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CPU Causing reset?

U

Underbyte

n00b
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
16
I posted in the forums a while ago because of an ongoing problem. Originally my pc kept restarting and I had no idea why. It finally died and I did an RMA of my mobo and PSU. It worked again but it kept restarting every five mins or so even with a reinstall.

After a week or so of troubleshooting, and no one giving me the right answer I decided to just underclock my CPU voltage from 1.4 to 1.35. It worked! Somehow, even though no forum had suggested it. I thought it was my psu.

Recently, my pc shut down after gaming for about 4 hours. Now it won't boot past the windows loading screen without either 1) screen goes blank yet pc still runs or 2) shuts down completely.

Would this be my cpu? I checked my pc health in bios and the temp is around 34c. Fan is at 1700rpm. Pc will even shut down in bios mode. Not a virus? PSU and mobo are new-ish.

Should I spring for a new amd? I have a 6400+ X2
 
I'm about to log off for the night but list all specs, maker and model. It's hard to know much with out this info. My first thoughts are power or heat. I'll check back.
 
My pc is custom. The setup includes,

ma78gm Gigabyte (Bios version F11)
8800gt 512mb
2x2gb gskill ddr2 800
OCZ 600sxs pwr supply
AMD 6400+ X2
Razer AC1 Sound Card
1 RaptorX 150gb with windows 7 partitioned on C. Other is D.
3WD 200gb hard drives

My thoughts are heat to. I reapplied thermal paste but it didn't act differently after reapplying.
 
have you tried using a completely different psu? Most OCZ power supplies are quite crappy, so it may not be providing the proper voltages.

Also, are you overclocking at all? if you are, you might want to consider undoing your overclock and seeing if that does anything.

Also, does the machine bluescreen or just simply restart on it's own? if it bluescreens you may want to test your RAM to see if it is bad by running memtest 86+.
 
I have done 16 hours of memtest86. No Errors. I am a fan of OCZ, but I am second guessing their pwr supplies. I have never overclocked my cpu. I even under voltaged when my pc was having random restarts. It worked and it was stable. It only reset twice in a span of a week. I was playin counter strike for 4 hours when it shut off and wouldn't restart.

I can get to the windows splash screen then screen goes black. Everything is still running though. If I let it sit for 10 min I can restart it. Otherwise if I shut it down ( I have to switch off the pwr supply, front button wont work) it wont restart or post. I never get a blue screen either.
 
I unhooked everything. Even the mobo from the case thinking it was a grounding issue. I had 1 stick ram and that was it. No HD, video, or anything. Hooked DVI up to onboard and it got to bios and turned off. So I can rule everything else. Its the mobo, cpu, or psu. Mobo and PSU are new and this problem has happened even before them.

Its gotta be the cpu!?
 
sure looks like the cpu, it is odd that it would cause that kind of behavior though. apart from the remote possibility of something being wrong with the other components (which you cannot test without using a different cpu or different components), it might actually be the cpu.
 
Is it possible that this CPU is not compatible with the motherboard? I mean the 6400 was pretty power hungry for its time (125W TDP). That would kill boards designed for 95W processors.
 
I have been running this cpu for a while but you may be right. Ever since I made this pc it has reset at times. I'll look into it. Newegg has an awesome deal on a corseir 650w and a 3.1 X3 AMD Rana processor. Anything good about the Rana X3's? Both would be 120 bucks.
 
It also could simply be overheating. Have you run something simple like CPUID's Hardware Monitor to see if it's cooking? If the CPU overheats, the motherboard likely will shutdown to protect itself. Or the CPU itself could be failing due to overheating causing the shutdown.

If the board indeed doesn't support the CPU, that obviously could also be a possibility. But 125W isn't too bad. Not like the older 140W-ers anyhow. I'd first look at cooling issues. Perhaps just a good fan and/or proper 'goop' can fix your problem.
 
I just received my new AMD Quad 640. I plugged it in and it booted correctly! Restarted then it all came back. Having problems even getting a post or bios. Not a CPU problem like I expected then. Might try ram switch next. I doubt that is the problem though. Might just be a motherboard issue between my different components.

Sometimes it just shuts down while in bios run through.
 
Hm, sounds a little like a heat issue but I am not positive.

Run the PS by itself and see if it acts fishy without anything attached?
 
Underbyte said:
I just received my new AMD Quad 640. I plugged it in and it booted correctly! Restarted then it all came back. Having problems even getting a post or bios. Not a CPU problem like I expected then. Might try ram switch next. I doubt that is the problem though. Might just be a motherboard issue between my different components.

Sometimes it just shuts down while in bios run through.
Click to expand...

It's one of two things:
1. Your cpu is drawing more power than your board is designed to provide. I believe you made mention earlier of your board not supporting CPUs over 95W? If so, then this might be an issue.

2. Your PSU is defective. I'm personally leaning towards this, as I have seen these kinds of issues with an insufficient/faulty power supply more often than motherboard/CPU issues.

Only way to tell is to try it with a different power supply. I stay away from OCZ personally. Corsair / Seasonic are the best in my opinion, never had any trouble with mine and my friends' Corsair/Seasonic units.
 
Can you snag a new PSU to test? OCZ is not of good quality at all and depending on how old it is PSU's overtime pretty much start to die down so it might not be doing what is expected.
 
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As originally stated, my psu and mobo were rma'd. As soon as my pc was put back together, it kept getting random restarts. I formatted and reintalled windows 7. No avail.

I chucked it all down to bare bones. Ram, psu, cpu, and mobo. Still happened even in bios. So not a software problem.

Bought a new cpu because I found out the ma78gm mobo was built for 95w cpus. My 6400+ X2 at 125w worked fine though for about a year or so. Guess it was not the problem then. My new quad runs at 95w. No avail in that area either. I wouldn't think my new psu would be faulty but it could be. I dont have the money to buy and test it right now. A friend may have one though.

I spoke to some other friends of mine that are pretty knowledgeable and they had no clue about this problem. I have never had such a strange problem with this before. One thing though is that my pc became stable when I dropped my voltage down to 3.5000 from 4.0000. Lasted only a week before it started restarting again. Sign of anything?

I have no voltage meter :(
 
I dropped my voltage down to 3.5000 from 4.0000
Click to expand...

What voltage? I am confused. There should be nothing at all in the PC that uses 4V or that can work with this voltage.
 
So something doesn't jive with me.

1.) Not sure what EXACT mobo you have since your vague "ma78gm" description gives no indication which revision of mobo you have, or what choice to pick out of the multiple choices from Gigabyte's website. Is there a newer BIOS other than your 'F11' version?

2.) Something seems fishy with the fact that you went from an obvious AM2/AM2+ processor with the 6400 X2 to an AM3 processor in the Propus X4 640.

Are you sure you have the correct hardware still? You had a 6400 X2 125w AM2+ processor in there, now you have a 95w AM3 processor? With no BIOS update?

See why I sense something fishy?
 
Sorry about being vague.

@drescherjm I dropped my cpu voltage to 3.500mhz that was orginally at 4.000mhz. I believe. My pc ran stable for a week. Then after a gaming session my pc just turned off. Couldn't get it back to normal. Really I couldn't get it past bios without it shutting down.

@Smoove910 I have a Gigabyte ma78gm rev 1.0 F11 bios. Gigabyte stated my x4 640 would work on my motherboard. The thing is, I still get the same symptoms even getting a new cpu. Is there some bios settings that need to be changed? I consider myself knowledgeable with computers but there is always something new to learn.
 
Another Tidbit.

I finally was able to get to windows but as soon as it got to desktop, screen went black and all components were still running.

Whenever I try running it, the pc will do this in most cases. Only way to power off is the psu switch. Not front pwr switch. I also have to wait a few minutes before I try again otherwise the components will turn on but will not actually boot. I know this looks like a sign of cpu overheating but temps are fine. I am sure of it.
 
My guess is you need an AM2+, 95w processor for your board... you missed it on both of your tries.

Try #1 = 6400 X2 125w (AM2+)
Try #2 = 640 X4 95w (AM3)
 
The new bios update (since F8 I believe| I have F11) allows am3 processors. I checked extensively beforehand to make sure. It shows that it is supported in the gigabyte motherboard list. I have been able to boot to windows long enough to go into device manager and check if it recognized it.

It very well could be my psu. My mobo may just be weird to. I think that is what it comes down to. My ram would cause this I think.
 
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I think you mean 1.4 to 1.35v for the processor. The old X2s did have relatively high voltages.

Anyway, if you've updated your bios and all is well as far as the board recognizing the CPU, then the PSU is definitely at fault. My advice from here is to start the computer, use it for as long as you can before it freezes/crashes/stops functioning normally, and if it reboots, go into the bios so it doesn't continue to boot (or do something that keeps the system at one place, don't let it go back into windows just yet), Whether it reboots or not, check the 5v and 12v voltages with a multimeter through one of the molex connectors. If you can't do that (don't have a multimeter or don't know where to start), then press the reset button, go into the bios, and look for your hardware monitor (or something similar) menu and take a look at what voltages the motherboard is reading. Write them all down, and list them here. We'll be able to tell you if something is up.
 
Underbyte said:
Another Tidbit.

I finally was able to get to windows but as soon as it got to desktop, screen went black and all components were still running.

Whenever I try running it, the pc will do this in most cases. Only way to power off is the psu switch. Not front pwr switch. I also have to wait a few minutes before I try again otherwise the components will turn on but will not actually boot. I know this looks like a sign of cpu overheating but temps are fine. I am sure of it.
Click to expand...


I had this same exact issue, and it was my power supply. I replaced my old 2006 Silverstone Strider with a new Silverstone Strider Plus and it's been rock solid.
 
Okay board and PSU were RMA'd and still problems. Check

Board supports new CPU and is within tolerance. Check

.It's your RAM and before you say you tested it I know you did but I have seen RAM pass memtest86 on more than one occasion and still be faulty. That or your board does not like that brand.

Example: I had an AsRock that did the same thing. Ran memtest and all was well. Eliminated other factors, still the issue persisted. Replaced RAM with different brand and viola no more problems. The RAM was good (some Wintecs) and I still use it for benching today b/c It does 1000+ on 4-4-4-15.

Give it a shot. You can always return the new RAM if the problem does not go away.
 
The PSU being RMA'd doesn't necessarily clear it as a suspect, but I suppose you're right in trying new RAM before anything else.
 
I'm surprised that nobody has suggested booting off of a Linux Live CD!

I like Mint because it's less forgiving than other distros (like Ubuntu) when there is a hardware issue. So download and burn to CD Mint Live 64bit available here.
 
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