ?.

I believe the clicking is actually the hard drive(s) parking the heads briefly before the system restarts.

Well, I disabled the onboard (AC'97) audio and installed an SB Audigy and so far so good. Havent spent a lot of time to be sure, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

As far as the BSOD, it happens way to fast to read and restarts anyway, regardless of disabling restart on error.

Well it's apparently not the audio. The BSOD is too quick to read, and it still restarts. I'm pretty sure it's been narrowed down to CPU/mobo or running out of RAM. I could understand if LOTRO is hogging the RAM with only 1 GB, but certainly not CS:S.

Last night for example, it ran fine for about 3 hours before it finally froze and restarted. After the first time, it did it a couple more times closer together.

When not in 3D mode, or just idle, the machine will run all day long just fine. Will run diagnostics and memtest literally all day without a problem.

Did you check out the PSU? I had a bad one that caused random reboots.

So many things can cause bsod... since it passes all of the tests known to man and it is solid when not in 3d (and if you want to assume video is fine, which it probably is) then the only thing left is the mobo. I would have gone for heat first, then a PSU which it sounds like you have done (your new PSU is still kinda skinny for your setup).

You have my permission to drop a half-dime and get a new MoBo, cpu, and MORE memory. If you can wait a little - go for a quad-core @ $266(your cost will most likely be around $325). If nothing else, get 2x2G memory now, it's _really_ cheap...

Personally, I am waiting for bearlake, ddr3, and 45nm but if you gotta go - (like my ol momma used to say) life's a bitch (, you marry one,) and then you die...

good luck

I would check for a heat problem somewhere. 3 main areas are CPU, RAM and Video card. Especially the video card will give the random restarts, like when you're playing a game. I know with my card, the default fan speed was way too low so I had to manually set it and the restarts stopped.

Caught a BSOD:


MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

STOP: 0x0000009c (0x00000004, 0x805461f0, 0xb2000000, 0x00070f0f)

here ya go (but I think it's pretty much what you expected)...

MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

and the follow-up

Understanding and troubleshotting MCE

Yeah..

Being that everything easily swappable has been swapped, that narrows it down to CPU/board. It's only a minor overclock, and all the voltages are stock except CPU which is at 1.55.

I now bumped the chipset up one notch from 1.2 to 1.3 and the RAM from 2.7 to 2.8 to see how it runs; maybe an undervoltage issue due to OC'ing the system. Just trying to make it efficient enough to last me a while 'til I can afford to upgrade.

Lemme know how it goes GrndNatnl. I have the exact same problem and error code. I've scoured the net but can't find any straight answers. Anyway, good luck!

I am finding this thread very intresting as I too am having the same shitty problem.

I have a Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS OC and I have just been told to install Ntune to detect the fan speed !

I have also disabled the auto-restart in set-up and I am thinking of going down the msconfing route and select the bare min. on start-up to try and see what the hell is causing it !

Keep it up guys !

Stalsy