I7 Random Restarts

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ctechguy

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Aug 3, 2009
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I have a I7 920 that restarts frequently. I have a Asus P6T SE motherboard, running vista business. I think I have narrowed it down to two things; overheating cpu or psu. I tried to go for a silent computer so I have a bigwater liquid cooling system, a Gigabyte HD4550 and a MGE Magnum power supply. Also have 12gb of OCZ gold ram, 8-8-8-24 although motherboard detects it differently. Manually set, didn't make a difference. The power supply is rated at 500w dual 12v rail rated at 15amp. The 3.3 rail has 25amps and the 5v rail has 30amps. The 12v rail cannot exceed 385watts and the 5v and 3.3v cant exceed 150w. I have have ran memtest86+ which return 0 errors. It restarted more in normal mode than safe mode, thought it might be a service so reinstall windows did not help. Ran prime95 for 7hours my temps got to 80degC but stayed on. Prime95 seem to be working and didn't want to keep stressing it so I exited prime95 and it immediately restarted. I turned off auto restart on errors, but when it restarts I don't get any errors, it just restarts. It happens more frequently when it is hot out. It happens when windows starts or in the middle of file copy or launching an application. It also restarted one time when my computer was on but I had turned off my monitor, I came back later turned on the monitor and it restarted as if the monitor power had taken power away from the computer. It is not overclocked. Don't really have a clear idea what temp it restarts at. Last night it was cold out and got idle temps of 42degC from speedfan I didn't restart but I only had it on for 5mins.

Do you get a error message if CPU overheats?
I think it is the power supply but don't know what numbers should be higher when purchasing a new one. I also read that PSU output less in hotter tempertures. Also the reason I bought the MGE Magnum is because it claim to have no fan, which is wrong it has a very low small fan to blow at the radiator it has. It is completely silent psu. Can anyone suggest a very quite PSU that would work for me. I see thermaltake has some 16db ones.

Any help is appreciated.
 
If it was a heat issue I don't think you could run prime 95 for 7 hours and hit 80c without the problem showing itself. Have you tried unplugging everything but the kb/mouse/monitor? Just to see if an external device is causing the problem. Also, you say you reinstalled windows. Did you try using it with the clean install before installing your other programs? Try surfing for a while or burning a CD or something that will stress it slightly with the clean install. Then install your programs one at a time and use them. It sounds to me more like a software/hardware conflict someplace than heat.
 
I don't know what shouldn't be plugged in, I don't have a printer or any thing plugged in. I have hdd and water pump plugged in but I assume I keep those. I unplugged blu-ray drive. Ya currently just reinstalled and just installed drivers, however I believe it was restarting before I installed drivers. No programs yet. I think I probably ran prime95 wrong. I might retry that.
 
yes, you want to make sure you are running prime 95 across all cores and threads. If you have a bad core it would explain the problem, also. When the bad core kicks in it would shut you down for a restart.
 
It crashs, it doesnt give an error because its not a diagnostic tool, it just crashes out. Run it on blend with 8 threads like you did and post what your temps get up to. Use HW Monitor to monitor your temps.
 
Random restarts especially when its hot I say is a sympton of bad power supply. Never heard of that brand but it seems to me that it's right on the border of providing enough power for your system.

If I were you, I'd try another power supply that has at least 700W.

Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, and Seasonic are good reliable brands of psu's.

I highly recommend the Corsair CMPSU-750TX.

 
^but it seems if it was the psu or heat it wouldn't run prime 95 for 7 hours @ 80c, then crash when he tries to open programs. Any hardware and heat problems should show during prime 95, that is why i'm leaning toward software problems....
Are you running raid on your HDD by any chance?
 
no raid, running prime right now, forget to mention 64 bit, you probably got that from 12gb of ram, thanks for the help so far
 
Uh wow, missed the 80C part the first time though, redo your heat sink installation. The maximum safe temperature is 68C, you have greatly exceeded it and have potentially damaged your processor. You need to give up this concept of a 'silent PC' you need good cooling or you are going to start loosing parts. Your PSU is likely dumping a ton of heat into the case as well, remember that 30dBa is considered to be a quiet room so you really dont need to be shooting for below 20 dBa you wont much notice even 30dBa. I would guess that something with the excessive heat is finally trigging the PSU to shut off once it cant passively cool itself well enough any more.
 
I assume would have already mentioned this, but is it always the same program(s) that cause the crash? Is there anything you can run forever without it crashing? Can you surf the internet without problems? And I assume you have checked all your programs for 64bit compatibility?
 
@hunter...i think the i7 has much higher thermal limits, but I agree that running at 80c is not a good idea...but that just reinforces my point that it is probably not a cpu heat issue, although it might be a gpu heat issue or other gpu problem depending on what programs are making it crash.
 
I probably should redo the heat sink just wasn't sure if 80deg was bad for i7. My understanding is dba is a lot different then db. No particular program. Right now it seems fine though, once it happens once though if i start up in normal mode it will happen on windows log-in.
 
if I'm not mistaken, that is the 24/7 operating range. I wish I could find the page, but somewhere they have listed the PEAK temp rating on all the chips, which is higher than the basic thermal rating....but I DO agree there is no way you want to running at that temp for extended periods.
My question about the programs was to see if it was just graphically intense programs that had the issue. If it was the PSU and the graphics card would be in question. You might still check the graphics card by removing the side of the case, and/or manually adjusting the fan speed on the card. Also, you might check your video card drivers to make sure they are updated. If you are running fine in safe mode you've probably narrowed down the problem to a driver issue someplace.
 
I haven't redone the heat sink yet. Before when I mention safe mode, it works better in safe mode but still does crash sometimes. I don't think it is the video card, I have had a couple different ones and the one I currently have has no fan, it is a lower end one. Today it is hot out and I turned my computer on and started copying a file from my network and it crashed. I turned it back on and opened speedfan and it crashed. Turned it on again and opened HW monitor got idle temps of 44,44,47,41 I then opened prime and ran it. Two hours latter I went to check on it and it a appeared to be ok. On my way out I accidentally rattled the floor and it crashed. I wanted to get my crash temps so I started it up and crashed before login. Tried safe mode, crashed before login. Went into bios and got CPU Temp to be 55, when I exited bios it started up, HW monitor gave temps of 53,52,56,50.
 
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