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Computer randomly restarts - PS issue?

M

MoBsTa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
241
Hey Guys,

Recently I have been experiencing random restarts when I am doing anything media-intensive on my PC, whether it be streaming a video or playing a game. If I am just surfing the internet its fine. What happens is the sound starts to skip and by the time I notice it happening my screen freezes and I get restarted.No bluescreen, nothing (I know this because I set my windows to not reset with a bluescreen fail).

I OC my processor but I know for a fact the temp. is ok because it was playing fine for months before this. My gfx card was OC'd also but I set it back to factory settings and it still crashes the same way. I tried reformatting, checking RAM, etc. Nothing.

My power supply is 550W Antec Truepower but its around 5 years old and maybe its beginning to die? That is really the only conclusion I can come up with if anyone has or solved this problem please help!

Specs:
Windows 7 64-bit
Nvidia Geforce 98000GT
ECS black series chipset GF8200A
4GB RAM (not sure which type but doesn't matter)
Samsung HD 120GB (this might be the issue also since this is same age as PS)
Antec Truepower 550W Power Supply
AMD X2 4200+ dual core
 
It could be the PSU, but you have a lot of troubleshooting to do. It can get very expensive, very quickly if you just start buying new parts trying to chase the error.

Set everything to stock, make sure all your fans are spinning and your heat sinks are clear of dust.
 
I'd also suggest trying something intense but not media related such as the prime95 torture test.
 
Sounds like a temp problem to me, perhaps an accumulation of dust? When I have my machine on passive, I can browse the web fine, but the machine restarts as soon as I do anything intensive.

------

I suggest reverting back to stock settings to take your OC out of the equation.
 
"It's ran fine for months" is not a valid excuse to rule a variable out.

A reboot like this is almost always power related,however you need to verify what failed.


First and foremost, get a resistance-load based PSU tester. To test one without a load is simply going to make a bad PSU look better than it is. Verify the +12, +5 and +3.3v rails, and any duplicate rails (like my PSU has multiple isolated +12V rails).
Once that's validated, you've ruled out the power supply...it's likely a device. Check the motherboard since it's the next major source of these kinds of issues. Be on the lookout for burnt/blown/bulging/etc capacitors, debris or any physical damage. Cleaniness is key here, make those components sparkle, it'll make inspection so much easier. Damaged electrolytic caps can definately cause this. Don't go replacing them with Tantalum or other material caps unless you know what you are doing. For example, tantalum caps like bursting into flames when they die, often burning other stuff up with it.

If you have a blown cap, don't fucking replace it until you figure out WHY it blew up....otherwise this is going to be a repeat performance.

If the board looks fine, start looking at memory/drives/cards. Processors rarely go bad without user-induced causes coming into play...the rest, they're far less reliable.

edit: my rig is about as old as your, possibly a little older and the PSU is still running fine. The motherboard is another story, however it wasn't exactly treated nicely by me.
 
If I am not mistaken those truepower antecs have that issue. I would replace it first and go from there. Is it still under warranty?
 
hossdaddy said:
If I am not mistaken those truepower antecs have that issue. I would replace it first and go from there. Is it still under warranty?
Click to expand...

What happens if the PSU is not the problem? Then the OP just wasted a couple of weeks RMAing a PSU.
 
check the dust in the vid card. check DEEEP in there even if the fan blades look clean. Something similar happened to me, i blew the fan blades clean. Then realized there was a TON of duct deep inside. Solved my issues.
 
mustang_steve said:
"It's ran fine for months" is not a valid excuse to rule a variable out.

A reboot like this is almost always power related,however you need to verify what failed.


First and foremost, get a resistance-load based PSU tester. To test one without a load is simply going to make a bad PSU look better than it is. Verify the +12, +5 and +3.3v rails, and any duplicate rails (like my PSU has multiple isolated +12V rails).
Once that's validated, you've ruled out the power supply...it's likely a device. Check the motherboard since it's the next major source of these kinds of issues. Be on the lookout for burnt/blown/bulging/etc capacitors, debris or any physical damage. Cleaniness is key here, make those components sparkle, it'll make inspection so much easier. Damaged electrolytic caps can definately cause this. Don't go replacing them with Tantalum or other material caps unless you know what you are doing. For example, tantalum caps like bursting into flames when they die, often burning other stuff up with it.

If you have a blown cap, don't fucking replace it until you figure out WHY it blew up....otherwise this is going to be a repeat performance.

If the board looks fine, start looking at memory/drives/cards. Processors rarely go bad without user-induced causes coming into play...the rest, they're far less reliable.

edit: my rig is about as old as your, possibly a little older and the PSU is still running fine. The motherboard is another story, however it wasn't exactly treated nicely by me.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by a load-based tester? Should just google it? Never heard of that before.

I will do all other suggestions also and report back, I will also put CPU back tostock
 
If you had the Antec Truepower for five years then you may have the old version that's not as good as the new version that came out recently. I had allot of trouble with the Antec Truepower five years ago and I went through three of them and they never power up my A-BIT board at the time. I ended up with a Enermax power supply. Like someone stated you need to comfirm what the issue is before you change the power supply.
 
mustang_steve said:
First and foremost, get a resistance-load based PSU tester. To test one without a load is simply going to make a bad PSU look better than it is. Verify the +12, +5 and +3.3v rails, and any duplicate rails (like my PSU has multiple isolated +12V rails).
Click to expand...

A load tester costs thousands of dollars. If you're thrifty and have a hand for electrical circuits you can design and build your own resistor based load tester... still costs about $1000 in parts and takes weeks or months. Cheapest ATEs you can buy, Sunmoon knock-offs, start at $1500 plus shipping from China; actual Sunmoons cost $2000+, and they're still just knock-offs of Chroma ATEs, which cost $5k-$20k.

[H] has a load tester and associated equipment, and it's probably cost Paul north of $12k. Jonny Gerow's setup cost over $10k, as did Jeremy Schrag's. Gabe Torres (of HardwareSecrets) was thrifty; his setup only cost about $6k. Makalu went for the home-brew route, and he still spent several thousand all up.


So... Yeah, not good advice.
 
One more thing I forgot to add I have several multimeter's at home that I can use while the PC is under load to see if the voltages will drop. Another possibility if you can not use a meter is use a software motherboard probe and see if the voltages will drop with your heavier CPU load. I also have a scope that I built many years ago to see if the ripple on the voltages has gone up.
 
You can check to see what voltage is putting out with hardware monitor and of course the bios. If the 12v rail or others is more than 5% above or below the spec its probably the psu. For the 12v rail thats above 12.6v or below 11.4v.
 
nderscore said:
What happens if the PSU is not the problem? Then the OP just wasted a couple of weeks RMAing a PSU.
Click to expand...

most psu's are good 5 yrs, so it should be replaced anyway. These part's don't give you notice when they are dying. They just go in a puff of smoke and take other components with them.
 
I'd probably swap out the PSU myself, I've had two Antec PSU's that didn't last very long. (both came with Antec Sonata cases, version 1) but then, I generally have an extra PSU I can just swap in at a moment's notice.

Also, higher-quality PSU's will tend to die from power surges, in order to protect the rest of the PC.

I've greatly increased the lifespan of all the electronics in my home by protecting EVERYTHING with APC battery back-ups. this includes ethernet surge supression between the Cable Modem and Router, and having battery backup for the Modem and Router, and having the printer plugged into the "Surge Only" outlet on same.

If the computer is instantly rebooting, I would suspect that for whatever reason the "Power Good" signal from the PSU to the motherboard is cutting out. Normally, once the power output stabilizes the "Power Good" line sends a voltage to the mobo that causes it to start the POST. The "Reset" switch on your case will break the Power good signal, and thus, when you release it, the computer starts over from POST.
 
I've been experiencing similar problems lately and have a 500w antec smartpower that's about 5 years old. I'll be replacing it soon.

I've always heard a PSU that fails can screw up other components. Is this a guarantee or just a possibility? Basically what I want to know is what my level of urgency should be to get this thing replaced.
 
If the power supply is unable to maintain good power and the power good line is dropping causing the computer to reboot it can shorten the life of the components just like a electrical brown out on your home appliances. You also risk a greater chance of data corruption on the hard drives as well. I have good luck with Enermax and currently using Seasonic X-650 in my ultra-quiet computer setup just finshed last week.
 
Its a long tedious process, but its necessary like many others have already posted. The most likely suspect is PSU, but overheating (cpu or video card) can also cause reboots. Also faulty memory can be the culprit too, so just return the pc to stock settings and good luck with the testing my friend.
 
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