Windows keeps restarting on my brand new assembled PC

[adityasrinivasb]

I got a PC assembled last week with the following configuration

1. Intel i7 4790k processor
2. Asus z97-A Motherboard
3. Kingston 8 GB x2 RAM
4. Seagate hard disk

I selected the defaults option in the UEFI bios. I installed the x64 trial version of windows 7 enterprise edition. I have problems using the PC after that. Two problems I have

1. The PC keeps restarting, complains that windows shutdown improperly and gives me the repair option. I hit the repair option and windows repairs and restarts. After that, I use the PC for sometime and go away. The PC goes in to hibernation. I come back and move the mouse and PC restarts. Today I observed, When the restart happened, it shutdown the pc momentarily as usual and again powered on. As soon as it powered on, it shutdown and again powered on and that cycle continued. I was afraid this would damage the PC and so I shut it down. What could be wrong with the computer? Could this be a hardware problem? I purchased the Seagate hard disk a couple of years back for storage. When I bought the desktop PC last week, I just plugged it inside the PC. I checked the hard disk with seatool from Seagate. Everything looks fine. Could there be a problem with processor or motherboard? Could this be a problem with loose contact of CPU fan with the processor? Are there chances that I got a defective CPU or motherboard?

2. I purchased a netgear wireless USB adapter. I installed the driver for this adapter and during install it asked me to plug the device. I plugged the device to one of the rear USB 3.0 ports and PC detected it and the adapter identified the network and connected. Now when I restart the computer, the wireless adapter cannot detect the network and connect to it. The only way I can make this work is if I remove the adapter from back USB ports and plug the adapter to the front USB ports. It detects and connects to the network only from the front side USB ports. Somebody told me that this could be because of wall or objects around the rear USB ports. They might be blocking the detection of the router. They asked me to turn the computer so that the rear ports are facing me and try. I did that and it did not work.

Could somebody please help?

Regards
Srinivas

 

[denis280]

Welcome to the forums adityasrinivasb. do you get a BSOD with this.blue screen.if yes download http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed and come back with result

 

[schmuckley]

Did you install the usb3 drivers?
Is your heatsink mounted properly?
What are the temps? Put it under load with Hyper-pi or something.
Use Realtemp to monitor temps.
What is your exact RAM? Are the timings/speed in BIOS same a XMP suggests?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not that I think that this is the problem, but for completeness, OP, what PSU do you have?

If it's one that came built-in with the case, then that could be a problem.

 

[Ketchup]

Great suggestions so far. Could be a power supply, could be a grounding issue.

Let us know what model power supply you have, and if you have a Windows\Minidump folder, see if there is anything in it.

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi All

Thanks for responding. This forum is more helpful.

This is my config

1. Intel Core i7 - 4790K CPU @ 4.00GHZ, 4001 MHZ, 4 cores, 8 Logical processors.
2. Motherboard - ASUS z97-A.
2. SMBIOS verison 2.8 . BIOS version/Date - American megatrends Inc 2012, 9/30/2014
3. Memory - Two Kingston HyperX HX318C10F/8 1866 GHZ. Total 16 GB.
4. Harddisk - Seagate - ST500DM002-IBD142 ATA Device
5. Power Supply - CoolerMaster thunder 500W. Model - RS-500-ACAB-M3
6. CPU cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212x
7. Monitor - Dell E2014H 19.5 inches
8. DVD Writer - SATA RW - LG. HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSCO ATA Device
9. Cabinet - Cooler Master force 500
10. Cabinet Fans - Cooler Master 120MM Fans - 2 numbers
11 . NetGear N300 WNA3100M Wireless Adapter

1) The two memory sticks are not placed in the same color slots. One is placed in black color slot and one in grey color slot in the mobo. I asked the technician while assembling the PC and he said it doesn't matter. I am sure it is wrong. For dual channel, they have to be placed in the same color slots. I need to get this corrected I think.

2) I don't have the minidump file in windows folder. Seems windows deleted it. I installed who crashed software today and set the option "not to allow windows to delete the crash dump file" in the tool. I also unchecked the option "Automatically restart" under System Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings/System Failure. Hope this is enough for windows to create the crash dump next time it crashes. Today I didn't experience any crash. I will keep watching this

3) I installed the USB 3.0 drivers available in the Motherboard CD before I connected the adapter to the rear 3.0 ports. Still got the issue of adapter not detecting network. There are updated USB 3.0 drivers for this mobo in ASUS website. I downloaded them. I will install and check and update on this

4) Heatsink I have to check if it is mounted properly. I will take my PC to the technician who assembled and get it checked this Saturday.

5) How to monitor the temps . Are they available in BIOS? Is there a tool called Hyper-pi that can give me this data? Please let me know?

6) The XMP Enable option is not present in the BIOS. I see only disabled option in the BIOS. The frequency of each stick as shown in BIOS is around 889 , 900 GHZ not sure about this number . I think I saw it. I can check again.
I ran the windows memory diagnostic utility today and it said everything is fine
Should I still check with memtest?

7) I enabled the CPU virtualization option in the BIOS . I installed the VMware player 7.0 and created a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM . I need a guest OS which is a server and host OS which is a client. Does VM has any relation to the PSU wattage?

I will keep you guys posted. Please help me on this issue.

Thanks
Srinivas

 

[Ketchup]

You are correct about the RAM. It does matter how they are arranged. Here is the recommended layout from Asus for your board:

Do you use the video off your CPU? If so, your power supply (looks like it came with the case) should be adequate.

If you don't have a minidump folder, there probably isn't a dump. This would mean that they were power/hardware-related reboots, not software.

You may want to check the board mounting screws. Make sure they are all snug, and all used.

Your VM has no effect on your power supply, except that it can put it under the same load as the host OS if configured to do so.

I like a program called CPUID hardware monitor for monitoring temps.

You brought up a critical point though - someone assembled this computer for you. I am glad you are taking it to them because it should be up to that person to find a problem with the build.

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi

Thanks for the input.

I think I solved one among the two problems I reported in this post. The problem with the wireless adapter which does not recognize the network when connected in one of the rear USB ports. I downloaded the latest USB 3.0, chipset, VGA , audio drivers for the z97-a motherboard from ASUS website and installed them one my one. After that, I installed the netgear wireless adapter driver. During install of driver, it asked me to plug the wireless adapter. I plugged it into one of the rear USB 3.0 ports. It connected to the internet. I restarted the PC many times and the adapter has no problem detecting the network and connecting to it.

The second problem where the PC is restarting automatically. I think I narrowed down the problem. We have power problems here and power often goes off. When the power goes off, the UPS starts supplying the power. If the power is restored while ups is providing the power, the system restarts. I want to check this again to be sure. So I switched off the main power supply and UPS started beeping and supplying the power to the computer. When I switched on the main power supply,the system restarted. Could this be a problem with the SMPS?

Regards
Srinivas

 

[Ketchup]

Good detective work. So it does sound like a problem with the battery backup. Does it have AVR? Is it very old?

 

[mikeymikec]

One thing that from what I've read isn't 100% certain - could Windows be crashing (and the OP has auto-restart enabled, the default setting) or is the machine simply spontaneously rebooting. Sometimes the blue screen is on the screen for such a short period of time that a blue flash is all that's observed (or not), then the computer restarts as if the reset button has been pressed.

System properties > advanced system settings > bottom settings button > untick 'automatically restart'.

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi Mike

Thanks for bringing up the point

I just checked by unchecking the Automatically restart option. I switched off the main supply and put it on UPS power. I switched on the main supply. The system did not restart. I did this for 5 times and no restart. I don't see a memory dump file either.

I ticked the Automatically restart option again and experimented. I switched off the main supply and put the system on UPS power. Now when I switch on the main supply, the system rebooted.

I checked the Windows/Event Viewer/Adminstrative Events and I see Kernel Tracing and Kernel-power events.


After reboot, checked the Automatically restart option and to my surprise it is unchecked. Don't know why this happened

Again with the option unchecked , I experimented. But this times the computer rebooted. This is frustating to me.

I logged a ticket with the Microtek, UPS vendor. The UPS is a 1000VA Twin guard+ UPS with AVR 135v~300v. I assumed that the UPS works by switching the power source from main to UPS and UPS to main during power failure and power restore. So there is a delay in that switching and the computer is losing power momentarily and rebooting. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I don't know what to do. The vendor is asking me to bring it to his shop so that he can check what could be wrong.

Regards
Srinivas

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Could this be a faulty SMPS?

 

[Burpo]

Of course it could.. How to prove it?
Have an extra power supply?

 

[inachu]

On a temp basis just remove the battery UPS from the pc altogether until situation has been resolved. Once other things are fixed then plug battery unit back up to pc.

If it keeps rebooting after that then throw it away.

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi Guys

At last the issue with Windows restart is resolved. That was due to a busted capacitor in the SMPS. I was suspecting the SMPS and took it to the shop where it was assembled. The technician there reproduced the problem and started blaming the UPS. I insisted that he check every component inside the PC. He opened the case and we found traces of thick liquid around the SMPS. He told me that one of the capacitor inside the SMPS bursted.
He got a new SMPS of the same model and tried to reproduce. He could not reproduce the problem. The technician then blamed the erratic voltage in my house to be the cause of the capacitor burst. I started arguing that UPS specification clearly mentions AVR of 135v-300v and it is due to faulty capacitor in the SMPS. The shopkeeper says that UPS never designed to do an AVR and it is just a power backup. Amid arguments and counter arguments, I got a new SMPS fitted for now.

Thanks all of you for supporting me on this. This forum was really helpful.

Thanks
Srinivas