Computer Rebooting Frequently

[katsmeow]

I had to pick one category to post in but I am not at all sure what kind of problem this is. I've been trying to solve it for months so have done lots of stuff already. I apologize for the length of this:

I have been having a problem for about 3 months of my computer abruptly rebooting. This is very intermittent. Sometimes it doesn't happen for a few days and then it will happen 3 times in 5 minutes. Many efforts have been made to solve this to no avail, including taking it in to the computer shop that put it together. They looked at the hardware and everything looked fine, they ran diagnostics, ran the computer for a couple of days and it never rebooted. I brought it home and and that same evening it rebooted twice. Computer was built about 9 months ago based upon parts that I purchased. I am using Windows 7. At the end of this message is a list of the parts.

Information that might be relevant:

1. The rebooting only happens when I have World of Warcraft open. It has rebooted when WoW has been open but I haven't even been logged in yet (that is I was at the login screen when the rebooting occurred). For a while it seemed to always reboot whenever I visited the reforger. It seemed to be more likely to reboot if I had the reforging box open or if I was at a vendor screen for a long time. That has seemed to go away recently though. There is no clear time now when it reboots. It even reboots sometimes when I have WoW minimized or I'm at the login screen.

2. I posted on the official WoW forums and it was suggested that it might be overheating. I didn't think so, but tried several programs to monitor heating and there was no problem. The computer shop also looked into it and says there is no overheating. I ran ASUS utilities, FurMark and several others that I can't remember.

3. I deleted my WoW installation, downloaded the software again, and reinstalled it. I copied over my addons folder but that was all. It still continued to crash.

3. I updated my video drivers. After that I didn't have a reboot for several days, but then it started rebooting again.

4. I use two monitors. I typically have WoW on one monitor and something else on the other monitor. The something else varies -- browser, Excel, etc. That doesn't seem to correlate with the rebooting. It can reboot even when I'm not doing anything actively. For example, if I leave my computer for awhile or overnight, I will come back to find it rebooted while I was gone.

5. When I took the computer to the shop they kept it a day and were ready to send it back since the problem hadn't occurred. I told them about the fact it only occurs when WoW is open so they opened up a trial account and kept WoW open for about 18 hours and the computer never rebooted.

6. After the computer came back, and it started rebooting, the only thing I could think of was to reformat the C drive to see if that would help. My C drive was a 120 GB Intel SSD. I had WoW installed on that drive. I also have a 1TB drive where I keep data and most programs. The SSD drive only had about 18 GB of space left, so I decided to take the opportunity to install a new larger drive. So, I bought a 256GB Crucial SSD drive. Installed it and installed Windows 7 and a very few programs on it. I also reinstalled WoW (copied it over since reloading had done nothing to help before). I did not reformat the 1TB drive but have reinstalled some of the programs that are on it. Within a few hours, the computer was rebooting again when I played WoW.

7. Because it was rebooting with no blue screen, I sent into the startup and recover settings and made it where it doesn't automatically restart. I have had it crash several times since doing that. I still do not get a blue screen.

8. I ran memtest and memory is fine. I also found a program called WhoCrashed and had it analyze and it basically just found that I had an unknown critical error.

Using event viewer, a recent crash said the following:

I did go look at the event viewer and found the following:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2012-07-02T19:53:00.574803700Z

EventRecordID 4149

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer snow

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

9. Also I ran SIW which said:

Sensor Value Min Max
SNOW
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8Z68-V PRO
Voltages
CPU VCORE 0.82 V 0.82 V 1.22 V
VIN1 1.01 V 1.01 V 1.02 V
AVCC 3.28 V 3.28 V 3.28 V
3VCC 3.26 V 3.26 V 3.28 V
VIN4 1.00 V 1.00 V 1.00 V
VIN6 0.83 V 0.82 V 0.83 V
Temperatures
SYSTIN 33 °C (91 °F) 32 °C (89 °F) 33 °C (91 °F)
CPUTIN 60 °C (139 °F) 60 °C (139 °F) 60 °C (139 °F)
AUXTIN 36 °C (95 °F) 36 °C (95 °F) 36 °C (96 °F)
TMPIN3 27 °C (80 °F) 27 °C (80 °F) 33 °C (91 °F)
Fans
SYSFANIN 852 RPM 852 RPM 886 RPM
CPUFANIN 1241 RPM 1238 RPM 1262 RPM
AUXFANIN2 1250 RPM 1228 RPM 1250 RPM
Intel Core i7 2600K
Temperatures
Core #0 38 °C (100 °F) 37 °C (98 °F) 44 °C (111 °F)
Core #1 38 °C (100 °F) 38 °C (100 °F) 43 °C (109 °F)
Core #2 35 °C (94 °F) 35 °C (94 °F) 42 °C (107 °F)
Core #3 32 °C (89 °F) 32 °C (89 °F) 39 °C (102 °F)
Package 39 °C (102 °F) 38 °C (100 °F) 45 °C (112 °F)
Powers
Package 6.81 W 6.11 W 38.45 W
IA Cores 2.25 W 1.55 W 33.83 W
GT 0.12 W 0.12 W 0.12 W
WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0
Temperatures
Assembly 38 °C (100 °F) 38 °C (100 °F) 38 °C (100 °F)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
Voltages
VIN0 1.01 V 1.01 V 1.01 V
Temperatures
TMPIN0 60 °C (139 °F) 60 °C (139 °F) 60 °C (139 °F)
Fans
FANIN0 1770 RPM 1770 RPM 1800 RPM
Fans PWM
FANPWMIN0 48 % 48 % 48 %

10. While my computer was in the shop, I used my "old" computer. It has very similar programs on it as my current computer. I used it with the same monitors, same UPS, same outlet and had no problems with it. So that seems to imply this is something to do with the hardware on my new computer....

I am at a loss to know what to do next. While it sometimes will go a couple of days without rebooting, on other days it will reboot many times. The computer store (who has worked on my computers for years) ran diagnostics, looked at everything, and ran the computer for a couple of days and it never rebooted. That made it seen like this isn't a hardware problem. But, I put in a new SSD drive and new installation of the OS and within a very short time the rebooting started again. It seems like this might be some sort of software problem, but removing and reinstalling WoW and the OS (actually everything on the C drive) didn't help....

For a brief time I thought it might be Dolby Axon which I had installed on the 1 TB drive. The first rebooting that I had (back in April) was the day I installed Dolby Axon. When I put in my new C drive yesterday, I reinstalled Dolby Axon on my 1TB drive (so it would show up on the program list on the start menu) and shortly after that I had my first reboot with the new C drive. So I uninstalled Dolby Axon and installed it on the C drive so see if that made a difference. It didn't, I still rebooted. Then I uninstalled Dolby Axon entirely. A few hours later I had a reboot. So it seems the Axon thing is coincidental.

Parts:


Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Original Drive - I now have a 256GB Crucial SSD drive

EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition (VN10006W2N) White and Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with 4 Fans-1x 200mm side fan, 1x 200mm top fan, 1x 200mm front fan and 1x 140mm rear fan

AFT PRO-55U All-in-one USB 2.0 Card Reader

ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9

Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K

SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

 

[eeyoreza]

Sorry to hear about your issues. I had a similar issue with a clients PC. I went through many of the same processes as you did with no avail. Including replacing the mobo. None of which fixed the issue.

Finally after many sleepless nights, and much forum reading. Read somewhere, I forget now, that it could be related to the GFX. Pulled out the GFX and used another and the problem went away completely, not a single reboot since. I cant explain exactly what the problem was but my understanding was that it was related to the gfx trying to write to memory it either did not own/ or have control over. So the general consensus was to update the drivers and firmware of the card.

However, in the mean time, I would try get hold of some other GPU just to see if that solves the issue. Also try removing all non essential peripheral components such as storage drives, your sound card etc. As it could be related to one of those.

Hope that helps.

 

[voodooking]

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504

Also

If your computer is restarting spontaneously, you are presumably

blue-screening, and you are set to the default of rebooting whenever

that happens. It's a poor default setting and you should change it.

Right-click My Computer, and choose Properties. On the Advanced tab,

click Settings under Startup and Recovery. Under System failure,

uncheck the box "Automatically restart.



Now when the problem occurs again, instead of restarting, you will get

the blue screen with diagnostic information. Post back with those

details for more help.

 

[katsmeow]

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504

Also

If your computer is restarting spontaneously, you are presumably

blue-screening, and you are set to the default of rebooting whenever

that happens. It's a poor default setting and you should change it.

......



Now when the problem occurs again, instead of restarting, you will get

the blue screen with diagnostic information. Post back with those

details for more help.

Actually as I indicated in my original message, because it was rebooting with no blue screen, I already went into the startup and recovery settings and made it where it doesn't automatically restart. Yesterday, I did exactly what you suggested. I have had it crash several times since doing that. I still do not get a blue screen. I was hoping that I would get a blue screen once I made that change but I do not.

As far as the Microsoft Support page I went and looked at that as well. None of the suggestions on it was helpful, unfortunately. My system is not overclocked. I already used Memtest to check the memory. I know that the power supply has enough wattage. I guess it could be defective but other than that it should be fine. The system is not overheating as per the computer shop that worked on it and the several different programs that I have used to check for overheating. I realize that it is the obvious thing to think of, but, thus far, there is no evidence that there is any overheating occurring.

I appreciate the suggestions.

 

[smorizio]

it could be a few things..one the ups might be under sized for your pc. where you pulling more voltage at times then the unit can give the power supply.you may be getting micro sags from the ups because of it.see if your home ac or a large power drain on the same or next to the pc. you could have an overloaded circuit with an ac unit. so when it kicks on you have a spike/dip.
check the outlet your using.it could have a lose wire or bad ground. if your house is an older home (10) years. have the power company check the main feed line going into your home. you could have a tree or a bald spot on the line..causing line issues.
if you live in an apt or condo or near high voltage power lines see how close they are to your computer. i see where high voltage lines make a magnitic field that not good for hard drives. the last issue would be a power supply issue. under load the power supply goes out of spec on the ac ripple noise and the ac ripple causes the computer to shutdown or reboot. most new mb have digital power now that checks line voltage and if it drops or starts to ripple it shut down to save itself from damage.

 

[katsmeow]

We have thought about the power issues. This is the power supply:

CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Does anyone have any feeling that it would be undersized for what I have? I was under the impression that it was not underized.

While my computer was in the shop I used my old computer at the same location using the same electric outlet and same UPS and I had no problems.

The house is about 6 years old, not near high voltage power lines. I will try plugging into a different outlet and see if that helps. Coincidentally (routine replacement) I am getting a new UPS delivered today as well. I'm not aware of anything that would be a large power drain near the PC.

 

[eeyoreza]

No your PSU should be sufficient, however if you would like to check you can use this to get an estimate.

I would also be careful of assuming it is a UPS issue if you have had another PC running on the same UPS and mains outlet with no issues. Your PSU is likely only to give issues on two mains fault conditions, although I stand corrected. An over voltage or brownout (low) voltage condition. Under both of these conditions, assuming a rapid change to that condition, massive transients will be introduced within the UPS circuitry. Which, in turn, would evidence unusual behavior from your UPS (clicking, beeping, fan noise, lack of noise etc...). The issue is most likely related to the PC itself.

As I suggested in my earlier post, I had similar issue on a clients PC, which was solved with a swap out of a GFX, although your problem may be different. So my only advice would do an exhaustive analysis of possible faulty components. Try to replicate the issue with single hardware elements missing from the PC. Although this technique is not faultless it might help you isolate the issue to a set of components.

Good Luck!

 

[voodooking]

10. While my computer was in the shop, I used my "old" computer. It has very similar programs on it as my current computer. I used it with the same monitors, same UPS, same outlet and had no problems with it. So that seems to imply this is something to do with the hardware on my new computer....

I am at a loss to know what to do next. While it sometimes will go a couple of days without rebooting, on other days it will reboot many times. The computer store (who has worked on my computers for years) ran diagnostics, looked at everything, and ran the computer for a couple of days and it never rebooted. That made it seen like this isn't a hardware problem. But, I put in a new SSD drive and new installation of the OS and within a very short time the rebooting started again. It seems like this might be some sort of software problem, but removing and reinstalling WoW and the OS (actually everything on the C drive) didn't help....

For a brief time I thought it might be Dolby Axon which I had installed on the 1 TB drive. The first rebooting that I had (back in April) was the day I installed Dolby Axon. When I put in my new C drive yesterday, I reinstalled Dolby Axon on my 1TB drive (so it would show up on the program list on the start menu) and shortly after that I had my first reboot with the new C drive. So I uninstalled Dolby Axon and installed it on the C drive so see if that made a difference. It didn't, I still rebooted. Then I uninstalled Dolby Axon entirely. A few hours later I had a reboot. So it seems the Axon thing is coincidental.

I think that the equipment that you use for Axon has a short in it. In other words, anything you use like a microphone, headphones, or combo, ect. One of these lines must have "crimp" or is broken inside. That means that at odd times a signal that the computer can't comprehend is moving through one of those lines and causing the reboot. That would explain te randomness of the rebooting because during gameplay you are sometimes moving around but sometimes not. When you move, that is what sends the short. I could be anywhere in one of those lines. It can especially be where the wires connect to the plugs. That would also explain why it didn't reboot while it was at the shop. They weren't playing any games with it.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

 

[katsmeow]

That's an interesting idea and is one that will be easy to test.

I just received my new UPS and I'm using it and using a different outlet. I will see if that makes a difference first. If I keep crashing, then the next thing I will try is to unplug my headphones and my microphone (they are separate).

UPDATE:

The new UPS and different outlet made no difference. It still rebooted.

I have unplugged my headphones and microphone and am using my "old" headset that I previously used without problem to see if using it makes any difference.

 

[voodooking]

Cool. Cool.

Keep in mind there could be another cords that the headphones are touching. They could move around and short. Are the headphones connected in the front or the back? Is there anything else that your feet might kick. Mine kicks a sub from time to time and now I have a hiss out of it. You never can tell. That is why tech people in the entertainment industry have such strick cable management rules. It matters.

 

[katsmeow]

I tried my other headset and I crashed so I don't think it is my headphones or mic. I do have them set now so that they don't touch anything else.

I am again at a loss. I could theoretically replace the video card or replace the power supply or even the motherboard....but that cost adds up fast so I'm reluctant to replace parts that I don't have any reason to think are bad. My videocard came throught the FurMark test, for example, with no problem. In fact, every test or diagnostic I've thrown at it ...there have been no problems. So at this point I don't even know if this is a hardware or software issue....

 

[voodooking]

Ok. I'm druk so i'll just think out loud.

It's the randomness that kills me. I was thinking that your movements + a kink in your line caused the problems. No. OK. We know that the reset is happening because of power going someplace it's not supposed to b going. Where?

Is there anything that you can think of that could be causeing a short. Anything you forced or cracked. Anything at all. How long can you run the system without the audio and video cards in?

Thatmy be a huge clue...

 

[PanicMaster85]

Im no expert but the problem could be either you dont have your bios or other drivers updated or your battery is being wierd and as soon as your computer senses it going down it reboots to conserver... or possibly heat. This is a laptop correct?

 

[katsmeow]

No, it is a desktop. It was built by a local computer shop (that I've used for years) from parts that I bought (listed in my first post).

ll. How long can you run the system without the audio and video cards in?

OK...clueless here on how to do that. Do I just take out the video card and the audio cards and then just hook my monitor up the video on the motherboard?

Motherboard is:

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

 

[PanicMaster85]

has wow ever run very well? or has this been happening for ever?

 

[katsmeow]

The computer and WoW ran great for about 6 months with no rebooting.


According to Event Viewer the first time it rebooted was on April 3 and it has been intermittent since then. I've gone as long as 5 days with no rebooting but then I may have 5 reboots in a day. Then it may go away for a day or two then have it 4 times in an hour.... There seems no rhyme or reason to it with the only commonality being that I have WoW running. I'm planning on running SWTOR for some extended time to see if I get reboots running it but haven't tried that yet.

 

[PanicMaster85]

Ok are you sure that you didnt download a mod or something that after that made it run wierd or anything that you did before it started please try to recall it that will help figure out whats wrong regarding software

 

[katsmeow]

I have thought about that. I even completely uninstalled Wow and then redownloaded it and reinstalled it. One reason that this is so frustrating.

 

[voodooking]

You could have a problem in your registry. When one installs and uninstalls programs the registry keeps some items sometimes. It's just the nature of the beast. I hate saying this but you might want to download CCleaner and see what it finds. Just be carefull when deleting things in your registry.

Agian be carefull. I hate using the registry cleaning programs because I've learned the hard way that they delete items that you need and sometimes cause more problems than they solve. In this instance it might work though.

I just can't get my hungover head around what WOW could be accessing at random times to make you machine reboot.

OK, have you done a RAM test?

 

[voodooking]

I also found these.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f299/solved-kernel-power-41-63-error-434613.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/microsoft-error-0x8000000000000002/c8174075-37fd-4e9b-b9ff-4d4db099bbcb

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/50116-0x8000000000000002-bluescreen.html

These people all had problems similar to yours. Seems like they solved theirs with updating their audio drivers.

Also

Have you run any 3rd party utility programs? Any driver replacement programs?

 

[katsmeow]

I had the problem right after installing a brand new drive with new OS so I had a "new" registry. I had installed a few programs but not uninstalled anything.

I did a memory test. I also ran SIW, ASUS Suite (where I checked heating), various others to check heating. No other utility programs or driver replacement programs. I will go check to see if there is anything new on audio drivers.

 

[PanicMaster85]

have you run a norton scan. I know it sounds stupid but a virus could be causing your computer to restart when its running a single proccess, so if you think this could be the case be sure to run a antivirus scan just to be sure.

 

[katsmeow]

I run Norton 360 which scans frequently so I know it isn't that.

voodooking - I check and my ASUS DX drivers were up to date, but I noticed in one of the threads you posted the person had 2 audio drivers and disabled one and it solved the problem. I looked in my list under device manager. I had ASUS Xonar DX Audio Device and Realtek High Definition Audio. I also had -- but don't think are problematical Bluetooth Audio Device, NVIDIA High Definition Audio (4 times when my research says is normal) and USB audio device which is probably my microphone. I tried disabled Realtek and then I had no sound. So I've since disabled the ASUS Xonar DX sound card. I still have sound so I'll leave that disabled and see if I have any rebooting. I'm not that knowledgeable about sounds cards so don't see that this could be the problem but it is easy enough to check by disabling the Xonar DX card.

 

[PanicMaster85]

oh ok this is your problem... go to the sound thing in the corner . right click and click on playback devices. over your soundcard it should say speaker asus xonar what ever. look intently if you cant find it. then click the make default. move your sound out jacks to the video card jacks on the back of the computer. then if you still have sound go into the bios and try to find the audio setting you will then want make that auto. If after this there is no sound change it back and dissable realtek in the playback devise section. do this as soon as possible ill reply to your problem.

I know this because I had a big ass problem when installing my sound card and this is what i had to do so hopfully this works for you too if not maby there is another way.

 

[PanicMaster85]

or if it already on auto change it to off that turns off the realtek completely