PC sometimes restarts while booting then boots fine on 2nd try

[mcewen98]

Hello, I thought I would see what others think about this issue I am having.

I just put together a new PC. The new components are:
MSI G33M motherboard
Gigabyte 8600gt video card
Intel e6550 cpu
4gb ddr2-667mhz
sata 320gb drive

I'm reusing my existing case, 350watt psu (it has a 20 pin atx connector, the motherboard has a 24pin connection but it says 20 pin psu's work fine too), dvd burner and 300gb pata storage drive. The problem I am seeing is that the computer starts to boot and then 2 seconds later (before it gets to the OS or grub) shuts off. A couple seconds later it then boots up on its own and works 100% fine. There is a single quick beep from the speaker. Once it's up and running playing games and everything else works fine.

This does not happen every single time I boot up. It usually happens on the first boot of the day or if I shut off the switch on the back of the PSU. Sometimes when I do a restart from within the OS it also does it.

I disconnected everything (drives, 8600gt, case fans, etc) and used the onboard video. I replaced the PSU with one a new one that's 430 watts and atx 2.2 complaint. It still did the same thing, so I know it's not my slightly older PSU causing the problem. I removed all but one stick of ram and tried each one individually and still got it to do the restart thing. I believe this will also happen if I try to boot without any ram at all (I need to test this again), so I don't think it's the memory. I noticed that if I clear the cmos it's less likely to do the restart on next startup. I thought it could even by a sticky power button but as far as I can tell it's working correctly.

I've gone through the bios settings, reboot on power failure is disabled, everything is at their default values. Once in a rare while I get a message on boot that the "previous over clocking failed", even though I have never changed a single settings related to OC'ing. I think this may be related to me forcing it to power off before it does the automatic restart.

I think my next step is to see if I can get the motherboard exchanged. Has anyone else had a problem like this or have any other ideas?

Thanks a lot!
Spencer

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

My first guess would have been PSU having a bad rail but, I see you've already addressed that. Try running the manufs drive check on your HDD. Also, it wouldn't hurt to run memtest even though you've experienced the same thing with just one stick of ram (BTW no ram = no boot)

 

[mcewen98]

Thanks for the reply. I know it's not hard drive related either because it does it when they are not connected. I ran memtest86 from my grub boot menu before I realized there was this problem... I got impatient and stopped it before it finished. I did let it run for quite some time and there was nothing indicating any errors. I'll let it run for a while tonight and see what happens, even though the more I think about it the more I think it's the MB.

 

[mcewen98]

Well I think I figured out the problem, it's the cheap HP memory that I have. I got the replacement motherboard and it did the same exact thing. I decided for the heck of it to disable the "set by SPD" memory setting. I left the defaults how they were with a CAS latency of 6 and now it works fine. I cannot get it to do the restart thing that it was doing.

I had also ran the memory test in completion and there were no errors reported. I think what was happening is that the board/memory combination didn't like the 'set by SPD' defaults. When there is a total power loss (when it sits for a long time or when the power plug is disconnected) it has to re detect the settings, realize they won't work, and then reboot with the correct settings.

 

[robisbell]

I would recommend you also replace the PSu with a proper one that can supply the correct amount of power needed for that board, I would recommend a 500watt at least.

if the board needs 24 pins, I do not recommend you skimp and only use 20.

 

[mcewen98]

Update #2 - I turned it on this morning and it did the same thing, so my above post about the SPD setting did not really fix it. I think I may have really figured it out this time though. I noticed that the volts for the ram was set to 1.9. I turned it down to 1.8 and could not get it to do the reboot thing. My current theory is that MSI ships the board with slightly bumped up settings that are causing problems with the memory that I have. I believe that 1.8v is standard for DDR2 memory. I think the board resets itself when it detects that the memory is not going to work correctly at 1.9v, so it tries again with a more conservative setting.

robisbell: read my original post. It's absolutely not the PSU. The same thing happens with a brand new 430watt atx 2.2 compliant 24pin psu. The MSI manual states that 20 pin PSU's will work just as well as those with 24pins, so I'm not "skimping" and I do have a "proper" one. The only difference between 24 and 20 pins is the amount of power it provides the board. If I were OC'ing, then yeah, maybe a more powerful 24 pin would be needed. 350watts is PLENTY for my setup. The problem still shows itself when only the cpu, memory, and board are powered up. 500watt would be overkill and the problem would still exist.

 

[robisbell]

well, I will leave you to your decision, good luck with it.