Ongoing Computer Crash Problem - About To Throw Through Window

Factual Questions
1

Ten or eleven months ago I upgraded my computer - new motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card; at the same time I “upgraded” to Vista. I’ve had an ongoing problem ever since, that I’ve not been able to pin down. I believe I’ve got a bum graphics card, but I’m hoping for a little confirmation before I go plunk down a couple hundred bucks on a new one.

My computer just resets, for no apparent reason. I’ve got Vista set to give me a BSOD on crashing, but that never happens; with no warning, it just reboots. I’ve had it happen while playing games, I’ve had it happen while watching a video, I’ve had it happen while doing nothing more taxing on my system than editing a text file, with notepad, and nothing else running. On average, I’d say it happens once every two to three days; sometimes I might go a week without it happening, and there have been a few occasions where it happened twice or three times in a day.

I’m sure the first thought someone reading this is having it that it’s a temperature problem, but I don’t think so. If it crashes on me while playing a game, once it’s rebooted I’ll go right back to playing that game and not have a crash for a couple of days; I would think if this was a temperature problem it would heat right back up and crash again. Also, last week when this happened I had the presence of mind to go into my BIOS and check the temperature: it was 46C, with a margin of 37 - if I understand that correctly, that means I should have had 37 degrees C to go before having heat problems. I also have SpeedFan installed, and it reports the temperatures as being OK, but I’m not sure how far I should trust that program.

I’m also 99% sure it’s not my RAM - MemTest86 does not report any problems. I’ve used it on more than one occasion, once leaving it running overnight.

I don’t think it’s Vista, but that’s just a hunch. I’ve spent a few hours Googling, and run into plenty of people that have had similar problems, mostly clueless people who automatically blame Vista for all their problems; I’m not so quick to do so. I installed Service Pack 2 several days ago, and I thought maybe my problem was solved as it didn’t crash again until last night (twice in ten minutes, while playing NWN), then it just happened again this morning, while I was reading cnn.com with Firefox, nothing else running. Updates are current, I defrag on a regular basis, yadda yadda yadda. Also, I’m very good about checking Task Manager and msconfig on a regular basis (especially after installing new software), to make sure there aren’t any unnecessary programs/services running, eating up my memory.

That leaves my graphics card. Once in a while, I’ll get the little danger icon in my system tray with the message “the display driver stopped working, but has recovered.” I do have the latest NVIDIA Forceware drivers installed, dated 6/10/09; before installing them I made sure to remove all traces of the old driver(s) first.

My specs, from Belarc:

Processor:
3.00 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
6144 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board:
Board: Intel Corporation DX48BT2 AAE26191-204
Serial Number: BQBQ819000CT
Bus Clock: 333 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. BTX3810J.86A.1521.2008.0318.1426 03/18/2008

Memory:
3322 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot ‘J6H1’ has 2048 MB
Slot ‘J6H2’ is Empty
Slot ‘J6J1’ has 2048 MB
Slot ‘J6J2’ is Empty

Drives:
500.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
294.21 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
AOPEN DUW1616/ARR ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
SONY CD-RW CRX230ED ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
WDC WD5000AACS-00ZUB0 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) – drive 0, s/n WD-WCASU4687209, rev 01.01B01, SMART Status: Healthy

Display:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (23.0"vis, s/n H9LQ203976, February 2008)

Multimedia:
High Definition Audio Device SB Audigy
Oh, and I don’t think it’s relevant, but I use AVG 8.0, the free version; I check my system with Spybot on a regular basis, no spyware.

I’m getting really sick of this. Any thoughts on what it might be? Thanks!

ETA: I make a habit of opening up the case and cleaning out the dust once a month or so.

2

Does your PC have onboard video as well? Take out the graphics card for a few days and see if you get the issue.

3

It might be a long-shot but you could play around with the BIOS settings to see if that works. BIOS level overclocking of the CPU can cause that. You could try underclocking it a little to see what happens. It won’t make that much difference in performance (hard-core overclockers are insane). You could also open the case and reseat all of your components. I seriously doubt it is Vista too. That sounds like a BIOS or hardware problem. The worst case scenario is that it is the motherboard itself.

The easiest thing to do is just go to the BIOS on startup and select the option to set everything to defaults and see if that helps.

4

Perhaps your power supply cant handle your video card. Whats the wattage?

5

I had an xp Pro box at work do this to me a few months ago. We just uninstalled and reinstalled the operating system. All is OK now. Brand new box. Just doing a burn in.

I also had a machine that would turn on at random times. It was the power supply. Very odd to be in bed and have your computer boot up from a dead start.

6

I was thinking power supply as well. Perhaps a short of some kind is causing the power to briefly go off and then come right back on? Maybe your power switch is bad?

7

What about $30 for a pissant non-gaming card? Newegg has an MSI N8400GS-TD256 that you could keep on hand for testing or turn around on E-bay for $15-20 to keep costs down.

8

Is there anything of use in the Event Log - check the System and Application logs. I’m wondering if DEP might be kicking in. Double-check the ‘Don’t reboot on crash’ option.

You’ve got the possible overheating issue covered. Others have mentioned the power supply, but have you looked at the power going into the PC? Is your PC on the same circuit as a high-current device like a fridge or plasma TV? If that were to kick in, it could cause a voltage drop which would reboot your PC. Is there any EM source very near your PC? Don’t forget to consider what might be the other side of the wall. It’s worth getting yourself a cheap UPS anyway if you haven’t got one.

If you suspect the graphics card, now’s a good time to upgrade anyway. The Radeon 4850 should be below €100. According to Intel’s website, there’s no onboard graphics and the motherboard works better with Radeons anyway - it supports Crossfire and I recall reading (but cannot remember where) a review showing that two Radeon 4830s in Crossfire mode gave a better performance than a GTX 280.

9

I’m almost positive the only thing I’ve ever changed in the BIOS is the device boot order, but I’ll give it a shot.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself, considering that I bought my current power supply about three years ago specifically because the old one couldn’t handle my then-graphics card. :smack:

I no longer have the box the PS came in, and can’t find the documentation, but I’m pretty sure it’s 500W; my card requires 400W. I’ll have to power down and open the case to find out, which I’ll do shortly.

The only things I can find are messages corresponding to the times of the crashes such as “The previous system shutdown at 10:33:16 AM on 7/6/2009 was unexpected.” No shit, Windows; thanks a lot.

I’ve checked it several times before, and just did so again: under Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> System Failure, “Automatically Restart” is unchecked.

I don’t have a UPS, but all of my computer stuff is plugged into a power strip, which is the only thing plugged into the closest wall outlet. On the same curcuit is my 12 year old TV and DVD player, about 10 feet away; my fridge is on a different circuit. I have no idea what’s on the other side of the wall, in the apartment next door, but… I had this same setup for a year and a half before I upgraded my computer, with no problems (same neighbor, too).

That’s correct, no onboard graphics. If all else fails, this is what I’ll do. Thanks!

10

Well, I was wrong about the power supply - it’s 650W.

11

That’s plenty of headroom for what you are running…but it could be faulty still.

12

MemTest is fine as far as a software memory test goes, but that’s not very far. RAM can only be meaningfully be tested in a hardware rig built for that purpose, doubly so since you have an intermittent problem.

You say “that leaves my graphics card”, but you haven’t mentioned the new CPU. Given it started after the hardware upgrade my suspicion would be that one of the three new components is either faulty or not properly fitted. Have you tried reseating the new memory? Checked out the heatsink and heatsink compound on the CPU and video? That their fans are properly fitted?

All that aside, the fact that you get the video driver error is definitely a concern. I’m not aware of any problem that serious with the current nVidia Vista drivers, so you are probably right to make the card your prime suspect.

13

First thing I would try is to disconnect the Audigy and see if the problem continues with the onboard sound.

Next, I would update the BIOS.

14

So, my system has crashed on me four times so far today - a new record. Now, it does seem to happen more often when I’m using the NWN1 Toolset, and I’ve been using it all day, but still…

Since my last post I’ve tried reseting the BIOS to its defaults, which had no effect; I updated the BIOS today after the third crash. Apparently that didn’t work either.

However, I think I may have been having a massive dumbass attack…

After the latest crash I was thinking about the suggestion to remove the Audigy card, and it occurred to me to check and see if my onboard sound was disabled. It wasn’t. But the thing is, I cannot for the life of me remember if I’d had it disabled before resetting the BIOS.

I vaguely recall having problems due to a sound card/onboard sound conflict several years ago… could this be my problem? I suppose I won’t know for sure unless/until it crashes again… and if this is it, I’m gonna feel pretty damn stupid! :mad:

15

Perhaps he could he try removing the memory sticks out one at a time and seeing if if that helps, and maybe try the other slots also.

16

Does your graphics card have a separate power port and are you using it? Do you have the capacity to monitor the cpu temp?