BertieBassett Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Hi all, A friend and I are currently building a PC, but seem to be encountering problems. The system is as follows: Athlon 64 AM2 4200 MSI K9N Platinum Geil 2 x 512 800mhz Gainward 7900 G5 PCX Had problems since the off, with it rebooting at random times. Updated all drivers, tried updating the BIOS and it got worse, so I had to put it back to the original. Managed to get that on but its still rebooting. This is a Christmas present for someone and what started out as a favour is rapidly becoming a pain in the backside reminder about building computers for people. NEVER AGAIN!! From searching the net I'm getting pointed to memory issues, the MSI board being s**t, heating issues..... Heat seems fine (well its not hot!), I've alternated the memory around and can't figure out what could be wrong if it was the board. And apparently MSI are t**ts for returning things. Any help would be muchly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 How much RAM have you put in and is it matched? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexc Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Go back to basics, remove the software and start again. Whenever I build a machine, before adding any software I always allow the system to run for 24 hours, that will rule out any overheating etc. Once it's passed that test I then start to add the Operating System etc. If you reformat the HD and the problem stops then you'll know it's not a hardware issue. Although, the exception to that rule is that some memory problems can show up during or after installing software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertieBassett Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 I've tried running with either 512mg stick, and both, and in the different slots, and also just tried a different brand of memory altogether and its still doing it, so I think I've ruled the memory out. But yeah, they two together are the same sticks. Currently trying a different graphics card, then I guess its only the chip or motherboard. Kicking ourselves for not going Asus, I've just got a bad feeling about the MSI board. I hear what you're saying Alex, just that as things have turned out now time is not on our hands and deciding which route to go.....maybe leaving it running as you say to see if its software or hardware or biting the bullet and ordering a new motherboard (depending on the outcome of the graphics card test).....just don't know what to do for the best and very annoyed I'm in this position!! Santa better be bringing me something for the ballache this good deed is causing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tainted_love Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 It could be the heat sink not contacting with the cpu, i had the same problem on my DIY system. Basically the heat sink and cpu didn't touch properly causing the cpu to over heat and reboot etc. I took off the heat sink applied more thermal compound, placed the heat sink back properly and it worked. give it a try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentandy Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 What power supply are you using? I had a similar problem with random reboots like this and it turned out to be the power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertieBassett Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Power Supply is a Clio 500 Watt. Didn't think about that for some reason. Will have a look for some thermal compound, probably got some in a motherboard box somewhere just in case. However, we may well have cracked it. Found a Microsoft hotfix for a similar problem, and its not crashing anymore. It was also crashing in NTune (Nvidia tuning software), but now found that it states that this may happen whilst its running. By the way I have been endlessley searching for something on the net since Saturday and only just come across this. So far its okay, downloading 3D Benchmark to give it a good seeing to with something that doesn't crash as part of the effing program. If it does crash.....back to the drawing board and trying some of your ideas. Thanks for the advice folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 What was the problem, or hotfix about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertieBassett Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Don't know to be honest, Tone found it. Was gonna ask him what it was so I could post it here if anyone was interested. Will ask him tomorrow and post it up here. 3D Mark is just about finished, gonna leave it running overnight. As a side note, if I were to say 292, and its still getting better..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 I'd be interested in the information too. My wife's PC (albeit not a new one) is still suffering random reboots, even after I thought I'd fixed it with a new graphics card. Although I haven't completely ruled it out, I don't think it's an OS or driver problem as the PC simply reboots. It doesn't matter what she's doing; there could simply be one web browser open. There's no error messages, before during or after the reboot and nothing shows in the system log. (PC is set to not reboot, i.e. show a BSOD error code, but it doesn't.) Temperatures all seem ok and I'm starting to wonder if it's a PSU issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Modern PC peripherals require much more power then the old ones. here is a list of (rough) requirments. It does sound like a PSU or heat issue. Component------------------Wattage Required Motherboard--------------------15-30 Low-End CPU-------------------20-50 Mid To High-End CPU----------40-100 RAM 7 per 128MB PCI Add-In Card-------------------5 Low To Mid-Range Graphics----20-60 High-End Graphics--------------60-100 IDE Hard Drive-------------------10-30 Optical Drives--------------------10-25 Some of the new Graphics card for example can requir huge power and cooling as they are almost PCs on there own Its pretty easy to run out of power these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 I'm rather liking the look of this psu at Ebuyer. It's not a brand I have any experience of, but the specs look very good for the price. OCZ Technology [ QUOTE ] Technical Specifications 160x150x86 mm 95~132Vac / 190~264Vac 10/6a 200~240Vac Only** 450W: +3.3V(28A), +5V(45A), +12V(26A) 520W: +3.3V(28A), +5V(52A), +12V(28A) Over-voltage/Short-Circuit protection [/ QUOTE ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 That should be more then up to the job, good price too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertieBassett Posted December 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Well we seem to have found an answer to our particluar problem, so maybe this helps.... It appears to be the memory. Not disfunctional memory, we think just incompatible. Tested the memory using memtest and they passed. But after getting the PC to not restart on errors, we got the error message MEMORY_MANAGEMENT and a code. Tried some different memory in the machine and its been working fine. No reboots. The random freezing was fixed by the following link http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81429. It sorts out the AMD drivers with a hotfix and an optimizer program, you can read the info from the link. Switching the PC to not reboot is something I only just found out about, its quite useful, but as you say you've done that and its not blue screening.....??? Memory can be a usual suspect with reboots but we didn't think about compatibility issues, we just thought it was fine after using memtest. Don't know if that could be your problem too, but with no BSOD you're like us not knowing which part it was. Just got to return the memory and the motherboard we got on standby..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexc Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Memory can be a real pain in the @ss. Good to see you got it sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 I ordered the PSU but rather annoyingly was 25 minutes late to qualify for next day delivery. I'll have to wait until after Christmas now. Oh well. It had better bloody well fix it! It cost me £70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted January 5, 2007 Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 Update: The new PSU came and it is a very impressive piece of hardware. It has a nice shiney, titanium-like finish and one 120mm fan which is surprisingly lit by a blue LED. (Something I didn't expect.) This emits a rather nice glow on the rear wall, without being distracting. It's a modular design, so you only need to install the cables you need to. It therefore reduces clutter and improves air-flow. More importantly, and I'm trying not to tempt fate here, it seems to have cured the random reboots. With the added bonus that it's substantially quieter than the PSU it replaces (Enermax 430w iirc). Recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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