Recent build, system randomly reboots itself

[itsfelixthecat]

Built a new system about a month ago, budget gaming build. It's been great until now. Here's a partial dump of the Newegg order:

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA
Mobo: MSI Z77A-G45 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
Case: APEVIA X-JUPITER-JR S-Type X-JPJST-MG, with a single 250mm side-mount fan
PSU: Raidmax Hybrid 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V
GPU: Gigabyte GV-N660OC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 2GB
RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB)
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB 7200RPM

Playing Battlefield 3 the other night, the machine suddenly reboots itself. Start the game back up, play a few minutes, it does it again. I start to look into possible causes and find the following:

1) GPU running too hot. So I ran GPUZ and logged temps, they're steady at ~60C when the reboots occur. Check, that's not it.
2) Drivers suck. I found my driver was out of date, so I updated and tried again. Beep, reboot. Not it.
3) PSU is bad, or insufficient. Haven't eliminated this but I can't imagine I'm drawing that much power; it's a Raidmax 530W. The GTX 660 is relatively efficient at 140W max draw; GPUZ showed that it was peaking at 100% (not overdrawing, if that's even possible).

Another important piece of info: yesterday the machine rebooted itself again, while I was scrolling through a PDF or working in Wordpad or something and the GPU was hardly doing anything. So that implies that my PSU providing insufficient power isn't the problem, and that either:

A) the PSU just sucks and the power is fluctuating enough to cause reboots, or
B) something else is wrong entirely.

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[PanicMaster85]

Update bios
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/308518-30-update-bios

Check psu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4

reset cmos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdp_L5IxaNI

Make sure you have this
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

run memtest
http://www.memtest.org/

and finally run burnintest
http://www.passmark.com/download/bit_download.htm

hope this helps!

also make sure you have good circulation in your case

 

[Rockstar1346]

Hi I was just wondering if you discovered the problem as I am having the exact same problem with my freshly built rig same psu and graphics card as you. I have found a lot of people saying its the power supply doesn't supply enough power. Any help would be great thanks!!

 

[itsfelixthecat]

Hi I was just wondering if you discovered the problem as I am having the exact same problem with my freshly built rig same psu and graphics card as you. I have found a lot of people saying its the power supply doesn't supply enough power. Any help would be great thanks!!

I was never able to fix it. The problem kept happening; eventually I tried resetting my CMOS to clear the mobo settings to see if that would help. I followed the board's instructions for clearing the CMOS, and when I turned the machine back on, nothing happened. No boot, no power, no nothing. I tried everything after that, but no dice.

I haven't taken the time to test both components to see exactly which one is dead (PSU or mobo), but I suspect the board. Who knows why. Maybe the PSU spiked the voltage to blow something in the board, or maybe I'm a clumsy idiot and screwed something up in resetting the CMOS.

However, I do suspect the PSU was faulty, because I did some research on PSUs and discovered the importance of not only peak power delivery, but fluctuation. Could be that the power output was fluctuating too much even at low draw (i.e. when I wasn't gaming), and causing reboots. But the #1 thing that makes me suspect the PSU is that I read up on different manufacturers at JonnyGuru, including RAIDMAX.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being best quality and 5 being absolute crap...RAIDMAX is rated a 5.
Seasonic is consistently rated at the very top. Hence my choice of replacement PSU, a Seasonic 620W S12II. I picked up that and an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 mobo, and my rig's been awesome since then. No issues.

So, to summarize, I certainly wouldn't disagree with the people telling you that your PSU is the issue. Even if it's not, I'd replace it anyway, with something higher quality. Seasonic is great, and most of the Corsair units are good as well. Go to http://www.jonnyguru.com and read up. Don't cheap out on your PSU (like I did), because that ~$20-30 savings could cost you a bunch of your components if something blows up....

 

[Rockstar1346]

Wow we seriously have the exact same problems I have the raid max 530sshybrid and a gtx 660 but when I take the card out it runs on integrated it works perfect. I have the same mother board the extreme 4 I guess I'll have to buy a new psu thanks a lot you've helped me tremendously

 

[itsfelixthecat]

Wow we seriously have the exact same problems I have the raid max 530sshybrid and a gtx 660 but when I take the card out it runs on integrated it works perfect. I have the same mother board the extreme 4 I guess I'll have to buy a new psu thanks a lot you've helped me tremendously

No problem!