PC restarts

O

orrymr

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Hi guys,

I'm having some trouble with my PC. It's been restarting spontaneously today, and I'm not sure what the problem is. Initially, after it restarted I went to my BIOS, and saw that my CPU die/package temp was 66c.
I figured this was the problem, so I opened up my computer case, put a fan in front of it, and proceeded to carry on working. Unfortunately, it restarted again. This time, the cpu temp was around 60 deg (thanks to the fan). I've concluded that it's probably not the cpu temp that's causing the reboot. I'm not sure what it is. I've also noticed ICH and MCH temperatures in the BIOS. Are these the different components of my motherboard (north/south bridge)? These temperatures seemed quite high; 77c and 66c for the ICH and MCH respectively. But after I put the fan next to my PC, they both dropped by about 10 degrees.

Any ideas as to why my machine keeps restarting? (I'm running a core 2 duo 3ghz (E8400), and 2gigs of Ram)
 
It is most likely because your Power Supply is about to die.

Also check your multiplug. Reseat the battery in your CMOS.

After that, throw it out the window, it wants to fly.
 
To give you an idea the Intel CPU's only start throttling themselves when they hit about 100-120 degrees. Graphics cards much the same. You likely have a power problem ( either the source or a component that's fizzling out )
 
My money is on temperature being the cause as well. Temperatures tend to drop pretty quickly once you remove load from the CPU and I assume you see that 66C value via your BIOS. Also, 60+C idle temperatures are pretty damn ridiculous. My OCd Q6600 runs at 57C, under load. If memory serves, Intel's spec says that it should stay under the 80C mark.
 
Messugga said:
My money is on temperature being the cause as well. Temperatures tend to drop pretty quickly once you remove load from the CPU and I assume you see that 66C value via your BIOS. Also, 60+C idle temperatures are pretty damn ridiculous. My OCd Q6600 runs at 57C, under load. If memory serves, Intel's spec says that it should stay under the 80C mark.
Click to expand...

Yup 60 idle is scary. The minute load is gone as you say temps drop quickly. If you run prime 95 and monitor the temps you can see real time what they go to as prime 95 can run in a small window along side your temp monitor.
 
killadoob said:
Yup 60 idle is scary. The minute load is gone as you say temps drop quickly. If you run prime 95 and monitor the temps you can see real time what they go to as prime 95 can run in a small window along side your temp monitor.
Click to expand...

Assuming he has a proper temp monitoring app. HWMonitor should do the trick nicely for you.
 
Gah, didn't realise I was doing some stuff in Octave before I got that reading, which probably put some strain on the cpu. I'm using ubuntu, so using lm-sensors, and at the moment idling at high forties, low fifties.

I changed the multiplug and so far no reboot :D - thanks luxe!
 
if you get probs again, maybe consider taking off the CPU fan & clean off the thermal paste. Reapply new paste, reseat the fan...

Sometimes that helps
 
I had the same issue, but my CPU was on about 70degrees. Ended up being my CPU Fan that wasn't properly seated. My mate had my PC in pieces, cleaning it for me and god alone knows why, but he had the pins/locking pins turned into the release position and hence the fan was not seated properly. I took it all apart, put new thermal paste on the bottom of the fan, re-seated PROPERLY and my temp went back down to 35-40 and no more reboots.

Another instance i had was a faulty HDD that kept making the PC reboot. After much troubleshooting i ran a HDD test which confirmed that the drive had faults. Replaced it and the PC worked fine again. But for your CPU to be at around 60 means something is definitely not right there
 
Sigh.. it's still giving problems

Going to have to check the drives... :/
 
Sometimes I really hate hardware.

Okay- so, just in case this happens to anyone else, here's what happened and I think my system is okay again. Initially I tried to reseat the cpu heatsink. In fact, things got worse; my machine wouldn't even boot up. It would sound like it was on but there was no feedback from the machine; that is, the screen wasn't getting any signal, and the boot-up sound wasn't playing(probably failing POST or something). I've got a spare heatsink, so I tried that one. No luck. I disconnected my dvd drive, no luck. I decided to check the RAM, which I've got 2 sticks of (1 gig each). I took out one stick of RAM, and the machine started booting up again properly. I then left it on for 5 hours last night, and it didn't reboot once (given that it was rebooting about once an hour). At the moment, my uptime is 1hr and 20 mins, and going strong. Obviously I need to get more RAM, since I'm just using 1 gig now, but I'm glad it's only that (which it looks like it is)!
 
Try cleaning the RAM's contact pads with a rubber eraser.

If the latencies/speed of the RAM modules are different, you can always see if swapping them around doesn't fix the issue.
I've fixed my colleague's PC like that - by simply changing the memory modules around.
 
Thanks. So far I've only tried moving the RAM module 1 other slot,which didn't help.
I'll try your suggestion a little later on, just in the middle of a software update.
 
orrymr said:
Thanks. So far I've only tried moving the RAM module 1 other slot,which didn't help.
I'll try your suggestion a little later on, just in the middle of a software update.
Click to expand...

As a personal rule of thumb... If i am having booting issues or intermittent restarts i ALWAYS take my RAM modules out, vacuum slots, clean the RAM and re-seat. If it fails, swap your modules around (Assuming you have x2 modules). If you have 1 module, put it in another RAM slot
 
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