[Troubleshooting Random Reboots] -
Troubleshooting Random Reboots
Discuss Troubleshooting Random Reboots
Posted by: Elbatrop1
[b]Welcome to Elbatrop1's Random Reboot Troubleshooting Guide.[/b]
[b]Random reboots seem to plague computer builders/users frequently. I will describe some common causes of random reboots, as well as some ways to help fix/prevent them. [/b]
~This guide is intended for computers that arent being overclocked. If you are overclocking and dont know enough about diagnosing random reboots, shame on you:p~
[b]If anyone has anything to add to my list, please post below and I will add it. I know that this isnt complete, but these seem to be the most frequent causes of random reboots. Hopefully this gets stickied, as I'm sure it will help new and old members alike:D[/b]
[b]Overheating[/b]
Description
When your CPU overheats, it will usually cause your computer to reboot. Video card overheating causes artifacts to appear on your screen, and usually wont cause reboots.
Diagnostic
Enter BIOS upon powering on your computer. Most BIOs have a hardware monitor. Use this to check your temperatures and fan speeds.
There is also hardware monitoring software that can check your temperatures from Windows. Your hardware monitoring software should have come with your motherboard. If you have no monitoring software, you can go to [url]www.cpuid.com[/url] and get [url=http://www.cpuid.org/pcwizard.php]PC Wizard.[/url] PC Wizard is an easy to use program that will let you know what kind of temperatures you have, and what your fan speeds are at.
Causes
CPU overheating is usually caused by a failing CPU fan or improperly applied thermal paste. Fortuneately, these 2 causes are easy to fix. If the CPU fan is dead, buy a new one and install it. If the thermal paste is improperly applied, remove the old paste off and apply new paste.
[b]Power Supply (PSU) Problems[/b]
Description
It is important to have a functioning, proper size of PSU for your computer. Having an underpowered or failing PSU is often the cause for random reboots. To get an estimate of how powerful a PSU, use [url=http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/]this PSU calculator[/url] and add about 50W to the minimum power the calculator gives you.
Diagnostic
The easiest and best way to diagnose a faulty PSU is to swap it with another one that you know is in good working order. Because everyone doesnt always have an extra PSU around, this might not be practical. Other than swapping, the diagnosis of a faulty PSU might be because no other problems seem to be causing the random reboots.
Causes
PSUs just die after a while. Just like most electrical components, they age and die. Often, a PSU will make a loud noise, or let out some smoke. Sometimes, though, the PSU will die silently. Sometimes the PSU will die due to overheating because its fan died.
[b]RAM[/b]
Description
Faulty RAM and RAM slots can cause random errors/reboots.
Diagnostic
The best way to determine if RAM is your problem is to run your computer with one stick at a time, and see if the problem occurs for either stick. This obviously doesnt apply if you only have one stick to begin with:D Also, try the RAM in different slots. The actual slots might be causing RAM-failing like problems. The next step is to run [url=www.memtest86.com]memtest86[/url] to determine if you have faulty RAM.
Cause
Sometimes RAM is just faulty. Either it makes it past quality control at the manufacturer or it gets damaged during shipping. Because most Memory manufacturers have lifetime warrenties on their products, either return the RAM to the retailer that you purchased it from or return the defective product to the manufacturer.
[b]Software[/b]
Description
Viruses, Spyware, etc can cause problems that resemble that of hardware problems.
Diagnostic
When none of the hardware causes seem to be causing the random reboots, there is a good chance that it is software related. Of course, software problems should be the first thing to check, because it is least inexpensive because you dont have to buy anything to replace faulty components. To prevent or fix, make sure you use a software or hardware firewall and an updated virus scanner and spyware scanner. Go to the TF [url=http://www.tech-forums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18743]Freeware Utilities List[/url] to get such things if you dont already have them.
Cause
Viruses, etc can come from a variety of places. Often, viruses will show up because of irresponsible web surfing or downloading, as well as pirated software.
Hopefully that helps some Random Rebooters :D
Posted by: killians45
Good stuff. Try disabling the reboot after system failure in the startup and recovery section. That way, although it will probably lock up you can at least solicite an error to work with. Also, check out the event viewer.
Posted by: nitestick
good work. i only just decided to consult this thread after i've been having some problems :(. still can't figure it out though. best i can come up with is for some reason it seems to be related to network protocol because it happens when i am using FTP (to my xbox) or surfing the net :S. i dunno i am tired right now and if i can figure it out i will post my findings so they might help other people
Posted by: TechKid
one odd problem i had with my msi k8n neo2 platinum mobo was with the exact memory slot i used. for some odd reason they had a setup to where if you had a so in so number of dimms and if it was dual sided or not you had to use certain slots. it caused me alot of problems with rebooting randomly. this is really the only motherboard i had problems with, and i dont think most motherboard are set up like mine, but just thought you should take some situation into consideration if your troubleshooting
Posted by: killians45
yes, some MBD have the memory matched differently. Say you have slot 1234, with 2 sticks you use slot 1 and 3 adding more would be slot 2 and 4.
Posted by: TechKid
it is a 1234 and i do have 2 sticks, but i use slots 1 and 2.
Posted by: harley3344
what helped my random reboot was msconfig.exe. disable all the startup items that u arnt sure about, but dont mess with anyhting other than the startup tab.... I kinda messed with the other tabs and made windows to not be activated anymore so unless u want to put in a 120 digit code than be careful.... lol im the only person on tf that could do that
Posted by: EricB
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by TechKid [/i]
[B]one odd problem i had with my msi k8n neo2 platinum mobo was with the exact memory slot i used. for some odd reason they had a setup to where if you had a so in so number of dimms and if it was dual sided or not you had to use certain slots. it caused me alot of problems with rebooting randomly. this is really the only motherboard i had problems with, and i dont think most motherboard are set up like mine, but just thought you should take some situation into consideration if your troubleshooting [/B][/QUOTE]
I had a similar situation with an msi board. they don't configure ram settings properly somethimes. getting an updated version of that board fixed the problem
Posted by: cstude
msconfig.exe what are some common services to shut off
Posted by: Law
The NIC card can cause a computer to start up and won't shut down. This is like a hard reboot that can damage your computer.
Posted by: Mach5
Just went through this with my PC. There is a new virus Mc Afee has just updated a fix. Causes random rebooting. At the time I got it McAfee didn't find it so I had to reformat and start over. If your system has been fine and you haven't added anything new software or hardware then this may be your problem. Start your system in safe mode and you should be able to backup files and then reformat. Hope this helps....
Posted by: bigstanklo
I had random reboots happen on my intel board because of the USB port i was using to connect my printer to. Searched this online and the bottom 2 ports (i believe labeled 3 and 4) come into conflict with another piece of hardware on the system so if you have something connected in there it reboots after about 10 hours uptime. Switching my USB printer to port 1 and my other USB stuff to port 2 solved the problem.
Posted by: nyokai
wow so many things cause random reboots, then theres me who doesnt have random reboots but a computer that dies when it plays games.... doesnt reboot just kinda kills everything, powers still on but nothing works, screen goes off, its a nightmare. So i cant play games, but i think the problem is to do with my gpu (graphics card) overheating, like the warning at the top of the post, this is because when i try to play newer more graphics intensive games i get the death quicker, im gonna try a new cooler on my gfx card and if it solves the problem i will tell y'all, and any other ideas for ppl with this problem would be greatly appreciated,
Posted by: Tygleris
Maybe someone can help me narrow down the problem...
My computer only randomly reboots when I'm playing video games. It does this on games as old as Diablo II all the way up to new high-end games like Black & White 2. I can't imagine it is an overheating problem, because I have two cooling fans inside, and one attatched to my video card, I believe. Maybe someone's had a similar problem?
Also, sometimes instead of it rebooting the computer, it just kicks me out of the game, with no warning message or anything.
Please help if you can, my computer was built for gaming, and that's the only thing I can't do on it now!
Posted by: nyokai
First things first, did you build the pc? and whats your graphics card, mobo, etc just so we can get an idea of how your pc handles things :)
Posted by: Tygleris
Yeah, I built it...
Intel P4 2.40GHz
512 MB memory... dont' know exactly what kind they are, but there are two 256s.
NVidia GeForce 6200 vc
2 Harddrives, 60 and 80 gig.
Sounblaster Live! Audio card... Er... am I forgetting anything?
Posted by: havok1980
I've had some strange troubles with my system recently. Started rebooting about a month ago. At first I tried a system restore. No good. I read further on the net and changed my power supply and cpu fan. Nothing. I bought a new hard drive and it still rebooted randomly.
I started to conclude that it only rebooted while I was connected to the internet with my 56k modem. I thought "great, I'll just change my modem!" I changed the modem and my PC worked fine for about 8 hours and out of nowhere it rebooted again. I'm close to changing the motherboard! Any help would be appreciated.
Specs:
AMD Athlon 2000+
768mb RAM
160gb HD
128mb GeForce MX440
Posted by: lewislp
I'm in a similar situation to you guys. I built the following computer:
Antec SLK2650-BQE with 350W PS
Asus P5GL-MX MB
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
Two Corsair ValueSelect 256 MB DDR400
ATI Radeon X550
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum with Front Panel Jacks
SATA HD
DVD/CD-RW
It's running a fresh install of Windows XP Home. At random times, it will shut off by itself with no error message -- sometimes after an hour, sometimes after a day or two, sometimes with applications running, sometimes with nothing running. It boots back up fine and has no other issues. All drivers and BIOS are latest and nothing is flagged in the hardware manager.
The ASUS PC Probe reports CPU temperatures no higher than 53 C, even under continuous heavy load, and all voltages stay very close to spec (within 0.3 V).
Any ideas?
Thanks. Larry
Posted by: lws_junior
After a year my pc began strangely rebooting whenever I execute certain programs. If I were to print a page in landscape mode the pc would reboot however printing in portrait would be fine.
Just idleing the pc is fine. A new power supply showed no differences. Perhaps the boot sector on the drive is damaged. I plan to replace the primary drive and try again.
Posted by: demob05
I've started experiencing problems on our office purchased Dell system (P4) with the system shutting down or hibernating suddenly after a few minutes of booting up.. The power is still on, but the system seems to go into terminal hibernation mode for no reason... checked the Power Options in Settings and ensured that Hibernation is deactivated along with the other setting options, but still shuts down (and doesn't auto reboot). Basically, you have to shut off the power manually (by pushing the on/off button) and start up again. Yep. the power is still on when the system "shuts" down. Then of course, does it again.
Is it in the power supply, or video card, or CPU, or combination?? System is only 3 years old, and haven't heard of these problems with Dells. Any advice would help.
Posted by: Metr01973
I'm having the same problem as Tygleris and my machine reboots while playing games but I didn't build mine I bought it. I've tried checking each stick and they all work OK but the Memtest86 program is to complicated for me. (sorry for being thick) Does anyone else have any ideas?
Posted by: TechKid
1) Your System could be overheating
2)The game may not support your video card (or video driver for that part)
Posted by: TechKid
and as a reply to demob05, if the system is on a domain, you need to check with your system administrator to see if theres a group policy object set on the systems for power save
Posted by: flahman
ok, so here's my problem. I run a pc business and a 'customer' has been having problems with one of my machines (which i built) for a few months now. Apparently the machine will random reboot, either on startup, emails, or generally anything, sometimes will go into sleep mode and sometimes shut down (with fans still running), i have had the machine in my office, plugged it in and it ran for over 24 hours non stop with no issues, at all, this has happened so many times now and the customer is very irate (which is not helping!) i can't fault the computer as it runs perfectly on my office desk, yet when the customer takes it home and plugs it in, the problem starts, might run for 5 minutes or 5 hours then shut down. I have suggested to him to check his power points and extension cables etc but he insists they are all good. Since i can't fault the machine and will have to return it - yet again, to this customer with a no fault found, I expect that it will be an ongoing issue, as i say, it runs fine in my office so ps, ram and processor can't be the problem? system temp is 31oC and processor temp is 40oC... the customer insists it is on a desktop with adequate ventilation. Anyone got any ideas here as im sure the customer will not be happy that his computer works! (at least when its with me! :)
Posted by: EricB
the extension cord is 1 problem. his house might not be wired properly. he might need to buy this and check his wiring
[IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/vance43211/ElectricalCheck005.jpg[/IMG]
Posted by: flahman
yeah, i suggested to him that his extension cord might not be working properly, but he insists it is and that its running his old computer at present... the suggestion that his house is wired back to front nearly got my head bitten off also... I'm going to replace the PS and see if it makes any difference, pulling at straws now as the current PS works fine, at least in my environment... Any profit i made on this computer has long since gone with the time i've already spent testing this thing only to find nothing wrong! Computers, gotta love 'em...
Posted by: EricB
I had this exact problem last year. it play fine everywhere, but in my actual living room environment. I replaced everything. I ended up with a new 64 bit computer because of this and the problem still persisted. I eventually narrowed it down to my scanner. it actually worked, but it was giving my computer the blue screen of death.
I had rewired my house from 100A to 200A thinking that something was wrong with my electric (that had need that done anyway, because of my electrical goodies, so I got another benefit out of that) because it all started when when we had a surge that knock the power out to our neighborhood for 2 hours on the 4th of july. it killed my brand new AC, my wife's computer powersupply (I had to buy a new psu and case as it was a sony viao) and my 50 inch jvc TV. my computer was on battery backup at the time (my wife now have one), but my scanner wasn't
the electric company didn't refund anything either
I would leave my scanner off when ever I wasn't using it afterwards, but I would sometime accidently leave it on and get the BSOD.
I am now using an inferior hp scanner now (the 1st one was a microtek 6000)
Posted by: flahman
Yeah, i was suspecting that this guys lexmark printer might have had something to do with all this too... the customer is now telling me that he is going to take legal action if I can't guarantee it will work in his house... a bit much as you'd imagine... its like sueing Ford because the brand new car you bought from them, won't fit in your garage... sometimes i wonder why i do this...