Random Restarting?

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

My friend has a problem with his custom computer.

He was playing a game, and the computer suddenly restarted. Then it went in a continuous restart loop whenever it just boots into Windows. We tried reinstalling Windows, but when we do, it restarts when it reaches the "expanding" part of Windows setup. It just continues in a loop.

We already tried many things to try and resolve this problem, but none seem to be working. We tried updating the BIOS, increasing the CPU voltage slightly and QPI/DRAM voltage for more stability, tried disabling CPU cores and turbo-boost to make sure its not the CPU. We also tried other things like switching out the RAM and also using a single stick which didn't solve the problem. We tried different hard disks and switching the SATA ports which didn't work. Finally, we tried flashing the BIOS to the latest version, which didn't help either. It still continues but after flashing to the latest BIOS, it restarts right after the "windows is loading files" part of the setup.

His system specifications are :

ASUS P6X58D-E
Intel Core i7 930 (Never Overclocked)
6GB (3x 2GB G-Skill 1066MHz) DDR3 RAM
CoolerMaster Hyper212+
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Power Supply Unit
ASUS Radeon 6850 Graphics Card
Western Digital Green 1TB (Storage drive)
Western Digital Blue 500GB (Boot drive)

So far, we found out the most likely cause to be the motherboard or P/S, but I would like to ask you guys for your opinions.

Could it be possible that because the Hyper212+ cooler is a tower cooler and not delivering enough air flow to the chipset/mosfet heatsinks and caused overheating which damaged the northbridge or something? Before upgrading to the 212+, the default Intel stock cooler was used. Also, the case has reasonable airflow.

We suspect that the CPU, Motherboard or RAM or P/S to be faulty (one of these components) because it always restarted during the "expanding" part of the setup and in my experience, this should mean high CPU usage and RAM usage but we cannot test them to be certain because we do not have spare LGA1366 parts. Could the north bridge be faulty and causing the restarts (because north bridge lets the CPU communicate with the RAM)?

The motherboard, CPU, RAM, and W.D Green hard drive are just slightly over a year old. The other parts are a few months old because he upgraded.

This is the first time something like this has happened.

We checked the voltages and temperatures and they seem to be within specification, all voltages within a 3% tolerance range and the CPU voltage seems OK (vCore 1.175v), the temperatures around 35 degrees for CPU in the BIOS.

The computer does not restart in the BIOS, but it does crash when we attempted to launch ASUS ExpressGate. It also POST's without a problem.

Sorry for making this very long, but I hope you guys can help.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT : Sorry, forgot to mention that before he tried to reinstall windows, the computer restarted when he attempted to access SAFE MODE.

 

[Encana]

If nohing changed when you tried to change some bios settings then im pretty sure it is the problem from your computer parts,they might not work/support together OR you might have damaged some parts when you put together your pc if you didnt wear a wrist band,but im 80% sure it could be a problem from your motherboard.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The computer did not have a problem before this, and when the computer was built he didn't use a wrist strap but he did "ground" himself.

The CPU worked fine with Prime95 running for a few hours in the past and the RAM passed memtest as well. (This was in the past before this random restarting occured)

We do have suspicions that its the motherboard.

 

[Encana]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The computer did not have a problem before this, and when the computer was built he didn't use a wrist strap but he did "ground" himself.

The CPU worked fine with Prime95 running for a few hours in the past and the RAM passed memtest as well. (This was in the past before this random restarting occured)

We do have suspicions that its the motherboard.

You could try sending the motherboard for a checkup and see if its really from the Mobo to change to a new one.

Good luck man

 

[Guest]

You could try sending the motherboard for a checkup and see if its really from the Mobo to change to a new one.

Good luck man

Yeah, we'll do that, but before we do that we'd like to try some last resort things

Thanks.

 

[truegenius]

try to boot it without graphics card, otherwise it seems to be a psu problem
which psu you are using (model)

 

[Guest]

We tried another video card already which is an ASUS Radeon 5570. Both graphics cards work fine with another computer.

The power supply is a OCZ Fatal1ty 750W, we have tested this with another PC so it doesn't seem to be the problem.

We've also tried to run Memtest86, but when it starts, it just restarts immediately.

 

[Guest]

Recently, with the 750W OCZ PSU, installed in his secondary PC, it sometimes turns off randomly.

Does this point the problem to the PSU?

The voltages are fine when measured with a multimeter.

Before installing the PSU and Radeon 6850, it never did this.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by trans236.