[Solved] Constantly restarting PC

[Axel J. Rose]

Hey there you guys.

I've built myself a few towers over the years and I've got this new and very frustrating issue. You can see my setup in my signature, it's a fairly decent gaming tower. I've built it last November and up until last Monday, it worked pretty well.

Here's how it happened. Last Monday I was playing Mass Effect in anticipation of the sequel I later received on Wednesday. At some point, the image froze for about 2 seconds, and then went dark. Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't work. I rebooted, and it took at least 10 minutes to get to the login screen (whereas it'd only take 30 seconds at worst in normal circumstances). There though, all was smooth sailing. I fired up all my anti-virus and maintenance software, and went to sleep. The next morning, the tower was shut down. I tried booting, and whenever I'd get to Windows' loading screen, the tower would shut down instantly, stay still for a few seconds, and try to reboot on its own again.

Now, I thought it might be overheating from the CPU. It happened to my last tower and was fixed easily. I installed my Megahalem heat sink, a new 120mm fan, bolted it solid, and tried again. No luck. Tried booting from the Windows DVD, from my back-up hard drive, from safe/repair mode, no luck again. Now the P6T has Splashtop, a Linux-based instant-on OS installed on the motherboard. When I start, it does show up on the screen and works flawlessly. Anytime I'd try to get into Windows though, the constant reset would come back to haunt me. Now I rotated all 3 RAM sticks individually, no results either.

I'm getting pretty desperate here. Any of you guys have any idea as to what could possibly be wrong, or do I have no other choice but bring that to professionals?

 

[AKA]

Sounds like you already disconnected power when putting on Megahalem, so that rules that out, unless you did it while still connected to power.

Reset BIOS?

Did you say it failed when attempting to run repair from Windows 7 disc?
Or failed trying to load from backup hard drive?

The long boot time would likely be an issue with the OS or the hard drives.

If you already tried to reinstall or repair the OS and that fails then the hard drive is the next step to check out assuming you already reset power, bios, re-checked connections, disconnected peripherals and removed any other non essential hardware.

Try changing the hard drive to another sata port. Also disconnect your extra hard drive.

I assume you have the SSD as your system drive?

 

[TJCS]

Suggestions:

• Try setting the memory to 1066 and try booting again.
• Test system with a different PSU
• Check your power outlet is not overload

 

[Axel J. Rose]

Yes, the SSD is the system drive. It makes for a very costly storage drive otherwise.

I did try to boot from my back-up drive, with the Windows DVD + SSD, with the Windows DVD + Back-up drive, and Windows DVD + Storage drive only. None worked, sadly.

The power outlet is probably fine, no new devices were added in many months, and it's got a whole breaker all for itself. Still, I'll try switching to a new, see if it makes any difference.

I'll try switching SATA ports tonight and reset the BIOS. If need be, I'll change the RAM clocks too. Unfortunately, I have no spare PSU to work with, even less one that can handle a GTX285 SLI configuration, so this option's out, for the time being.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll let you know if it works out.

 

[Axel J. Rose]

Well, no luck with anything so far. Beyond trying a new PSU (no one at hand), I've tried everything and nothing works. Unless anybody else has any idea, I think I'll have no choice but bring it to an IT shop to have it looked at.

 

[daniel49]

I would suspect the ps. any odd smells? can you test rails with meter to see what its putting out?
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=137886

 

[Axel J. Rose]

Just got a call from a friend at the IT shop. He did not have good news for me.

Somehow, my motherboard's spacers failed me, and caused a spark inside the case. My CPU, mobo and one of my GPU are fried. Dead. The rest is safe. The only thing to do is to try to RMA the three components, and hope for the best.

Not only that, but despite having bought the 2 GPUs together, from the same store, as the same model, one of them was a GTX285 OC and the other an OCX, which somehow made it into the build without anyone noticing.

Tomorrow, I'll go to the shop and have a sit-down with my pal and try to decide what to do next. Most likely, I'll poney up for a new mobo and CPU to make do in the meantime. When or if the RMAs come in, I'll sell them back and try to recoup some of the lost money. Goddamn, that's a hard pill to swallow.

So there. The mystery's cleared. Thanks for all of you guys for the help. Any tips you can give me for the RMAs, I've never used that before.

 

[Gunbuster]

Though possible I doubt three components are dead. The local IT guy may be lazy or getting ready to take you for a ride after seeing the high $$$ components you have.

 

[Axel J. Rose]

Unlikely, it's one of my best friends and I've known him for years. I'll get the old components back for RMA, and if I wish I can just wait for replacement, but damn, that could take a while, and I'm not ready to wait so long.

Still, I understand why you think that. Especially since one GPU plus RAM are still OK.

 

[lez]

Quote:
"Now the P6T has Splashtop, a Linux-based instant-on OS installed on the motherboard. When I start, it does show up on the screen and works flawlessly."


"Somehow, my motherboard's spacers failed me, and caused a spark inside the case. My CPU, mobo and one of my GPU are fried. Dead. The rest is safe. The only thing to do is to try to RMA the three components, and hope for the best."


If I were you I would reconsider the "friendship" with this guy of yours.

 

[NesuD]

Somehow, my motherboard's spacers failed me, and caused a spark inside the case.

Thats highly improbable. Motherboard spacers don't fail. They are either installed incorrectly, correctly, or not at all. Who put this together? If there was a short caused by a spacer then It was the assemblers error. In any case thats not a warranty failure so you shouldn't be RMAing any of those parts. Thats dishonest.

 

[pcgeek11]

Quote:
"Now the P6T has Splashtop, a Linux-based instant-on OS installed on the motherboard. When I start, it does show up on the screen and works flawlessly."


"Somehow, my motherboard's spacers failed me, and caused a spark inside the case. My CPU, mobo and one of my GPU are fried. Dead. The rest is safe. The only thing to do is to try to RMA the three components, and hope for the best."


If I were you I would reconsider the "friendship" with this guy of yours.

This is the gospel ^^^^

Plus this:

I've built myself a few towers over the years and I've got this new and very frustrating issue. You can see my setup in my signature, it's a fairly decent gaming tower. I've built it last November and up until last Monday, it worked pretty well.

The standoff don't work for a while then fail....

Somebody is full of fish!

 

[jackschmittusa]

What kind of pc pro called a standoff a "spacer" when he explained the problem?

I agree that it's hard to believe that a standoff suddenly caused a short after working for months. Did it or the mb move a quarter of an inch all of a sudden? How does one of them fail anyway? Only times I've seen a standoff short a mb was when it was in the wrong place, and it happens immediately.

I agree that RMAing damaged parts is theft that causes the rest of us to pay more for parts.

 

[Headfoot]

If the CPU is fried you would not be able to get into the Splashtop. If the motherboard was fried, you would not be able to get into Splashtop either.

It sounds like perhaps there is a problem with the motherboard in relation to the harddrive.


Can you get into the Windows DVD setup?
Have you tried installing an entirely new, fresh copy of Windows?

If you can't install Windows again on any drive, perhaps there is something wrong with your SATA on the motherboard. I am just speculating.