Computer randomly restarting -- culprit?
 

OK, here is my problem: my computer will occasionally decide to spontaneously reboot itself. Sometimes it will do it within 5 minutes of being on, and sometimes it will go for hours without this problem.

I recently added a Turtlebeach Santa Cruz sound card and an Ethernet card (for DSL) to my computer. Would a conflict with one of these cards possibly cause a problem like that? Or do you think it would be something else? Oh yeah, my motherboard is an ECS K7S5A.

Just wondering if anyone had experienced a problem like this before or could point me in the direction of what could be causing this.

Thanks

Do you get a "the system has recovered from a critical error" popup when it comes back online?

My first shot - open up the case and make sure all of your fans are functioning properly.

A weak PSU with unstable rails will cause this. Cheap system memory will also cause this. Download MBM5 to check rail ratings.

I has something like this happen once. I added some memory and had the random restart problem. Then once I tried running the computer with the case off, it ran fine, for hours. I then added some fans and put the cover back on and it's worked fine ever since.

Overheating or power supply going bad.

could also simply be a loose connector from the power supply
one time the connector that goes to the mobo somehow got loose and it would cause my computer to sudeenly completely power off then restart

Thanks for all the posts!! I'm gonna try all of these suggestions and hopefully it will solve the problem!

Speaking from personal experience, your motherboard is most likely the problem. The K7S5A is a piece of shit. They had a great deal at Frys where you could get a K7S5A with a nice AMD processor pretty cheap. My friends and I all took this opportunity to upgrade our systems. But unfortunately, 90% of all the motherboards we tried had problems. I finally got one that worked and it powers my server - but I'd never trust it on my main computer. My other two friends finally wrote off the loss of the motherboard, kept the chip and bought a nice MSI mobo.

If your motherboard is new enough to be returned, do it. If not, I'd just go buy a new one...of course, checking the fans and power supply might help temporarily, but I will never use an ECS motherboard again.

No problems on my K7S5A. Most problems with the motherboard stem from cheap power supplys and generic ram. If you're running Windows XP or 2000, it will automatically restart your computer when it has certain errors. Disable that in your System Properties in the Control Panel. My guess is that its the power supply, and your old one can't handle the extra cards you installed. Fuzzy is right about the rails for your power supply. A high wattage is often inconsequential. Pick up a name brand power supply from Antec or something.

Have you tried applying some thermal compound, such as Arctic Silver 5, to your chipset heatsink? This is the orange heatsink with ECS on it. My heatsink was originally attached with double-sided sticky tape. I removed the tape from the heatsink and the chip underneath, applied the Arctic Silver 5 to the heatsink and re-attached it by putting four small drops of super glue to the corners. Prior to this modification, the heatsink never was warm to the touch. Now, it's nice and toasty! The heatsink is working as it should. Give this a try. My system is now rock-solid.

Let me know how it goes!

I just had the same problem. And after many tests, I found the problem to be the power supply. The power supply was unstable, which caused the computer to randomly reboot. To remedy this problem, I bite the bullet and purchased an Antec true watt power supply. Good luck!

I'm gonna try the solutions y'all gave me this weekend before I go out an buy an Antec power supply. Hopefully something recommended here will work..

Now when I disable the automatic reboot and it crashes, XP gives me a screen with the error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and says that it is probably due to a hardware problem. I think it might just be that the motherboard is a piece of junk like some of you said.

I've gotten those errors before... mostly for using faulty ram. I'd definitely go out and buy a power supply and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't, you can always return the power supply and pick up a new motherboard :)

Yeah, I think I may go and pick up a 400W+ Antec power supply tomorrow. Right now I have a 350W Enermax power supply. Anyone familiar with that brand?

Thanks.

Hmmm, Enermax should be fine... they have good and solid power supplys. Weird...

Its the RAM.


I had this exact problem with my old Dell 8200. They came and put new items in:

power supply
hard drive
processor
video card
sound card
mother board


Still randomly restarted....usually 2-3 times a day.

They finally replaced the computer.


Only thing they didn't replace was the RAM. That would be my guess.

Are we placing bets? My pick is overheating

Well, the RAM is from Crucial, and I think that is a pretty good brand. I also downloaded MBM and the CPU temp seems to be 113 F and the case temp is usually a few degrees higher than whatever the room's temperature is. Does that tell me anything?

Thanks

I'll continue to blame the POS motherboard.

Well he can't know for sure unless he gets another mobo and do a complete overhaul w/ clean install OS, updates, newest drivers.

In regards to that cheap ECS mobo, a lot of people who bought had no problem with it.

Enermax is a highly over rated PSU. If you want quality, there's always Antec True Power.

Crucial RAM is Micron. Whether or not Micron is good RAM I'll leave to you.

In any event, I am 99.5% certain it's your RAM, as all your symptoms to a T happened to me and I replaced the RAM and no problems since.

This may sound crazy, but I moved the PCI cards around and haven't had a problem yet.....crossing fingers...

Nevermind, it happened again. What brands do you look for in memory? I may get an Antec power supply and some new RAM.

Whatever you do, don't replace both at the same time. Do the RAM first and keep the power supply in its package. That way if it is the RAM then you can send the power supply back first.

And I've got a few bucks in paypal that its the ram :D


Keep us updated. I'd be interested in seeing what fixes it. Like I said...my bet is on the RAM as explained earlier.