Intermittent Restarts

[DrewChan]

The bane of my existence when troubleshooting pc problems. My gfs pc restarts randomly, took out gpu and ram - still restarting. The timing is completely random, could be 5 minutes after startup - could be 5 days.

So PSU, HDD, CPU or PSU - all difficult to test without equipment.

Suggestions?

 

[biometrics]

The bane of my existence when troubleshooting pc problems. My gfs pc restarts randomly, took out gpu and ram - still restarting. The timing is completely random, could be 5 minutes after startup - could be 5 days.

So PSU, HDD, CPU or PSU - all difficult to test without equipment.

Suggestions?

PSU

 

[DrewChan]

lol sorry PSU twice - why do you say power supply? Or was that referencing my typo?

 

[biometrics]

lol sorry PSU twice - why do you say power supply? Or was that referencing my typo?

Matter of elimination.

Re-seating your CPU, RAM, cards, cables being the first step.

 

[Chevron]

lol sorry PSU twice - why do you say power supply? Or was that referencing my typo?

This type of problem is almost always power supply. When not that it's motherboard.

 

[DrewChan]

Thanks - folks will start swapping out parts

 

[Rickster]

Thanks - folks will start swapping out parts

Clean ram ports with tiny natural bristle brush (flat head)

 

[Swa]

In order of likelihood
1. Software/OS
2. PSU/main power
3. CPU
4. Cables and other peripherals

Chipsets can also cause instability and random restarts but that's usually poor design and would be a problem from the start.

 

[Cyberdude]

I think it can also happen when your CPU overheats?

 

[sajunky]

Some chipsets have poor reputation (random restarting or just hanging up), classic example RS590M(Radeon X1250)/SB600, but history is reapeating. Some receive a fix with new chip revision, BIOS update, some never... like in above.