PC Reboots

[Reikoku]

I have this problem for nearly a year now but today it encountered 4 times in a row it pissed me off so much that I decided to do something about it. Meanwhile I also bought a new video card but that doesn't seem to be the problem...

Description: My PC has a random chance to reboot when I load my account, and if it does, it happends when the loading bar reaches 100%. The chance increases when I load a 2nd client (my bot). Once I loaded both accounts everything is fine, and my comp won't reboot anymore (even when I change zones etc). I thought the problem would have gone with some driver updates and game patches but it obviously didn't.
My PC also reboots (sometimes) when I press quit but I read that in another thread here and that will be fixed soon obviously?
I'm using AMD 2400+, 1024 DDR 400mhz, FX6600GT
With these specs I can perfectly run the game, even 2 clients (I can't even notice a difference in fps when running 2 clients) and I don't have any reboot-problems at all outside daoc.

Thanks in advance :worthy:

 

[Reser]

I have exactly the same prob on my second pc and specs are almost the same my pc just randomly reboots during game. Maybe its something do do with the AMD motherbored , maybe with have the same one?

 

[Fana]

Most random reboot problems are because of faulty or weak power supplies (you need a good quality 500w psu if you have a strong gfx card, lots of ram, high end processor and several hd's etc) or bad ram (there are memory checker utilitys you can try to run). Then again if it only happens in daoc its likely some compatibility or drivers issue . Updated motherboard drivers? Network drivers?

 

[Reikoku]

Indeed, it only happends with daoc so I doubt it has something to do with my psu (I have a 400)
But I have never updated my motherboard drivers or network drivers (why would these reboot my comp?) yet because I don't know how...

 

[meerclar]

being an amd board you might be using via chipset.
find, download and install the latest via 4 in 1 drivers or whatever they are called nowadays (possibly hyperion...my memory is poor )
if you are using an nforce board then nvidia have your motherboard drivers.
when you identify the manufacturer of your motherboard go to www.driverzone.com and you will be able to get links to drivers from there.

 

[Reikoku]

The motherboard I am using is an Asus A7A266-E. Is there a difference between BIOS and motheboard drivers? Because in that case I only updated the BIOS...

 

[meerclar]

bios and motherboard drivers are different things.
bios is installed outside of windows and before windows even begins to boot.
motherboard drivers are installed in windows and are for things like IDE control and AGP port drivers.
ideally motherboard drivers should be installed immediately after windows is installed and before any other progs are installed. at least that was the case with win98, i am unsure if XP is as sensitive about it.
i also use an asus mainboard and it came with a driver set on its support cd along with some utility progs like anti-virus stuff and the like.

 

[Reikoku]

Any chance you could supply me with a link with the latest drivers? I don't want to screw my mainboard

 

[ademaa]

I had this exact problem some time ago and i used to get to 75% loading and then pc would chuck up the blue screen with lotsa numbers on it.

I then purchased a new GFX card. the new one was a ATI Radeon and worked perfectly.

The old card was a geforce 440mx (something like that) and i was told was a cheap and very stable card for daoc. if i changed back to the geforce, the pc would reboot and go mental.

im wondering if u had the issue with the mobo and gfx card conflicting??
although it may well be your psu, but i replaced mine as instructed by ppl in my guild and it still persisted to break.

just a story, not much help, but may help a tad

ademaa

 

[MaCaBr3]

It's know that there is a problem with a whole batch of 6600GT cards because of the heatsink problem.

My computer rebooted randomely after I purchased my Saphire 6600GT and after searching for like 2 weeks I figured out that my card heated up till 120°C wich caused the reboot.

See in the options of the card if you can see the core temperature, if you can't this site will explain how to enable it.

I brought my card back to the store and after a long wait (1 month) they gave me a new one. Everything has been working fine now.

 

[Silverbirch]

I would suggest this problem can be fixed by flashing your bios, either with the latest version available, or a mirror of your original bios version (normally available on the disk you get with your mobo)

The reboot is not actually an error, it's just that if you get a fatal system error in xp then by default windows reboots. Do you get a 'windows recovered a serious error' dialog? If you disable the auto reboot feature you will should get a BSOD where u can see the error to help identify the problem. One common problem is the eternal loop error which is a problem ocuring between bios and gfx card, essentially meaning the system locks up (cba to go into the gory details) and resulting in a BSOD. I have encountered this problem a number of times now on varying motherboards and cpu configs. Curiously mostly on raid based sytems i have built for peeps, but that may be a coincidence. Each time the newly flashed BIOS works like a dream.... so far It can save you alot of cash on buying un-neccessary new parts, and also your hair

 

[Reikoku]

thanks for all the replies, I'll answer the questions:

- no, I doubt there is a manufactury problem with my 6600GT (it's built on a Pixelview) because I had the problem already with my old card (a GF4 Ti4200)

- no, I don't get any crash reports from windows ('windows recovered a serious error') after rebooting and I never get a bluescreen as well...

@Silverbirch: thanks for the explenation but you are using a lot of difficult words there...

Keep in mind that my comp never reboots once I succesfully loaded my daoc client(s)... It is 100% stable just like in any other games then.
I hope we can exclude a number of possible problems with this info...

 

[Cylian]

if you check the Tech Tavern on the VN boards, there's tons of people that crash with 6600/6800 nvidia cards, a few others got that problem with Radeons too, not many though.

But it sure isn't just the temperature of the gpu/card. Mines running at 50°C when playing DAoC, hardly call that overheated.

 

[Sycho]

Nvidia cards can handle temperatures of upto 100c whilst playing games though, even though you really want it to average around 60-70c.The reason they are hotter than ATI cards is because they consume more power.

Have you overclocked anything? anyway i suggest running memtest for a start, just do a yahoo search for it or something.It's very easy to use and let it run when you sleep perhaps, if you get errors on that then you know your memory is faulty.(this can cause reboots and also high fsb can too)

I have a similar problem to you but with brothers in arms game, it reboots my pc but i am pretty sure it's because it doesn't like my memory being overclocked so much as it states it in the error report.Any other game causes no problems whatsoever.

 

[Raven]

may have been suggested before (havent read the whole thread) but seeing as its very hot at this time of year, could the comp be over heating?

 

[Silverbirch]

@Silverbirch: thanks for the explenation but you are using a lot of difficult words there...

Soz m8 didnt intend to

 

[Silverbirch]

Keep in mind that my comp never reboots once I succesfully loaded my daoc client(s)... It is 100% stable just like in any other games then.

I seen some machines that run games all day, and then reboot when returning to the desktop, or in one case some1's machine crashed & rebooted when visiting a certain web page. Almost always starts off as occassional error, but over time gets more frequent as the constant restarts cause data corruptions on the drives.

I'm not discounting other problems, and as a techy you'd always start from the obvious and most likely, and work down from that - and overheating is one of the primary candidates for spontaneous restarts (I've seen chip cooler fans that have worn the fan power cables away for example)

PS - let me know what the fix is ultimately, so i can fill my head with more girly-impressing info

 

[Reikoku]

@Sycho, yes that's actually a good idea as I noticed my RAM showing wrong stuff sometimes (it once displayed as 512 while I have dual 512)

Concerning the heat: My CPU goes at 60-65°C stressed, GPU (the 6600GT) currently shows as 45°C but not stressed, case goes around 30ish °C

I don't have the reboot problem anymore though since 1.75... Very strange, and I doubt I'm just being lucky as I loaded my daoc client over 20 times since the patch