PC Peripherals Help Needed with Random Restarting Problem

E

eternoMind

Skilled
Intel Core i3 2100 Processor
Intel DH61WW Mainboard
Corsair XMS3 1x4GB RAM
FSP Saga II 350W PSU
Sapphire HD5670 1GB DDR5 Gfx Card
1x500GB and 2x1TB (of which only one runs any given time, other is powered on occasionally for taking backups) Hard Disk Drives
CM 1x120mm Rear Exhaust Fan
Gigabyte 1x120mm Front Intake Fan
LG DVD Writer

That is my PC's configuration. The mainboard, processor and RAM are quite new (around 3 months), the video card is more than a year old and the PSU will complete two years this December.

The Problem:

I am getting restarts on my machine since the past two weeks. In the first half of that period, the restarts were few and far in-between. Didn't pay attention to them much until the latter half, when the restarts became more frequent. I am in the habit of sometimes keeping my PC ON overnight when downloading and during each of these nights in the past week, the PC restarted/shutdown by itself at random times. While sometimes it stayed shutdown, some other times it restarted and stayed put at the User Password screen (am running Windows 7 x64). This inspite of me disabling Auto-restart feature from Windows. The shutdowns/restarts are not specific to the load on the machine. They occur both when the PC is idle or when i am stressing the machine moderately. It is RANDOM in every sense of the word :gap:.

Things i Tried:

These are things i tried to get rid of the problem (not in chronological order).

1) Cleaned hardware completely and checked all connections
2) Updated audio, LAN and graphics drivers (Chipset driver installed was latest one)
3) Ran anti-spyware programs (Found some threats. Deleted/quarantined them)
4) Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and Memtest86+ for 4 passes (No errors in either case)
5) Ran Chkdsk and used HD Sentinel (No errors found)
6) Reset CMOS
7) Updated BIOS
8) Ran a System File Checker scan (It found some errors but said it couldn't fix all of them)
9) Checked all cables (internal and external)

After step 1, 2, 3 & 4, the PC managed to avoid a shutdown/restart for close to 24 consecutive hours. However, had 3-4 shutdowns since noon today. And in a twist to the problem, the machine tried to restart but couldn't do so and shutdown by itself within 3-4 seconds. This pattern was repeated for almost 5-6 times after which i finally turned off the UPS. Turning it on after a gap of 5 minutes resulted in no problem at all. The PC's running fine since then and as i am typing this. Even Viewer lists the same errors again and when viewed in details there are specific strings mentioned. Also note that heat does not seem to be an issue here. Check out the screenshot of the same below. Night time temps are around 4-5 deg C lower than those values.

Please checkout a low-quality video of the above problem and a screenshot of Event Viewer attached here.

Google throws up a wide variety of errors and their solutions, which have left me rather confused.

 

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There's something wrong with your OS itself as reported in event viewer. To rule out any hardware fault, remove your gfx card and run the setup on your onboard video and a single ram stick and after every stability or a restart replace your ram stick with another one if you got or borrow from a friend. To troubleshoot OS, install another OS in your other harddisk. Start by installing win xp. I doubt your system may be infected by some trojan or spyware.
 
Thanks for your replies people and sorry about a late reply from me here.

nRiTeCh, I would be so glad if it is indeed a problem with my OS only. I'll be willing to go through the ultra-boring re-installation process of the OS and other software if doing that could help in getting rid of this problem. I run a single 4GB RAM stick and so have asked for a friend to loan his 2GB module. Will be getting it tomorrow and will test with it once. I could not test the GFX card as my mobo has a VGA port only and i didn't have access to a VGA cable until an hour back :ashamed:.
As of now, i am exploring the idea of using another OS first. Got hold of an XP OS disc from a friend and will be installing it shortly. As for the trojan/spyware, i did scan the PC using Malwarebytes and SuperANTISpyware. Both detected some threats and they were deleted/quarantined.

6pack, I am so hoping that it's not the PSU. Around me, the only PSUs that I can try are the quality stuff from Intex and iBall. So unless the fault is confirmed, buying a new PSU is not one of my options.
Are there any other physical tell-tale signs of PSU failure?

icube said:
to determine weather its software or hardware run pc on ubuntu live cd
Click to expand...

Am about to install an XP copy to see how the PC runs. Will report back about the same.
 
Are there any other physical tell-tale signs of PSU failure?
Click to expand...
As in other than the video you posted? mostly, a bad psu will cause unknown errors, sudden reboots or shutdowns, slow spinning fans, etc. Change the wall socket you're using, and also keep the hardware in the comp to a minimum (just the os hdd and mobo, no odd, or other hdds) and see if this still happens.
 
An update on this.

The problem persisted even after formatting and reinstalling my OS. Same was the result even when i ran the rig with the bare minimum of hardware peripherals and switched my RAM module with a friend's.
So bought a Corsair CX430v2 (2.6K from TheITWares) and the rig's been running fine ever since. No restarts at all even on using all my peripherals at the same time for more than 20 hours at a stretch.

Thanks for your inputs @6pack, @icube, @nRiTeCh !!

:)
 
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