[Arzacane]

I have been dealing with random reboots. At first I figured it was overheating issues. I have two video cards I have been swapping out. I know they do overheat and am waiting for a replacement, however, lately my computer has been restarting even when the cards aren't overheating. I figured maybe the Motherboard was overheating and have dealt with that issue, but even so, it still happens. The power supply isn't a generic PS, It's rated for the system I have. It's not terribly old, only a couple years, and it hasn't been overheating at all.

I am, however, running an AM3 processor, which my board can use, but haven't updated the bios as it seems to have taken to the processor 'without problems'. All that I have noticed is that the processor shows up as "Unknown" in system specs. I used to be using a Phenom X4 2.2Ghz which was an AM2 processor before replacing it with the AM3 chip.

The cards that I have tested with are a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4650 1Gig and an eVGA nVidia 8800 GT 512meg. The 8800 GT would just lock up, sputter, sometimes kick out but other times would require a reboot. I know this because it belonged to a friend who used it until he had the overheating issues and those are the only problems it caused him. I did shut off Win 7's auto reboot but don't get a BSOD.

Question I have is, could physical internal GPU problems be causing this or would the bios not being updated to AM3 be causing this?

[Tanis]

Originally Posted by Arzacane

The power supply isn't a generic PS, It's rated for the system I have. It's not terribly old, only a couple years, and it hasn't been overheating at all.

Rosewill PSUs are cheap and nasty, personally I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it and certainly not in a gaming machine where power draw tends to be higher.

Originally Posted by Arzacane

I am, however, running an AM3 processor, which my board can use, but haven't updated the bios as it seems to have taken to the processor 'without problems'.

Clearly this isn't the case, as you are having problems This would be my first check, make sure you have the correct BIOS (should be version F12B) for the CPU you have installed, see here. Looking at the motherboard website (assuming it is the one listed in your specs), there are a few different BIOS versions dependant no the installed CPU. You need to ensure you have the obvious points correct before attempting to diagnose any other possible faults / issues.

[crjdriver]

Just because your system boots with the am3 cpu does NOT mean it runs correctly. The bios must have the correct micro-code to run the cpu. You may even have an incorrect vcore [cpu voltage] if the bios does not know what cpu you have installed. You need to update the bios if you want the cpu to run correctly. Since you have a gigabyte board that supports qflash, updating the bios is very easy and almost idiot proof. Read your mb manual prior to doing the update so you fully understand the update procedure.

Next rosewill pw supplies are not the greatest however the high end ones are actually not that bad. They are ok for basic stuff like running office, email, etc. I would be somewhat hesitant to use one in a system made for gaming or other high load operations. If you have a low end rosewill, those are junk and should not be used.

If you have a rosewill xtreme or bronze series, those are ok. If you have one of the green or stallion series, those are what I call low end or junk and should not be used.

[crjdriver]

One other item. Your board does support the rena cpu however it is with a beta bios ONLY. A beta bios is just that beta and it is used with no support from gigabyte. You are in effect a beta tester; it may work AND it may not work correctly.

[Arzacane]

I had updated my Bios to 11 through @Bios last night, it still rebooted overnight. I just updated to 12B so we'll see how that goes.

[Arzacane]

Oh, and checked my PSU, it's a Rosewill RV2-700

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by Arzacane

Oh, and checked my PSU, it's a Rosewill RV2-700

That is one of the "junk" units. IMO not really good for anything other than a paperweight.

[Arzacane]

Well, it's been a day now, been putting my computer under stress and no reboots. I would venture to say that updating to 12B worked. Thank you for all the help.

[crjdriver]

Just returned home from work.
So it is still working ok?

You are welcome

[Arzacane]

Well, it still does it once a day, but that I believe is the PS. It's stopped rebooting as much as it was. It was rebooting 4+ times a day. But now, it'll shut down, but the processor fan will stay running while everything else shuts off.

[Arzacane]

I was told by a friend to run OCCT stress test on my system. He believes that it may be the southbridge/northbridge since it seems to be crashing under load. Usually when I play games or watch a lot of netflix and when I run the onboard video, I get a BSoD. Attached is the results since it crashed while running. I'm not sure what the numbers mean, but one thing I noticed was my CPU VCore went from 1.07 to 1.46. I'm not sure if that's normal or not. Can anyone help me decipher this?

[crjdriver]

Vcore or cpu voltage is supposed to go up under a load; it is a function of cool&quiet. If you disable C&Q in the bios, then the voltage will stay at 1.45V or whatever the rating is for your cpu.

BTW I know a lot of people like occt however I use prime95 when stress testing. Open a monitoring app to monitor temps and voltages while prime95 is running. Since this is a gigabyte board, you can download and install easy tune from the gigabyte site OR you can use something like hwmonitor.

[Arzacane]

OK, well I did narrow it down. It is my Mobo. My particular motherboard had an outstanding issue. The Northbridge has a problem of overheating. I right now have a box fan aimed towards it on high and it's working, but for how long? Looks like I'll need to get a new motherboard.