CPU/Mobo Desktop restarts at power-up continually

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Boot_Comp

Contributor
Hi,
I'm facing a problem with my 3yr old desktop now.
Everytime I power it on it keeps restarting continuously very frequently at random intervals. And in very rare chances it boots to Windows and stays up for some time.
Most of the time I am unable to even get to the voltage monitoring page in the BIOS.

List of things I have tried so far are,
1. Upgraded to latest BIOS on my P5Q Pro
2. Ran Memtest from a live cd and did not see any failures reported (let it run for around an hour).
3. Replaced GPU (from HD4850 to a HD6850) still facing the same issue. Also the P5Q Pro does not come with onboard graphics hence cannot try without one.
4. Tried directly plugging to the wall switch (instead of APC UPS) and with this was able to get Windows to boot. But after about 20-30 mins BSOD'ed and then kept restarting continuously as before.

So I now think the prob has to be with either the CPU / Motherboard / SMPS.

First of all could someone who knows PSU's well confirm if the Corsair VX450 can handle my system specs (in sig below).

Also could some advice on how I can narrow down which of these could be the problematic component?
 
Im not sure if PSU will cause BSOD's will have to wait for someone else to confirm. More obvious symptoms of psu trouble is the pc just shutting off or restarting without any sort of screen. In your case most likely ram cpu mobo. Since you have already run memtest time to run a cpu stress test and see what happens. Then you can narrow it down to cpu mobo.

Edit : I think perhaps running a cpu bench would be a waste of time ideally you want to stick your cpu in another setup and run a cpu bench to see if it is the cpu. BSOD's and hangs on your current rig wont let you identify culprit between cpu and mobo.
 
I cant get the desktop to boot most of the time. So dont think the CPU stress test can be run.

Does anyone know if it would help (and how) if I get a Multimeter and try checking with that (haven't used one before but am willing to try :))
 
Lol what would you check with the multimeter ? Naa I dont think that would serve any purpose at this point in time. Time to find a friend with a 775 board and troubleshoot your cpu.
 
Was referring to the PSU voltage checking to help eliminate it from the list.

Hmm... was kind of hoping there would be some way to check without taking the things out. Any other options?
Does anyone know any reliable service engineers / shops that offer this kind of troubleshooting?
 
First thing to do in such a case (if you haven't done it already) is disable "Automatic Restart on System failure".

Right click "My Computer">Properties>Advanced Settings>Startup and Recovery>Automatic Restart". Uncheck it.

Secondly, post the text on the BSOD here as much as you can. Especially the message (like driver_irql_not_less_or_equal). We'll take it from there.
 
Well, I'm not sure what the problem is but looks like it is gone now.
I managed to get into BIOS and reset all the values to defaults. Then was able to see Windows boot (but never made it to the login screen). So then reinstalled Windows and everything is working now (been running for several hours now). Hope I don't face any issues again.

Thanks for the help folks.

Also as everything is working now, any recommendations of tools for monitoring / checking everything (currently using CPUID for this). So that if any prob ever occurs again I can at least get some indication of which component is at fault.

Think I better Prime95 the desktop overnight one of these days?
 
My rig is working fine now.

Also did not really think the BSOD (one time) was the problem. The only time it ever BSOD'ed was after I changed GPU's (so guess that was because of an incorrect driver).

As I mentioned the issue was that I wasn't able to get the system to even boot (even in BIOS it never stayed for more than a few seconds).
 
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