'Random' Issues - i'm lost - help appreciated

[fubar569]

Ok...to start, i shall list the hardware:

Q6600 (first at 3.4ghz, now stock) w/ Xig cooler and 120x38 130cfm delta
DFI Lanparty DK P35-T2RS? (the one with 6 SATA & RAID)
was 4x1gb Ballistix PC8500 5-5-5-15 - now 1x1gb
was Adaptec 3400S w 2x18GB cheetah 15k, then 1 18gb, and now an old maxtor 10gb IDE
ATI X800XL 256MB
Coolermaster 650w PSU

story goes something like this:

system started to randomly reboot...no BSOD, just up and reboot itself. i dialed the OC back to stock and it went away for a bit then came back but with BSOD's this time...IRQ and Paging ones if i recall correctly. a windows reinstall fixed it for a couple days but then it came back again...went down to a single stick of RAM...ok for about 12hrs...found out a cheetah was in the process of dying so i installed windows again on the good one...lasted about 10hrs...

stripped all the SCSI out and went to an old IDE drive, installed windows...lasted about 12hrs...

now it won't boot...it gets to the screen where it says windows did not start normally...no matter what choice is made it sits there forever...

while it still had all 4 sticks of ram i ran memtest and it passed with no errors first time through...

when i went down to one stick i ran memtest on that single stick and it again passed...

temps on the processor never broke over the max listed on the intel spec sheet for a G0 Q6600 and after i reverted back to stock it never broke 48c...other temps in the case were ok...no other signs of overheating that i can notice...

and last night after i installed the IDE drive and windows again, it survived 100 passes of intel burn test and every single result matched indicating a "stable" system...however sometime while i was sleeping it crashed and brought me to the "no boot" situation i'm in now...

at first thought it might be heat so when everything started to happen i maximized cooling as best i could...temps are perfect now...all cables seated, etc etc etc...and the IDE drive and CD-RW and Graphics card all are working pulls from anothr machine...so i know at least that much hardware definitely is 100% working ok...

I'm just at wits end and i can't clear my head long enough to come back and attack this like i should...

assuming my chip is good...it leaves open the possibility of mobo or PSU. As stated i completely went off with intel burn test last night for 100 passes and the results were perfect so i'll assume for now the processor is good.

i'm on my 2nd stick of 4 RAM modules with the same results, so I'll assume the RAM is good also...

I'll have to check the voltages in the BIOS at idle later and report those. They seemed to be a hair low but within 5% im pretty sure...

I should also note that up until about 2 weeks ago the system was on 24hrs a day 100% rock stable the entire time at 3.4ghz 1.45ish volts which drooped to an absolute low of 1.39x under the load of intel burn test (typical was 1.40x)...symptoms manifested within the last couple weeks...

anyone care to chime in with a suggestion...or a beer? the beer would help immensely

 

[Sasiki]

Have you tried a different power supply?

 

[fubar569]

resurrecting a thread here to let everyone know i FINALLY got around to swapping the PSU to an older Seasonic 500w PSU. it had very similar amperage to the Coolermaster 650 that was in the rig...

the voltages are barely within the +/-5% tolerance...but they are ROCK stable...

it's been 14hrs or so since the completed swap...and things seem to be ok....even have a mild OC back to 2.8ghz and reinstalled a single 18GB Cheetah 15k SCSI drive...

Will continue to keep thread updated with results...but for now looks like my christmas shopping list is a big ass name brand PSU and new SATAII HDD's with a new DVD burner

 

[fubar569]

whelp...that didn't last long...2 reboots and a BSOD in the last 12 addl hours...

this leaves 2 things my process of elimination...motherboard, or processor....

the processor completes endless runs of intel burntest with all results being perfect til the computer itself spontaneously reboots...the motherboard i'm not so sure about...

anyone have any suggestions or off the wall solutions short of trying out my new glock on it? i'm sure that would permanently fix its issues

 

[Dangman]

My guess would be the mobo. Though to be fair, Ballistix RAM is a bit dodgy in terms of quality now. How long did you run Memtest for? Did you run Memtest on each stick of RAM individually? If not, do so. Also, run Memtest for at least 24 hours or until errors start popping, whichever comes first.

Also, ignore any and all software PSU related voltage readings, even the BIOs, since those are very often highly highly inaccurate. Use a digital multi-meter to get the correct voltages.

Try to see if another motherboard will work.

 

[fubar569]

the 2 BSOD's today were for ntfs.sys and SCSI something or other...both filesystem and/or disk access related...however these happen whether i have the SCSI setup in or use an old IDE HDD...i will say that IDE HDD was overly painfully slow...way moreso than it should ever be...

another screwy thing is firefox will start to randomly crash then totally refuse to restart...same happened with AIM earlier tonight...doesn't matter the version of either...and both happened on both types of hard drives and no matter what stick of RAM was in the machine at the time...

memtest was ran the better part of a day on all 4 sticks individually...they each made at least 2 passes or more error free...i tested them all together and again no errors...and the random issues happen no matter which single stick is in any single slot on the motherboard (tried all 4)...

I think i'm gonna add a motherboard to my christmas wishlist. I spent way too much money on gun stuff lately with more to order before january...i'm sure i can slide a new board in somewhere...it's just the only thing left i haven't screwed with...