Random Reboots started 2 weeks ago

[Overkiller]

Hello all,

I've been troubleshooting pc's forever and as such I've grown a certain "feeling" towards what's wrong. I have a feeling its the RAM but I just wanted to see what else might be at fault?

Specs:

Abit Ic7-max3
P4C 2.8 @ 3.22 ghz[1.575V , 1.525 actual]
HyperX pc4000 @ 233 [2.8 V, 2.7V actual]
Enermax 460W PSU
Ati Radeon 9700 PRo

It's been running at the above speed for over a year so that isn't the issue. Cpu is run 24/7 @ full Load (run distributed computing) and has been for over a year.


Basically this is what happens:

About a week ago it began acting funny. It would intermittently restart itself. this was about once a day and usually when i had about 10 programs going at the same time. no sweat i thought. Probably just conflicting software.

Updated my drivers, ran ad-aware & spybot, defragged [its a recent reformat too]

The problem is especially noticeable while playing games. It will restart about every 20 minutes. The problem is INCREASING as today it was just sitting with an excel spreadsheet running (note cpu was @ 100% as per norm. due to DC) and it rebooted. No warning, no sound, nada. just reboots.

Temps are Fine, power is stable, its defragged, no spyware, recent reformat, updated drivers...I'm thinking it HAS to be a hardware issue.

What does our esteemed audience say I should look at next? [note: i do not have a floppy drive and I cannot seem to get nero to create a bootable cd-rom w/ memtest on it.. ideas?]

Many thanks.

 

[Pciber]

just because you have had your processor running at that speed doesn't mean its not the problem. Also, temps from motherboard sensors usually aren't super accurate. What immediately comes to mind to me is that your processor is slowly dieing. If you happen to have a spair p4 sitting around, stick it in and see if it becomes stable. Do the same if you have extra ram, but not at the same time, so you can determine which it is. Also, if you have more than 1 stick of ram, take all but 1 stick out, see if its stable, if it is, put another stick in, etc, etc..

 

[3chordcharlie]

set everything to stock speed and voltage, and see if the problem keeps happening. you could be having slow cpu death.

you could also try leaving it OC'd, and stop the DC program, then see if it keeps happening all the time, or only when you play games (i.e. high cpu useage).

 

[Overkiller]

Swapped both hyperX sticks from the current 2 slots into the other 2 slots...it posts but no screen display. but them back to the original 2 slots and still nothing. swap out 9700 pro with a 9500 pro and still nothing. remove one 512mb stick and it has been going fine. cannot seem to replicate the crashing.

putting in the 9700 pro again w/out the other ram stick. As for slow cpu death. that is highly highly unlikely. Note that its running at stock voltage...

As for clocking to stock settings. that is purely unnaceptable

[edit] i should probably add that until recently i would get an "unhandled exception error writting to "000x009" style error mssg occasionally. (now it just reboots). That is usually an error associated with Ram i believe..

 

[3chordcharlie]

I didn't mean run it stock, I just meant for testing purposes

sounds like maybe you have a bad stick of ram though, hope you get it worked out.

 

[Bozo Galora]

check your caps

 

[Overkiller]

update:

Thank you for all the help guys. It was what my gut told me... a bad stick of ram.

Now I do have a further question though..

I've lost one 512mb stick of Corsair XMS and now this hayperX stick. I'm being led to believe its the actual ram slot on the motherboard.

I am almost 100% positive both faulty ram modules have now come from the same slot =/

Should I be worried or just learn from this and if i end up buying a replacementjust avoid that slot like the plague? Or should i look into an upgrade (i think i'm just trying to justify an AMD a64 purchase here )

Many Thanks!

 

[daniel49]

did you run any memory diagnostics if you did I missed that?
If you continue blowing out sticks of ram in that slot that would seem to indicate a bad slot yes by #3 I would say you had gone beyond coincidence.
can you just leave that slot empty? If it is bad how far behind are the other slots, one wonders ??
doesn't take too many sticks of ram to add up to a new mb in price.