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Disclaimer: I hope the "RMA" in the title does not flag this for moderation in light of the sticky topic on this board. This post is not about RMA'ing.
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I don't know computers as well as most on these boards. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate labeling this issue as bizarre and indeed perhaps the most bizarre I've ever heard of.
Succinctly, it can be summarized as an issue of random restarts. The computer abruptly restarts. Blank screen, no BSOD. It's been going on for months. People on other boards didn't believe me that it was random, so myself and some friends (as we often do) decided to make it a point. We recorded processor load, all temperatures available by the sensors in the machine, voltages, hard drive rpm, what have you. It correlates with none of them. And I'm not just saying that, the p values were >0.05, indeed the lowest was 0.22. Yeah, it's weird I made that measurement. But that should convey the degree of frustration. And further, the restarts are random. Not slang random, but mathematically random. The only nonrandom part is that as time goes on, the average time until the next restart decreases along a logistic curve. Component failure? Perhaps.
A computer repair guy, however, suggested changing the hard drive...perhaps it was feeding the mobo irregular voltages, or somesuch. So I did. New terabyte drive. And it worked! for 48 hours at least, then it restarted. And again. And again. And lo and behold, the average time was bumped back up the curve and was restarting its slow descent into "this damn computer can't run continuously for more than a half hour!"
What else have I tried? Piecewise removal of RAM, DVD-RW, HDD, GPU, all USB components. Fooled around with the BIOS numerous times, which had no effect. I even posted here, got some great suggestions. Flashed the BIOS three times. Installed Win XP x64, x32, Vista, Fedora, Ubuntu and even tried Knoppix. None had any effect. However, the system can run continuously when one uses the Ubuntu livedisk. At least, it didn't crash the whole time I was testing it. Weirdly, when an OS is installed on the HDD, the DVD-RW is reclassified (in windows) as a DVD-RAM and (on all OS's) ceases to operate. Until I replaced the HDD. Now it does. But for how long?
So, does anyone have any more diagnostic suggestions before I replace the PSU or the motherboard? Those are the only two options left at this point, and really, they were the most likely culprits all along, I just didn't want to admit it. Here's some (current) data:
OS: Windows XP x64
Mobo: EP45-UD3R
BIOS: Version F6
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0Ghz (which my computer misinterprets as P3 Xeons, for some reason)
RAM: 8Gb G.SKILL 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800
Power Supply: Rosewill RX850-S-B 850 watt
GFx: PNY GeForce 9800 GTX+ (VCG98GTXPXPB)
DVD-RW: LITE-ON 20x DVD-RW
Hard Drive: Seagate SATA 3.5" Barracuda 1Tb
Any ideas? My previous posts are all located in:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
I don't know computers as well as most on these boards. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate labeling this issue as bizarre and indeed perhaps the most bizarre I've ever heard of.
Succinctly, it can be summarized as an issue of random restarts. The computer abruptly restarts. Blank screen, no BSOD. It's been going on for months. People on other boards didn't believe me that it was random, so myself and some friends (as we often do) decided to make it a point. We recorded processor load, all temperatures available by the sensors in the machine, voltages, hard drive rpm, what have you. It correlates with none of them. And I'm not just saying that, the p values were >0.05, indeed the lowest was 0.22. Yeah, it's weird I made that measurement. But that should convey the degree of frustration. And further, the restarts are random. Not slang random, but mathematically random. The only nonrandom part is that as time goes on, the average time until the next restart decreases along a logistic curve. Component failure? Perhaps.
A computer repair guy, however, suggested changing the hard drive...perhaps it was feeding the mobo irregular voltages, or somesuch. So I did. New terabyte drive. And it worked! for 48 hours at least, then it restarted. And again. And again. And lo and behold, the average time was bumped back up the curve and was restarting its slow descent into "this damn computer can't run continuously for more than a half hour!"
What else have I tried? Piecewise removal of RAM, DVD-RW, HDD, GPU, all USB components. Fooled around with the BIOS numerous times, which had no effect. I even posted here, got some great suggestions. Flashed the BIOS three times. Installed Win XP x64, x32, Vista, Fedora, Ubuntu and even tried Knoppix. None had any effect. However, the system can run continuously when one uses the Ubuntu livedisk. At least, it didn't crash the whole time I was testing it. Weirdly, when an OS is installed on the HDD, the DVD-RW is reclassified (in windows) as a DVD-RAM and (on all OS's) ceases to operate. Until I replaced the HDD. Now it does. But for how long?
So, does anyone have any more diagnostic suggestions before I replace the PSU or the motherboard? Those are the only two options left at this point, and really, they were the most likely culprits all along, I just didn't want to admit it. Here's some (current) data:
OS: Windows XP x64
Mobo: EP45-UD3R
BIOS: Version F6
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0Ghz (which my computer misinterprets as P3 Xeons, for some reason)
RAM: 8Gb G.SKILL 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800
Power Supply: Rosewill RX850-S-B 850 watt
GFx: PNY GeForce 9800 GTX+ (VCG98GTXPXPB)
DVD-RW: LITE-ON 20x DVD-RW
Hard Drive: Seagate SATA 3.5" Barracuda 1Tb
Any ideas? My previous posts are all located in:
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