Pc restarting issue

[rich36253]

Hello,
I have a e8500 processor with a GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 Intel Motherboard.It has 8gigs of Ram. I have had pc for about 4 years. I replaced power supply 2 years ago when I had a similar issue. This time new psu would not fix issue. Pc would cycle on and off in a continuous cycle. It will run for about a second before it restarts. It will run stable with only one 2gig memory stick in it. If I add a second stick it will boot up and run for longer periods of time before it restarts. I ran memtest*86 on 2 different sticks and found no errors. I could not test both sticks in the MB running together because the pc would restart during the test. They would both run and pass the test individually. I disconnected my harddrives, dvd burner and pulled my video card to see if any of my hardware was causing the restarting, but it made no difference. I reflashed the bios with no luck either.It seems the only thing left is the MB or the processor. Is there a way to test a processor so I don't get a new MB for nothing.

 

[Xttony]

Are the two ram sticks of same specs?
Try resetting the bios and then setting the ram settings manually.

 

[rich36253]

Yes the ram ran fine together for the last four years. I think I reset the bios by pulling the battery early on in the troubleshooting. The pc time was reset so I assumed the bios was reset. I also went into the cmos and loaded the failsafe default option.

 

[Xttony]

Your ram cards are old and cards failing is not a surprise.
Install only one card and boot the system
Go to bios and reset the settings from there
Save and restart
Try installing all the cards now, if it boots up, its fine if it doesn't remove the other 3 sticks and go to bios again.
Set the settings manually and save and restart
Plug in all cards and see if that helps.

And if that doesn't fix it you have to go for a fresh pair of ram cards.

 

[rich36253]

2 of my sticks are one years old because I upgraded to 8gigs last year. The sticks say they require 1.8volts but I couldn't figure out in the bios how to set a specific voltage. The computer runs fine on any of the single sticks when run individually. I ran memtest86 on each of the sticks and they all passed with no errors. I thought memtest was a reliable utility program for testing memory. When I run two sticks it will boot up in windows and run as long as I don't do anything too intensive. With two sticks it will restart about one minute into the memtest86 program. With 4 sticks it will cycle off after about a second and not boot up at all. It will repeat this on and off cycle repeatedly until I unplug the pc. Do you really think it's the RAM and not the mother board. Thanks for replies.

 

[jackson1420]

Could it be the RAM modules are just not so compatible with the Mobo you are using. The sticks run good but the Mobo might just not like the sticks of RAM when ran in pairs.

Manufactures RAM doesn't always match a manufactures System Board.

Try testing another set - or see if you can buy a test pair from a local computer store and make sure you can return them if it fails. If you go and come back same day they might be forgiving.

 

[rich36253]

I'll have to try something like that because finding a compatible MB is going to be difficult. Most of the lga775 socket MBs are discontinued. I can get a used one easy enough on ebay but I may just inherit someone elses problem

 

[correon]

and newest bios? - i know it´s an old board... but?

 

[rich36253]

I reflashed to newest to newest bios which came out in 2009. The PC ran perfect for the last 2 years. The issue started while my son was playing minecraft. It just shut down and started the reboot cycle in the middle of his game.It would not run for more than a second until I pulled the RAM sticks out. I have not made any hardware changes in over a year.

 

[Xttony]

Mine craft can get pretty ram intensive.
What you want to do is check that all the ram cards are of same voltage.
If they are same then this may be some other issue. If the voltages are different you have to go for the hit and trial method. Set the ram cards to any voltage and see if that works.
Also some motherboards don't even have a 1.8 volt option in ram voltage.
I had a same problem with 3set of cards at 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 volts respectively. No matter what I tried the system ended up in a crash. Sometime crash happened instantly sometimes after a interval of time. The longest time I was able to run my system with out a crash was 7months but the system crashed eventually.

Another thing you can try is to decrease th timings and frequency.