Random restarts, windows 7 64 bit. Help me out guys, please

liveon3

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posted earlier about some graphical issues i was having in WoW, that post is completely irrelevant now being that after my recent reformatting of my computer it will randomly restart without bsod's from anywhere from 15mins-5 hours

so here's my specs,

amd 960t 3.0 ghz cpu
patriot gaming 16 gigs of ram ( 4 sticks, 4 gigs each stick ) memory
asrock 970 extreme 3+ mobo
gigabyte gtx 560 ti gpu
hitatchi 500gb hdd
seasonic 520w 80+ psu
windows 7 home 64bit

Reformatted my computer, installed the windows 7 64 bit
installed all drivers that came with the asrock CD
then the problems began, constant restarts without any BSOD's...
so anyways for the FYI, running the most recent GPU drivers, came out 2/21/12 (295.73)
just updated my BIOS from asrocks website
restarts got less frequent but were still happening

downloaded mis afterburner and used the asrock tuning utility to monitor CPU and GPU temperatures,
never got above abnormal temperatures for both pecies of hardware...

have also ran furmark in 1080p and 720p and and my scores are @ par with all others with my same GPU

running memtest right now, currently have 1 stick of 4 completed without any errors, so 4 gigs of ram that works
and isnt bad forsure...

im running out of ideas, have ran windows repair, looked for hours throughout the interwebs and cant find a solution
what else can i do guys?

is there any other chipset updates or am i missing some registry codes that isnt allowing my hardware to function properly with windows 7 64 bit?? is my PSU not enough to support my system? i got this build from this website ( not putting the blame, but i know you guys know what you are talking about ) i dont know whats going on and i feel like i wasted all this $ rig and cant get it to function properly



 

sewalk

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Let's see: 520W PSU and a GTX560Ti, OK, that combo is doable, if a little marginal. Depends on how the PSU is set up for 12V. Multiple rails could make things tricky to balance. If it's a single-rail PSU, it should be fine.

Oops, overclocking. That's likely your problem. Once you start bumping the clock speeds and voltages, power usage really starts to climb. You very likely do not have any headroom for overclocking with a 520W PSU.

Just noticed you only said you were using tuning/overclocking utilities to monitor temps. OK, looks like your PSU is not quite enough. If it's a multi-rail supply, try to balance out the load if you can. Sometimes the two seperate drive cables from the PSU are on different rails, sometimes they're not. Impossible to say with direct examination of the guts of the PSU. If it's a single-rail supply or if you can't re-balance, you're going to have to bite it and replace the power supply. 600-650W should give ample overclocking headroom with a GTX560Ti but won't support a second GPU in SLI. You'll need about 700W or more for that.
 

weezys_advocate

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He has a Seasonic PSU, they are basicly as good at is gets. his power supply is plenty for his system even with lots of overclocking. if the restarts happen at iddle it is even less likely to be a PSU isses. the porblem will lie elsewhere.
do you get restarts even with just one stick of ram in ?
 

liveon3

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I havent had the chance too being that im running memtest on that rig at the moment. once i get home from work tonight ill make sure to give it a try with
the one stick of ram that checked out during memtest...

it would restart most frequently when downloading & installing updates....

would you guys like me to run a dxdiag and post it here?
would that help you to diagnose the issue better?

my question is why am i not receiving BSODs?

i was told that this PSU wouldnt bottleneck my system whatsoever and it could handle it with ease, if that is the problem, would this PSU be more than enough?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021
 

Sam98

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I have Windows 7 and it would reboot when I pushed the system during overclocking, it would see it getting hot and shut down. If it's doing this during memory or system testing, it's most likely overheating.

 

sewalk

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There are three possible answers:
1. OS problem causing resets. Rare, this usually results in BSOD rather than reset but can't rule it out completely.
2. Bad hardware. Memtest and swapping sticks will eliminate RAM as a cause but more difficult to isolate other components. Kind of unusual not to cause BSOD, too.
3. Power supply overloaded/not balanced. Assuming you have the M12II or S12II 520 Bronze, you have to balance the two 12V rails. 12V output in these PSU is split between two 20A rails. If you're tring to get 30A from one rail, there's going to be a problem. I'm not sure which connectors use which rail since Seasonic only provides a simple datasheet that provides little more or even less information than the label on the side of the unit. It's quite normal for a bad/insufficient PSU to cause resets and not BSOD. This is the most likely cause IMO. Try switching which PCIe power connector you're using and see if the problem persists. Your SATA/HDD connector cabling could be coming off different rails, too.

520W is barely adequate for the GTX560Ti, at least according to nVidia, even when using a quality PSU like a Seasonic. They recommend a minimum 500W/31A(12V) power supply for a reference card with that GPU. If your card is factory-overclocked, add 10-20W to that number and oops, now that 520W isn't leaving anything to chance. Add in the fact that your power supply does provide 31A but does so by having two separate 20A rails makes meeting the power requirements a tricky proposition.

The Corsair PSU you linked is an excellent choice. 62A on a single 12V rail means lots of power and no tricky configurations. You can easily add a second GTX560Ti with this power supply.
 

liveon3

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alright cool. picking that corsair psu today in about half an hour,
gonna hook everything up and ill let everyone know how its going from that point on.

weezy i noticed that i had my system on for about 2 hours without any restarts while just having 1 stick of ram in.
 

liveon3

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Hooked up the new corsair PSU today, began getting restarts once i started up WoW...

gonna blow my brains out soon srlsy....

Note: restarts did not occur when only 1 stick of ram was installed
 

liveon3

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Just an update on my problem and the rig itself...

Windows 7 64bit home
Corssair 750w ( single rail )
ASrock 970 extreme 3
Gigabyte gtx 560 ti
Amd 960t
Patriot gaming memory. 4 sticks. 4 gigs on each stick. 16 gigs in total
Hitachi 500gb 7200rpm

Alright. So I've been running memtest for the last couple days and 3 out of 4
Sticks of ram have run more than 7 passes with 0 errors...
Today I installed my new cossair psu and installed all 4 sticks of ram
And to my suprise when I attempted to play WoW my computer restarted
Just as it did prior to me buying this brand new psu.
Yesterday when the memtest had finished I was using my rig with only 1 stick
Of ram installed while using my old seasoic 520w psu, and it did not
Restart at all for the 2 1/2 hours that I was using it, but I was only surfing the web
And talking on ventrilo. I'm begginin to think that the problem lies within
My motherboard. So as I have asked before, please guys throw me your ideas
Cause I'm definitely fresh out of ideas.

Edit: don't know if it matters but the only programs I have installed
on my rig are

World of warcraft
Microsoft security essentials
Google chrome
Msi afterburner
Furmark
Internet explorer
Acrobat

 

JKatwyopc

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Here's a thought, I noticed you were using MSI Afterburner. Are you still running that? Try removing it. I have had problems with intermittant reboots while using it even when not overclocking my GPU.

Are you overclocking the CPU or the GPU? If so, get everything running stable without any over clocking of anything. Make sure that you are not using overclocking from within BIOS either.

Have you unlocked any latent cores on your CPU? If so, you may need to reset your Motherboards CMOS and then DO NOT enable the ciore unlocking feature.

If you have everything running at the default settings and your problem goes away you have clear knowledge that at least everything works. Then if you want you can try enabling the core unlocker or overclocking something, but, just be sure to do only one thing at a time and do some careful stability testing before you do something else.
 

liveon3

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Ok ill give that a try removing msi afterburner once I get home from work
About overclocking, no sir I am not OCing my gpu or cpu at all.
And yes I have unlocked cores from my CPU before and I believe they
Are still unlocked as we speak. I will reset my cmos tonight and give that a try.

And my BIOS has a overclocking option which is set to auto, and the only other option
Is manual. I'm scared to set it to manual because I know nothing of overclocking and
I do not want to fry anything
 

sewalk

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Did you ever finishing testing all your RAM? It could be as simple as a slightly bad DIMM. Once you've tested all the DIMMs individually, test them in pairs and move them around to check all four sockets to ensure that one of them is not bad. A BIOS update for your motherboard is also a possibility.
 

aqe040466

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Change your PSU to at least 700 watts 80+ certified
 

liveon3

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Finished testing all individual sticks of ram.
all 4 passed with no errors.
reset my CMOS and ran my computer with 2 sticks of ram installed ( dual-channel )
computer is running like a champ, no restarts or anything...
i was getting experimental and unlocked my CPU, still ran like champ
then i tried to install all 4 sticks of ram and use the rig and the restarts began,
so i removed the extra 2 sticks and it began running normal again.

what could this mean?
 

aqe040466

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It's the PSU that causing the PC to restart and reboots because it doesn't have enough power to sustain all the power needed by the entire system. Not all PSU are created equal. You also have to consider the brands like Cosair, OCZ, antec, XFX etc..These brands have proven themselves for a long time already, that is why PC builders and users trusted them. The higher wattage, the better.
 

aqe040466

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Also to mention the 2 memory slots of your motherboard is defective, as you stated when you put 4 sticks it restarts and reboots again. You should RMA that 2 defective memory stick to the manufacturer ASAP.
 

sewalk

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This is not an uncommon problem. Lots of motherboards work fine with 2 DIMMs installed then fail when 2 more are added, even if the second pair works fine when swapped with the first pair.
Check ASRock's documentation for the motherboard. See if they have a Qualified Vendor List for RAM. Some boards are just really, really picky about RAM, especially when filled to full capacity. Underclocking your RAM may provide some relief. The difference in performance between DDR3-1333 and DDR-1600, for instance, is a lot smaller than most people realize.