Help with Mysterious System Reboots.....

[brianblair]

I have a homebuilt computer that is about 2 years old.

Asus A7V333
Corsair XMS2700 RAM
GeForce Ti4600 Video
2-WD 120GB Hard Drives in Raid Mirror
1-WD 200GB Hard Drive

The computer has been running fine for as long as I can remember. I haven't installed any new programs in 2-3 months. I turned the computer off on Saturday morning. Last night, my wife turned the computer on booted into windows XP pro just fine. She went to check her email and midway through the email download, the computer went to a BLUE stop screen for about 5 seconds and then rebooted.

I came in and booted into Safe mode. Rebooted the computer into windows just fine. A windows Error window popped up and basically stated that there was a problem the last time windows booted, and it was with the memory. It gave me a link to download a Microsoft memory diagnostic program...which I downloaded but have ran yet.

I checked the hardware settings for any obvious problems and then ran windows update and downloaded a new IE service pack. I rebooted the computer again....then logged into my wife's account. Opened Outlook 2002 and got the Blue Screen again. All I could catch before the system rebooted was that it was a STOP 0x00000008e error. I was able to log back into my account and when I clicked on internet explorer, the computer rebooted (and didn't go into the blue STOP screen). I then just turned the machine off because it was late.

I am going to pull the 2 sticks of ram and try each one by itself.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of what I might try?

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention this....my brother has a computer we built at the same time with the same basic motherboard (his doesn't have the onboard RAID), and processor. He has a different brand of memory and only 1 hard drive. His computer has been doing the mysterious rebooting for about six months now. We just wiped the hard drive and reinstalled windows and it is still doing it. Sometimes he gets a STOP 0x00000001e error.

This makes me wonder if there is a driver conflict with windows and a driver that is common to both of our motherboards.

 

[mbackof]

Here are some thoughts, I would try them in this order:
Run a spyware checker, adaware, spybot or whatever your favorite checker is.
Open your case and check your connections. Reseat PCI cards, reseat the memory, check to make sure the processor is seated. Check all of the IDE connectors and power connectors. Check to see if the power cord connection is loose.
If you think it might be a driver issue, reload your motherboard, video, and sound drivers.
Reinstall Windows.
Try another power supply.
Try different memory.

Good luck,

Mike

 

[ianbergman]

Always a good idea to check for heat issues -- make sure all your fans are still working. Beyond that, though, it does sound like failing RAM. Let us know how replacing the memory sticks goes...

also, is there an updated BIOS available for your motherboard?

 

[BarnyardMonkey]

I would try what you suggested first:


-Try one stick of Ram at a time

-Then if still having problems,keep your side panel off the case (unless allready off) since it may be a heat problem

-If its neither of thoughs,i would say your PowerSupply
And lastly it would prob be the Board itself.

Just this last week i fixed a guys system with similiar problems.
his was due to a bad AGP port on his Board.


Good Luck and let us know how it goes.
These problems can be rough to track down.



Shawn.