Core2 Quad Build - 600W - Need Upgrade? (Random Restart Issue)

Carcrazy

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Jun 18, 2009
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Hi, if you notice it is my first post, so don't be too rough. =P
(Been on tom's crap loads of times, surprised I never made an account before... anywho,)

Current System Specs:
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 (G0) @ 2.4Ghz w/ T.R.U.E. Heatsink (Previously clocked at 2.9Ghz)
Abit AW9D-MAX x975 Motherboard
BFG nVidia GeForce 7600GT (GTX260-216 should be here soon, I ran out of funds mid-upgrade)
4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12)
1x IDE DVD-RW Drive
1x SATA 500GB HDD (Secondary Drive died a few months back)
2 Case Fans, 1 120mm on the CPU's heatsink, and that's pretty much it, other than a few USB peripherals.

Anyway, I have all of this hooked into a Zalman 600w (ZM600-HP) power supply. The system's been giving me trouble lately with random restarts. The odd thing about it is it will restart numerous times before it even stays on long enough for a successful POST. When it finally does start, the Motherboard has loaded the fail-safe settings in the CMOS because it's detected unsuccessful POST's. This has been going on for a bit and I haven't had the time or money to fix it.

Anyway, my first thought was that there had to be a programming error somewhere in the CMOS or something. Nothing... okay, bad BIOS flash. Updated from v1.6 to the newest, 1.7. Worked well for a night, gave me more trouble the next day. Reflashed, and it's still doing it.

I contacted Abit about an RMA and they said that the board is now out of warranty, (just out of curiosity, what happened to their 3-year warranty policy?,) so that's probably twords the bottom of the list of things to try. Like I said above, I'm upgrading to a GTX260, which requires a 650w PSU, and while I could run it on a 600, I'd rather just be safe than sorry, so I'm going to end up upgrading anyway. My first priority, however, is to fix this restart issue.

If y'all think a PSU replacement would help, please chime in. If you think it could be another issue, feel free to post that as well.

(Also, if I misspelled something above, please forgive me, I'm a bit tired right now.) x.x

Thanks! =P

--EDIT--
One thing I forgot to mention, it seems the PC restarts at random times. I've tried EVERYTHING I can think of to try and force it to do it, it never works. Stress testing, overclocking/underclocking, etc etc. (If you can't tell, I was expecting one thing to spike in activity before it crashed.) I ran stress testing for near 12 hours, pushed the computer to as near the limit as I could, and it would never crash.)

I used to have issues with my Linksys Wireless-G USB adapter causing BSOD's, I even tried stressing it to ensure it wasn't causing a problem again.

I have NO CLUE what's causing it or even how to find out, I'm 100% out of ideas now. >.<

Another thing to mention, when I was wondering if it could be a memory issue, as this motherboard has been horrible with memory... I tried setting my RAM timings back at 4-4-4-12 where they used to be (@ DDR-800 speeds,) and it wouldn't even POST. The memory is rated for DDR2-1000 speeds, so running at 800, it had a lot of head room. Anyway, I tried the usual, take one stick out, swap sticks, try different DIMMs on the motherboard, etc. It either wouldn't POST or wouldn't update the DMI table before loading windows, which I've never even seen. I got everything from hangs on where the BIOS would say "Updating DMI Table Settings..." to "Building DMI Table Settings..." to it even going into something called, I think it was... Boot Block v1.0? This is what caused me to think the BIOS is corrupt, and I did the re-flash/update. I've got it running now again with both sticks of 2GB in, as it just started randomly working after I ran it on an old 1GB stick for an hour.

Like I said, I have no idea. Everything is coming out so inconstantly that I can't get a clear picture of what's actually wrong. =/
 
Any power supply can go bad, even a premium one. I would start by checking all the fans in your system and cleaning any dust off with a good canned air product. Gently touch the power supply and see how warm it is. If you decide to replace the board, I would go for a p965 or p35 if money is tight. Amazon.com has a 500w pc power and cooling on sale for $56 shipped if you decide to replace the ps. But first check on the warranty, it may be 3 years for the zalman. Have you run memtest, a free download? You can test each stick if you can get into windows.
 

Carcrazy

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Jun 18, 2009
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Sorry, been caught up in work lately. >.<

Anyway, no dust, the system isn't overheating, the PSU isn't hot, or even showing any signs of stress...

The general weird activity of the board causes me to throw suspicion back at it, so I'll probably replace it in a week or two, and just deal with it until then... =/
 

mellor x

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Apr 5, 2009
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and if you need a new PSU go for a corsair, get the HX750 or HX850 bit pricy but there amazing, will see you through a 7year warranty aswell which you prob will upgrade before then

mellor x