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Help - random restarts

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Help - random restarts

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vanwagnerb   08-28-2007 at 07:46:12 PM

Hi Everyone,

I'm in need of some help with my computer. Basically, it's been randomly restarting. For a second the screen will freeze, I'll hear a little buzzing sound, then it reboots. I pretty much only use the computer to play World of Warcraft. I havn't noticed it happen when doing other things, but the computer is rarely doing other things. It seems to happen more often after the first reboot, but it's generally pretty random. Sometimes after the reboot, the screen will become messed up and I'll have to manually reboot.

I'm trying to figure out what may be causing this. I realize there are a lot of possibilites. Is there a way that I can weed out some of them?... maybe some type of diagnostic tool, or a program that can log the problem as it happens? I just don't know where to begin to address this problem. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.


I built the computer from scratch, using recommendations from all the helpful people on these forums. This is what I'm running:


Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel

EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower

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badge   08-28-2007 at 08:02:15 PM
- 0 +

vanwagnerb wrote :

Hi Everyone,

I'm in need of some help with my computer. Basically, it's been randomly restarting. For a second the screen will freeze, I'll hear a little buzzing sound, then it reboots. I pretty much only use the computer to play World of Warcraft. I havn't noticed it happen when doing other things, but the computer is rarely doing other things. It seems to happen more often after the first reboot, but it's generally pretty random. Sometimes after the reboot, the screen will become messed up and I'll have to manually reboot.

I'm trying to figure out what may be causing this. I realize there are a lot of possibilites. Is there a way that I can weed out some of them?... maybe some type of diagnostic tool, or a program that can log the problem as it happens? I just don't know where to begin to address this problem. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.


I built the computer from scratch, using recommendations from all the helpful people on these forums. This is what I'm running:


Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel

EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower



Try setting your system where it will not reboot when it crashes, but will display the blue screen. You can then read the errors that are happening and research the cause. Left click the My Computer icon and select Properties. Select the Advanced Tab. At Start Up and Recovery click Settings. Under System failure, uncheck automatically restart. Now your computer should not restart automatically when it crashes, but instead show a display of the cause of the crash.

RAM is often the cause of system crashes when the crash occurs while running software (a game). Bump up the RAM voltage a click in BIOS or be sure your RAM memory voltage is set to mfg. specs . You can try each DIMM indibvidually in Slot 1 and see if the crashing persists. Run memtest86 and test for RAM errors. You should update your video cards driver to the latest version and also be sure you internet connection is stable and not causing your system to fail. There are a lot of possibilities causing the crash. HTH.

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vanwagnerb   08-28-2007 at 08:22:10 PM
- 0 +

Thank you. That was very helpul. I'll give all of that a shot tonight and see what happens. Sorry for my noobishness, but where do I get memtest86? Is it something I download?

Reply to vanwagnerb
badge   08-28-2007 at 08:29:49 PM
- 0 +

Try Ultimate CD, it conatins memtest86 ver. 3.3 and is a bootable CD instead of a floppy. After you download the program, unzip it and click on the unzipped file to burn a bootable CD. Set your DVD to first boot device in BIOS and boot to the CD and open memory tests. It's a bit complicated, but an excellent diagnostic tool. Also, try your ram individually and see if the crashing stops. In BIOS, set the memory voltage to mfg specs. If you have DDR2 PC6400 that would be 2.0-2.1v in BIOS.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_d4981.html


Message edited by badge on 08-28-2007 at 08:30:12 PM
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vanwagnerb   08-28-2007 at 08:34:07 PM
- 0 +

Thank you. I'll download it as soon as i get home. I really hope it's something simple like the wrong ram voltage. I'll see what comes up with the testing/bios settings.

Reply to vanwagnerb
badge   08-28-2007 at 08:39:10 PM
- 0 +

RAM is often the cause of system crashes while running software, games. You would be surprised. Even the good stuff can fail. Try your DIMMS individually. Bump up the voltage a notch or check the RAM mfg. specs. and set the voltage to specs in BIOS. You would be surprised.

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