Random Reboots...Tried everything i can think of! Any suggestions?

[reborn85]

ok, where to begin? my story of woe begins like this:

Money is tight, i saved and saved, and researched and researched, and just recently built my dream machine, but i've been having some problems with it. here's my system info:

CPU: AMD Phenom x4 9750 2.4 GHz

RAM: 2x 2GB Patriot Extreme DDR2 800Mhz
1x 1GB Kingston DDR2 800Mhz KVR800D2N5/1G (Listed as Approved by Motherboard Manufacturer)

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 512 DDR3

HDD: 1x 320GB Western Digital SATA
1x 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA

PSU: ANTEC earth Watts 650 Watt (originally had an ABS Tagan 800 watt but it was either a bad unit or incompatible with my system)

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790FX-DS5

I have 2x 120MM fans, 4x 80MM fans, and it stays really cool (around 53, 54 degrees c)


So, my problem is this. i've been trying to find forums and i've tried to rule out every possible variable.

The computer restarts randomly as far as i can tell. Sometimes, it will run all night, (not under load) but as soon as i load it up, either playing games, or using photoshop with a large image, it will restart. sometimes, it will restart at the vista welcome screen, somtimes when running the System Event Viewer. Sometimes when the mouse gets moved, every time i use it, it will work for a while, or get stuck in a perpetual reboot cycle (while loading windows for example) but it never stays stable for long.

i have RMA'ed the motherboard, which is what the company recommended, but it doesn't help.

i have windows XP 64 bit professional, and windows vista x64 Ultimate. i run vista the majority of the time, but it always restarts without a blue screen, no matter what OS i'm using.
In fact, i've never seen a blue screen before it restarts. i have turned the automatic restart option off on both OS.

I've tried memtest on the ram, it always gets close to finishing, and then restarts. I'm guessing it's the ram, but i went out and bought the 1 gig stick after the 2 gigs weren't working. if i got 5 gigs of bad ram, that will really suck. the 2x 2GB sticks voltage is 2.0V and the 1 Gig stick is 1.8V. i've upped the voltage to spec on the 2x 2GB sticks but nothing helps. still restarts under load.
no improvement.

I'm inclined to think it is RAM, but it doesn't matter where i have the module installed, it still reboots during memtest.

So basically, i'm at a loss as to what it might be. if you have any suggestions, that would be amazing. i can't tell you how frustrating it is to spend a lot of money that you saved for such a long time just to end up with a really expensive desk ornament. i mean, it's gotten to the point that if it restarts, i just cringe. thank you so much for your help, it is very much appreciated.

 

[Granite3]

Try boosting your ram voltage to 2.1 or a smidge over.
Still in the safe zone for DDR2, but enough to ensure you are getting enough. Had to figure that out on my old 680i board, random restarts, etc, till I got the ram enough juice.

 

[major53]

reborn85

I've tried memtest on the ram, it always gets close to finishing, and then restarts. I'm guessing it's the ram, but i went out and bought the 1 gig stick after the 2 gigs weren't working. if i got 5 gigs of bad ram, that will really suck. the 2x 2GB sticks voltage is 2.0V and the 1 Gig stick is 1.8V. i've upped the voltage to spec on the 2x 2GB sticks but nothing helps. still restarts under load.
no improvement.

mixing ram from different manufactures is aways bad idea first off the standard voltages are different on each other even if you manually set in bios I wouldn't use them that way.

have you tried using 1 stick of the 2x2 gig set,one stick could be bad,you may still have to manually set the 1 x2 stick voltage in the bios to the correct voltage setting.hope this helps you

 

[reborn85]

thanks so much. i will definitely try tonight. it's kind of a pain to have to do everything like that, but i really appreciate your help.

 

[reborn85]

ok, so i went home and memtested the 1st stick of 2gb ram, it returned 2 errors. after i let it run all night, it had restarted sometime during the night. does it restarting during memtest mean that the RAM is definitely bad? i'm continuing to scan the other sticks tonight and this afternoon. hopefully something will materialize.

 

[major53]

reborn85 how long have you had the ram,if not long or you still have store warranty,I would take them back for different ram.if you need more help just post back.

 

[reborn85]

it's been a while. kind of a crazy couple of months.... actually, RMA'ing the motherboard and whatnot really took a while, i also RMA'd some other stuff as well. i'm thinking i've got bad ram all round. the first stick returned 2 errors before it restarted, and the others run for a couple passes and then reboot while i'm not watching. so basically i'm convinced if memtest restarting indicates bad ram... i think they're still under warranty, so i'm going to do my best at getting them returned. what a messed up building experience. i've learned a lot though... i really appreciate your help major.

 

[major53]

reborn85 you are welcome for the help ,just hate you had this much problems on your build.I'm like you on the ram though I believe you had bad ram.when you get you replacement parts and you need some help fill free to come back to this thread you posted and I will help in any way I can, I bookmarked this thread.or do under another thread.people will help at toms hardware that's one thing I have found out about this site.


also glad you learn things,it will help you in the future.lol

 

[reborn85]

so, just a little update. i might post this in a new thread, because it's been so long, and my topic has been pushed to the bottom of the pile... but anyway,

i RMA'd my 1 GB stick of memory, and plugged it in, and everything ran fine... for about 10 minutes...

just for the sake of constancy, i've been running some old benchmark program, 3dmark 03... you know, something to put a little load on the system...

so whenever i start it up, and the computer is cold, it will run all 5 game demos, somewhere around five and a half minutes. then it will restart. when it restarts, it will only run about 30 seconds of the demos and then it will restart. i checked my CPU temp, and it's running around 53-54C.
i'm just wondering whether it could be the processor, that's just about the only thing that i haven't replaced in this build. any suggestions?
the troubleshooting continues!