DESKTOP COMPUTER RANDOM REBOOTING.

copper04

See my original post "New Computer"
Medion Quadcore Q6600 2.40Ghz
Ram 3Gb
Vista 32 bit operating system.
4 years old almost to the day.

10 days later and lots of euro spent. ...........................
This PC has random shut downs for the past couple of weeks. I relaced the PSU and that did not cure the problem so gave up and sent it to computer repair shop. He relaced the HD and the graphics card and then suggested it was the motherboard and i would need to buy a new PC for €850 or €999 depending on i5 or i7. !!! I gather he did not really know what was wrong and could not be bothered spending more time.
By the way the shut downs do not create a mini dump even though it is enabeled. ???
He returned it to me not working and I spent a lot of time today checking connections and eventually when I reinstalled the original HD she fired up.
However it continues to randomly reboot every couple of hours. The temp of the cores is good about 43C as monitored by " Speccy"
The only other thing I can think of is the RAM.
I am looking for other suggestions as to what I might try as a last resort.
If not it will have to be a new machine as this:( is driving us crazy.
Any hints or tips greatfully received. I know there are a lot of experts out there who know a lot more then me. Is it time to give up and bite the bullet. ?

Skill Magill

You have three gbs of ram, that could be your problem. Is it 1gb and 2gb or 3 x 1 gb? Take out 1gb and see what happens. Some boards have matching ram slots and need to
be paired I think, it may be that extra 1gb stick causing the problem. Or bad ram, or bad board, or.......

copper04

3 x 1 is the RAM layout. The only thing is that has been like that for a couple of years and has never given any trouble before. However its a good tip and worth a try.
Thanks for your advice..

Skill Magill

Just start with 1gb in the first slot then boot. If it boots add another 1gb to a slot of the same colour then boot. Keep going like this until until it doesn't boot, I'd say one of the sticks has gone bad. Of course it could also be the slots, so chop and change rebooting on each change to find the culprit

Torqay

Or run Memtest86+, if a module is faulty, it will tell you which one, without disassembling your computer. Easier and reliable.

Overheal

It's not what you want to hear, but motherboards do go bad. Seemingly "Random" reboots are often attributable to that.

I mean, this is a Medion computer from a Lidl, correct? Not exactly hand-built with some top of the line ASUS Crosshair IV Formula board. What type of motherboard are we talking about here?

copper04

The specs for motheroard can be found on this link.
Its been running now for about 4 hours without reboot.

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/jwcULi00YDDlYdbQPCDjD5J

Skill Magill

put windows 7 on the extra hard drive you have now. fresh install, nowt to lose
if its not the ram.

Overheal

copper04 wrote: »

The specs for motheroard can be found on this link.
Its been running now for about 4 hours without reboot.

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/jwcULi00YDDlYdbQPCDjD5J

It looks like you have never updated your BIOS. Have you tried looking on the manufacturers site for an update? Might help.

Gormal

I had a similar problem a while back, and like you changed the PSU with no effect, even bought a new mobo..... nope that wasn't the problem either. It was rebooting because one of the retaining clips on the heatsink fan was damaged therefore not seated right on the cpu And no I didn't put the old MSI mobo back in, the Asus replacement is much better! Might not be your problem though.

So if all your hardware is in the right place properly, and the memtest is clear, try going through the steps in this link

Allyall

Same problem was happening with a medion PC MT-7
And it was built around the same time as yours.
Very possibly has the same problem.

copper04

This AM I replaced the PSU with an OCZ 500W silent unit. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed as so far no reboots. Could this have been the probelm all along> Was I unlucky enough to get a faulty replacement PSU when the original was removed. ? It was a chepo one so only time will tell.
Thanks to all who contributed.

yoyo

copper04 wrote: »

This AM I replaced the PSU with an OCZ 500W silent unit. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed as so far no reboots. Could this have been the probelm all along> Was I unlucky enough to get a faulty replacement PSU when the original was removed. ? It was a chepo one so only time will tell.
Thanks to all who contributed.

Cheap PSUs are usually rubbish alright, it may not have even been up to the task for running the machine! OCZ ones are decent so if that works it was likely faulty psu

Nick

Allyall

yoyo wrote: »

Cheap PSUs are usually rubbish alright, it may not have even been up to the task for running the machine! OCZ ones are decent so if that works it was likely faulty psu

Nick

+1 for cheap PSU's being the problem. I thought you had replaced it already..

copper04

The PC repair shop had replaced the PSU with a really noisy and cheap looking one, unbranded. I had already order the OCZ from Amazon so decided to give it a try.
HOWEVER I think I had one reboot at 1608 today, I found this that tells you how to check last shut down both user and unexpected.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/160855-shut-down-view-details-last-shutdown-computer.html

ARGINITE

Have you run memtest86 or something similar?

Skill Magill

Its looking like its not the psu then. If you've already swapped around/changed the ram, run your eye over the board. If any of the capacitors on it have blown its indicated by the cross hairs on the top of them being raised up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vp6_blown_capacitor.jpg. If you see that, its not good. Keep us informed

copper04

Yesterday two unexpected shutdowns, one in the afternoon and one late in the evening. Today I am going to open up again and examine the motherboard. The only other thing I am thinking of doing is putting in a new hard drive ( Have one the PC shop left in but dont know if its new or used) and running Windows 7 without any of on the programmes on the present drive. The idea would be ro eliminate the possibility of a bug or non compatibility in the system. I am not too sure of how to start from scratch with a clean HD but no doubt there is a tutorial on the WWW. I am monitoring the PSU Temp. with "Speccy" and all cores read around 43C all the time.
The PCZ PSU is very quiet, almost silent big difference from the one the PC repair guy installed.
Thanks

Skill Magill

The more i think about it the more I'm inclined to believe that the ram is the problem. I've had this problem myself and with other computers I've worked on.
Do know anyone that can lend you 2gbs of ram for testing. Its probably ddr2 if its 4 years old. Ive some spare 512s you could use to test.In Glasnevin, Dublin fyi

ARGINITE

eoing1 wrote: »

The more i think about it the more I'm inclined to believe that the ram is the problem. I've had this problem myself and with other computers I've worked on.
Do know anyone that can lend you 2gbs of ram for testing. Its probably ddr2 if its 4 years old. Ive some spare 512s you could use to test.

ARGINITE wrote: »

Have you run memtest86 or something similar?

No need to even open the case and change the ram, just run Memtest86, it will tell you if you have faulty ram or not.

copper04

Just to update everyone who helped on this problem. Still have on average one or two reboots per day. Ran memtest86 for 12 hours with no errors.
Today I clicked on Google Earth and had an immediate reboot. I monitored the Temp of the PCU while restarting Google Earth and had no increase, holding arount 43C on all cores.
So to summarise. New PSU. Changed graphics Card. Changed HDD. apparently no problem with RAM.
What remains ? Could it be the motherboard and if so is it worth replacing it,
costs about €65 in Germany. Is it possible to install a new but different motherboard and if so wud I have to buy a new PCU. i would love to solve this as have spent weeks researching and trying diferent things.
Thanks for any advice.

Skill Magill

you could take the cpu out of the old motherboard and put it into any other motherboard with the same socket. You also don't know if the cpu is ok, so if you may have to replace both. Also, if you decide on a new but different motherboard you'll have to pay close attention to the case its going into. The back plate of the new motherboard mightn't fit the old case. €65 is worth the swap, how much for a new cpu btw?

druidhill

The best advice I can give at this stage is to not spend a cent more on this. If you total up what you have spent in the last while in terms of parts and payment to PC repair tech (if you could call him that, I wouldn't), you could have upgraded your complete system for very little more.

If it is a problem you really want to get to the bottom of, purely out of curiosity, and I totally understand that, then by all means go for it (but invest your time only, not your cash). If you take this approach, start back at the bare minimum and build up.