"popping" or "zapping" noise accompanied by system reboot

[fst89lx]

I have a pre-built system from IbuyPower, that I have had for about a year and a half. Twice (that I know of) I have been using the computer and out of the blue I get a "pop" or "zap" (like a bug zapper) noise coming from the tower, immediately followed by the system rebooting itself (these two events were at least 4 months or more apart).

Everything appears to be fine when the system comes back online, but I can only think that something is wrong and this could lead to failures down the road.

I was not doing anything resource intensive when this happened either, so I don't think it is a temperature issue.

I looked at event viewer after it happened last time, and the one that stood out was: Critical event id 41. The description for that event was "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

I have read that it could be capacitors popping, but would the system reboot itself and then be fine if I was popping capacitors?? Should I be worried, is there anything I can do to find out what the noise is?

Specs:
i52500k
gigabyte mobo
8gb ddr3 1600 (do NOT know the brand, could open case and look if I need to)
Corsair TX750 power supply

Thank you!

 

[smeezekitty]

Is the power cord in tight? If it briefly looses contact it can make an arcing sound and cause a shutdown/reboot.

 

[fst89lx]

Is the power cord in tight? If it briefly looses contact it can make an arcing sound and cause a shutdown/reboot.

Yes, was actually the first thing I looked at. Thought maybe my cat had been fooling with the cords below my desk and possibly knocked it loose but it was tight.

 

[smeezekitty]

Check the CPU and motherboard 20 pin connector to make it is seated well. Otherwise the PSU is suspect.

 

[fst89lx]

Check the CPU and motherboard 20 pin connector to make it is seated well. Otherwise the PSU is suspect.

Ok, I will open it up tomorrow and check that out. I guess its not too bad if the power supply goes out, according to the warranty info on corsairs website it has a 5 year warranty. Just hope that if I do have to send it in, I can take it out myself and send it to corsair, and not have to send the pc back to ibuypower so they can take it out.

Is there anything else I should check for while I have the case open? I will look for burn marks and tracks on the motherboard while I am in there.

Oh yea, I forgot. For the first time ever while playing battlefield 3 yesterday, I had some real bad graphic glitching. Everything, and I mean everything had really weird textures/colors. I haven't played since then but I am wondering if maybe the vid card could have caused the noise and reboot...

 

[smeezekitty]

Now that you mention it, it is possible that something is wrong with the GPU. Look for any burnt marks on the motherboard and GPU.
Do you have onboard video?

 

[fst89lx]

I think I will get time today to open it up and look. I jumped into a game of bf3 real quick this morning and it looked really bad again... I took screenshots this time.

GTX560 Ti

http://i44.tinypic.com/339pyzs.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/rhpx82.png

 

[smeezekitty]

That looks very bad. Most likely a bad GPU.

 

[fst89lx]

I just got done inspecting. Nothing looks wrong w/ the motherboard or gfx card... I could not see everything on the card because I would have had to remove the fans and cooling fins/piping but from the back side there are no burns, or melted solder, and from what I could see, all the capacitors are fine.

Also just to note, Starcraft 2 runs fine, no graphics corruption at all.

I don't know really know where I should go from here.