random reboot, need help

[argoldst]

My new computer is randomly rebooting but not very often (about 1 time every 3 days).

It is a new computer so it should run perfectly. All I get when it reboots is that "windows has recovered from a serious error".

Normally, I would stress test the system to try and find the bad hardware part but since it is happening so rarely, I'm not sure this is going to work.

Any ideas?

 

[wpshooter]

Is this a computer you built or one that you purchased ?

Please give details on what hardware is in the system.

Thanks.

 

[argoldst]

I bought this system from monarch (installed vid card, and hd myself).

Antec P180 Case
Enermax EG565P-FMA REV.2 FMA Series ATX Support nVIDIA SLi
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM NF4 SLI S939
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400 939
Thermal Grease, Shin-Etsu G675
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu Silent CPU Cooling Kit
OCZ OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K 2gb (2x1gb) EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum
LITE ON SOHD-16P9S DVD (BLACK COLOR) 16X DVD 48 X CDROM
MITSUMI FLOPPY,7 in 1, BLACK ,CARD,READER
Hitachi sata 2 500 gig hd.
2 xfx 7800 (comes oc'd to 490) gtx vid card in sli.
creative x-fi (but the lockups occurred before I installed this so I doubt this is the cause).

The cpu and mb temps look good so I am almost positive the issue is not heat.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Is your system stable? Have you ran memtest and prime95 yet? If not, do it.

 

[wpshooter]

Are you using Pc Probe program from ASUS to check temperatures ?

 

[argoldst]

the only thing I have done is stress tested the system using some sandra tools.

Aqua3d test is also fine.

Are either/both those programs free?

Yes, using pcprobe and temps are all low. no problems there (vid card temps are also low)

 

[wpshooter]

If it is not driver or software related, the first thing I would want to do would be to get the diagnostic for the hard drive and makes sure there is not a problem there.

If the drive comes up clean after diagnostic, I would then move on to updating BIOS and ALL drivers.

Also, have you called Monarch about this ?

 

[argoldst]

I called monarch and they suggested I send it back but I do not want to go 2+ weeks with no computer so I am trying to solve it myself. Plus it is a rare problem. It is likely that they will find nothing as it might go a few days without crashing.

I updated ALL my drivers when I got the computer (about 2.5 weeks ago).

I will run the hitachi diagnostics tool and see what I get.

Really, I am just trying to find something that will make my computer crash all the time, then I can pull various parts and find the problem. But since this shutdown is rather rare, it is impossible for me to pull parts

 

[wpshooter]

Up to date on BIOS & also all operating system patches applied ?

 

[argoldst]

yes, everything up to date.

One thing I should mention, one time, about 1.5 weeks ago, my computer just shut off, completely.

It would NOT turn back on. I rechecked all plugs and cards were seated properly, still would not restart.

After about 5 minutes it finally would turn on and acted fine. This new puter has just been too weird for me.

 

[DRavisher]

It is probably a good idea to download memtest: http://www.memtest.org/
Just download one of the .ISO files and burn to a CD. If you let it run over night and there are no errors, you can be reasonably sure that you RAM is working ok. For stress testing prime95 is very nice, since it will tell you if you computer were to calculate wrong too.

 

[wpshooter]

Are you running on UPS ? What brand, what VA or wattage ?

Also, although, you have a name brand power supply with good rating, do you have another power supply you could try ?

 

[Oyeve]

Do you put your system in "standby" mode? Sometimes a random reboot happens with systems that utilize standby.

 

[argoldst]

I do not use standbye mode and I am running on a APC 1000.

 

[wpshooter]

Sounds like to me that you have eliminated pretty much everything except possible hard drive problem or power supply problem.

Run memory test and stress test like the other poster said.

My first bet would be on a minor anomoly in the power supply.

 

[argoldst]

I agree, could be the power supply but is the ps I have have enough power for the system I have (and sli)? Monarch told me yes but I was wondering if it is just not strong enough.

 

[wpshooter]

It would seem to me that it should be sufficient. Probably something slightly out of spec.

Would try to see if Monarch would swap.

 

[argoldst]

Ok, I tested the memory and hard drive and both passed so I guess I can rule those out. All that really leaves is the mb, cpu, or power supply. Any ideas on how to test these?

Do you guys think this could be software issue?

 

[xXgambitXx]

I'd say to rule out the vid cards by returning them to stock for a few days, see if that fixes it.
That's the first thing I do when things get jacked while I'm OCing and it usually fixes it.

 

[argoldst]

They are stock. They came stock overclocked to 490 (similar to how bfg comes stock overclocked.

Should I bother removing one vid card and trying the system without sli? My only problem is that I cannot reproduce this problem. Sometimes it happens twice a day, sometimes nothing for 2 days.