Strange Reboot Issue

NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
edited June 2006 in Hardware
I cannot figure out why my parent's Socket 754 completely reboots at seemingly random times. I've done some troubleshooting myself, figuring it was the obvious culprits...but I'm stumped.


Memtest86+ passed.
Voltages on Antec 450W are solid.
Spyware and malware free (says Spybot, Blaster, and Ad-Aware)
Virus free (says AVG)

Components:
Sempron 2800+
Asus K8U-X
512MB Kingston ValueRam
Radeon 7000 (PCI)
Antec 450W
10GB Fireball (!!!) harddrive
WMP11 Wireless-B v2(PCI)

Any clues or things I've missed? Anyone have any leads? :banghead:


One thing I'm not sure of is proper settings in the mobo's BIOS. I've never dealt with 64-bit processors before this one, I'm still using my trusty 2500+. Anything I should be aware of? I've already disabled Cool n' Quiet.

Comments

  • bikerboybikerboy PA
    edited May 2006
    what are your temps like?

    bikerboy
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited May 2006
    I'd run a full chkdsk /r as well to ensure that your file system is in a healthy state. Just run that command from the command prompt. It will likely ask if you want to run it at your next reboot. Answer 'Y'. Once you reboot the PC it will run the full disk check.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Thanks for the help, guys. Temps seem to be fine, 36C last time I checked in BIOS.

    Ran checkdisk, it passed all its tests as well.

    It might be entirely unrelated, but the WLAN has been acting up a bit, not connecting until I tell it to manually do it itself sometimes after the computer's been turned on. I've moved the card (its new) to a different slot, it still reboots after that. So that must not really be causing problems...


    Any other ideas?
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited May 2006
    NiGHTS wrote:
    Thanks for the help, guys. Temps seem to be fine, 36C last time I checked in BIOS.

    Ran checkdisk, it passed all its tests as well.

    It might be entirely unrelated, but the WLAN has been acting up a bit, not connecting until I tell it to manually do it itself sometimes after the computer's been turned on. I've moved the card (its new) to a different slot, it still reboots after that. So that must not really be causing problems...


    Any other ideas?

    Have you tried removing the card from the PC? I'd give that a shot and see what happens.. Did the issues start occuring around the same time you added the card?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    The computer was built with the card, it worked fine in their previous computer. We actually bought that card to replace what we felt was a faulty card the first time. I'll give it a go.
  • NobodyNobody
    edited May 2006
    Hi
    The same thing happened to a friends E Machine.
    After going to the shop and then to me - couldn't figure it out.
    When I took it back to their house I saw they had it plugged to a cheap Plug in strip that was plugged to a cheap plug in strip.
    that was it.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Oh, interesting. That's something I never would have thought of...I'll try that out too.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    So, after more fiddling, I've discovered that everytime I try to install the Realtek Sound driver, the computer crashes.

    I've downloaded the latest driver, but it wouldn't finish the installation until the onboard sound was disabled in the BIOS. After reenabling it, the one device in the hardware manager that still showed as not being installed properly was the "Multimedia Audio Controller." Everything else is fine.

    Whenever I try to tell it to install, I am welcomed to a complete reboot. Any ideas?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Also, BIOS reports the 12v rail being 12.2. After loading AsusProbe, the 12v rail reports back as 12.99. Which reading am I to believe more?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Bump. Still puzzled.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited June 2006
    Hmm, that is odd.. Looks to me like your onboard sound may have bit the dust (on a hardware level). If you can, take a look around the net for some different driver versions (even older ones) and see if that makes any difference. Also, try the ones that came with your ASUS.

    Perhaps that may help.

    In regards to your +12V rail, I'd consider 12.2 to be perfectly acceptable. 12.99 is above the +/- 5% threshold, but I doubt that is an accurate measurement. It likely would not cause reboots, but wouldn't be healthy for your hardware in the long-term. If you have a digital multimeter, I would verify just to be sure. You can take a reading on the 'yellow' wire on any molex plug. Ground to black.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    I don't have a multi, unfortunately. The high voltage wouldn't reboot it though...how odd. I would have thought that to be the cause.

    I'm back to square one, then. This motherboard is looking more and more like it needs to be RMA'd. If it isn't the voltage rebooting it, would the onboard sound be doing it, regardless of whether or not its enabled or disabled in BIOS?
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