My PC boots fine, but around 5 minutes after I login it reboots, help!

[Zephurious]

Additionally, on startup after one of these reboots, if I had anti-surge protection on it would say a surge was detected even though there was no surge. Well I assume there wasn't cause it always said there was, and I doubt that as nothing else was affected. Also, when I took the anti surge off, it still rebooted.

Build
Mobo: ASUS P5G41T-M LX PLUS - LGA 775 - G41 - Support DirectX 10 - Up to 8Gb DDR3
CPU: Intel Pentium D 3.0 GHz
PSU: Diablotek EL series 500w
RAM: Corsair XMS3 8 GB (2 x 4GB) 1333 MHz PC3-10666 240-Pin DDR3 Memory
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
Disk Drive: Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM Drive
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4550

 

[RealBeast]

Most likely causes: could be your memory so check it with Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/), could be your PSU or could be heat -- those would be where I started the diagnostics.

How long ago did the problem start and did you do anything to the computer, like install components, drivers, etc. around that time?

 

[Zephurious]

I just built this rig, it runs 100% fine in safe mode, only drivers I installed were the drivers for my graphics card, mouse, and my wireless adapter dongle. It seemed like it was working before I installed the drivers so I system restored after the second reboot thinking it would help. the temperatures are normal and since safe mode works does that rule out the PSU?

 

[RealBeast]

Sounds like I would focus on those drivers -- look for the latest and then install one at a time and I think you will find the issue. I have come across a few drivers that just didn't like my system. And yes, I think your PSU is okay with the safe mode running fine.

I would start with the graphic card and first delete every trace of it and then install the newest drivers, then the wireless dongle, and last the mouse since you can use that without additional drivers if needed.

 

[Zephurious]

Quick update: Apparently I pulled a stupid move and downloaded the drivers through ati's site and not through sapphire's. They both have 4550 drivers but they look different so this might be the cause. I'm trying this now.

 

[RealBeast]

We've all done stuff like that, which is why it comes to mind high on the list.

 

[Zephurious]

Haha, I know, I just wish it didn't happen as often. So I re-installed windows, deleted all the old files and its working fine after installing the adapter. I going to restart, then install the GPU driver, then restart again and see if it's still okay.

 

[Zephurious]

Okay so after I restarted and windows installed updates the rebooting started again. Windows activation wouldnt have anything to do with this, would it?

 

[RealBeast]

No, although I wait until everything is running well to activate, not activating for >30 day (although some trial versions allow 90 day AFAIK) would only start giving you notices to activate and would not cause your issue. Did you give each driver test time, or did it start with the graphic driver?

You do not need to re-install Windows to remove the driver, just go to the programs control panel in safe mode and uninstall the graphic driver.

 

[Zephurious]

Ok, duly noted, as that would save a lot of time. It seems if I linger at the login screen for a bit the problem doesn't happen. I have no clue how that changes anything though.

 

[Zephurious]

Ok, so it still happens, but it seems the longer I wait at the login screen, the longer I have before crash... I'm so confused.

 

[Wamphryi]

The main suspect is your PSU. I looked it up and it looks like a cheap and nasty.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0349703

A PSU for $20 dollars? The reason I suspect you are getting surge messages is because your PSU is fluctuating on its voltage and your system is trying to warn you and protect itself.

Change the PSU to something of quality and likely the bad thing will go away.

The reason why it runs well in safe mode is likely due to the fact the GPU is running in VGA mode and not loading the PSU railing up enough to make it trip. Those Radeons like stable power and lots of it under heavy load.

 

[xaephod]

True, in safe mode the graphics card is not really working hard. Did you check the ram? After ram testing, as above, it sounds like a bad PSU.

 

[raydog]

True, in safe mode the graphics card is not really working hard. Did you check the ram? After ram testing, as above, it sounds like a bad PSU.

Yeah I would guess PSU or loose connection somewhere. Make sure all your connections are secure and stress it w/ prime 95. If it reboots switch out that POS PSU.

 

[Guest]

easy way to test if it's the power supply, load Prime95 and go for the test that uses max heat (max heat = max power usage as far as I understand), if that doesn't crash you load up Furmark and stress the video card. Normally either one will cause a BSOD/reset if the PSU is weak. As others have said when you don't have the video driver installed the GPU isn't really using much electricity (same in safe mode) so you'll be fine. But start stressing and you'll have issues.

Best of luck!

 

[pat]

Your CPU is not on the list of cpu supported by your motherboard. The pentium D are power hungry CPU and maybe the regulator on the board are not powerful enough to support these Intel processor. Second, they were pretty hot chip. Just make sure the heat sink is correctly installed ans is making good contact with the CPU. I would just do more research on google to make sure the motherboard can safely support the old CPU as these CPU could literraly kill a board when running at full load if the board is not correctly power regulated. This is specially true for cheap mATX board.

Then, maybe that the PSU is failing under the prolonged load of the CPU and video card if it is it is cheap, making the power surge tripping.

 

[bsknath]

You can give a try to following-
1-Check whether your CPU is overheating due to insufficient cooling system.
2-Check for Power Management setting of your PC.
3- Scan for malwares or virus.

 

[Tein]

Recently, I read this page:
http://www.computerhope.com/vinfo/blaster.htm