Jump to content
Corsair Community

Random Restarts CX430M


Porkey

Recommended Posts

So, a few weeks ago I upgraded my motherboard, CPU and RAM. Before the upgrade, my system was running fine; I could run CPU+GPU at 100% load, no problem. I could keep my system on 24/7 with no problems. At the time I was using an ASUS M24N68-AM SE2 motherboard with an AMD Phenom X4 9500 (OC to 2.5GHz), and two 2GB sticks of DDR2 RAM.

 

However, after the upgrade (new motherboard/CPU/RAM in my profile specs), my system ran seemingly fine for about 6 days before it randomly shut down/restarted one night. I was playing some games when suddenly the system went dark. Without warning or any BSOD, the system just restarted.

 

After the first restart, I decided that I'd "take it easy" on the system for a bit to see if it would restart again. I loaded up a much older and less demanding game, and played fine for about 30 minutes before the system restarted, again.

 

After the second restart, I let the system sit idle at the desktop for 5 minutes. The computer didn't restart, so I went online to do some reading on a possible cause. About another 5 minutes later, as I was reading a forum post, the system restarted. Again. This time there was no heavy load on the system at all; I was sitting idle, reading a forum post.

 

Now, I am writing this post about two weeks after the restarting became a problem. I have ruled out any kind of software problem as being a possible cause. I nuked my Windows installation, and as I was in the process of re-installing Windows, I had the system restart on me again. Twice.

 

My motherboard already has the latest BIOS, and I have tried using single sticks of RAM, to no obvious avail. I played around with memory speeds in the BIOS, to no avail. Before I nuked my Windows installation, I removed my graphics card and tried reading up on the issue, and the system still restarted.

 

The only thing that I have left to rule out at this point is my power supply.

To fuel my belief that my PSU may be giving out; I saw someone (possibly on this forum) with the same motherboard as me who was having the same restarting problem. They also had a Corsair CX or CS-series power supply (I can't remember exactly), and they ended up saying that getting a new/different PSU fixed their problem.

 

I've tried almost everything so far; unplugging hard drives, my video card, fans, RAM sticks, reinstalling Windows... What do you guys think? Could my PSU be dying for some reason, or am I asking for a little bit too much power from it now, after that last upgrade? Should I maybe try an RMA?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, since I read IZON's post, I have been playing around with the RAM to make absolute sure that the memory wasn't the problem. I have two different sets of RAM, and I usually differentiate between them by their PCB colors; one is green, one is blue.

 

One set is labeled as Nanya NT2GC64B88B0NF-CG, while the other set is Micron Technology 8JTF25664AZ-1G4M1. The Nanya set is the one with the blue PCB and the Micron set is green.

 

Over the past few weeks I've tried every configuration that I could think of; installing both the blue and green set at the same time, installing just the blue OR green set one at a time, installing both at a time and manually setting all of the values for the memory through the BIOS... I've checked CL numbers for both sets of memory and have had them running at their rated clock speeds and timings.

 

At some point I noticed that the BIOS was reporting that the memory was receiving a voltage that was fluctuating between 1.504V and 1.488V (both sets are rated for 1.5V). I manually set the voltage to 1.65V to make sure that the voltage never went below the proper 1.5V that both sets are rated for. This seemed to help my problem with the computer restarting; but as of the last few days, the issue seems to have been getting worse.

 

Initially, when I created this thread, my problem was with my computer seemingly "shutting down" and then turning itself back on without warning. The computer was essentially just restarting. The system would suddenly "go black" for a few seconds before turning back on and revving up its fans as it would if I had just turned it on from a cold boot.

 

After I increased the voltage to 1.65V on the RAM... The system would no longer "black out" and restart anymore. Instead, every now and again, the system would freeze or lock up instead. I would hear a loud *pop* in the audio (I use a USB headset), my keyboard and mouse would lose power, and the image on the screen would freeze. The system would lock up and the only way of fixing it would be to restart. This was happening less frequently than the initial "black out" restarting that I was getting, but I noticed that this new "lock up" was happening more frequently when I had a bunch of USB devices plugged in (external hard drives and two phones charging).

 

As of the last two or three days, though, I am back to square one. Even with manually adjusted voltage, clock speeds and CL timings on the RAM, the system has started to restart on its own again. In the last 24 hours I've had the system shut down on me twice.

Each time the system comes back up on its own, I'm greeted with a screen telling me that the "overclocking settings have failed, press F1 for setup, press F2 to load default values."

 

This is strange, because I'm not running an overclock on my system. My CPU is a Xeon, and this whole time I've been running my RAM at either all default, auto, or manually entered values that match what the RAM is rated for (1333MHz CL9-9-9-24-33 at 1.5V).

 

So it couldn't be the RAM. I highly doubt that it's the motherboard. Now what?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TL;DR: It was the motherboard causing restarts that looked like something a dying power supply might cause (sudden shutdown, wait, restart).

 

Okay, at the end of my last post, I mentioned that I doubted that the motherboard was the problem. I was 99% certain that the MB wouldn't have problems as it was a pretty good board. However, that 1% ended up getting to me, and I started to get suspicious.

 

I started trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do in order to "stress test" the motherboard to see for sure if it was the one causing the restarting problems. Due to the way that the system would seemingly "shut down" before turning itself back on, I kept thinking that it must have had something to do with the power supply - why else would the system suddenly lose power like that? If the MB had a problem, wouldn't the system just lock up or bluescreen? If the MB were to cause a restart, I would expect the whole system to instantly just go back to the POST screen shown at bootup; not shut down, wait, and then power back on...

 

Just as I started loading up a few random stress tests to put some load on the system, it shut down on me again, for the third time that day. Except this time, it never even got far enough to display a POST message.

Now, the system had gone into a reboot loop all on its own. The system would shut down for one or two seconds, turn back on, spin the fans up to full speed for about 13 seconds, and then power down again.

 

Well, I think I've finally found the culprit. It was there all along, fooling me into thinking that the power supply was the one causing trouble. Apparently somehow the MSI motherboard's BIOS got corrupted somehow... I haven't had the board for long, but I think the person that had it before me recently flashed the BIOS. Maybe something went wrong and it took until now for the board to finally quit.

 

Now I have my old motherboard and other components back in my computer, so I guess I can call it a day for this thread, unless my system starts experiencing problems again with my original motherboard now re-installed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TL;DR: It was the motherboard causing restarts that looked like something a dying power supply might cause (sudden shutdown, wait, restart).

 

Okay, at the end of my last post, I mentioned that I doubted that the motherboard was the problem. I was 99% certain that the MB wouldn't have problems as it was a pretty good board. However, that 1% ended up getting to me, and I started to get suspicious.

 

I started trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do in order to "stress test" the motherboard to see for sure if it was the one causing the restarting problems. Due to the way that the system would seemingly "shut down" before turning itself back on, I kept thinking that it must have had something to do with the power supply - why else would the system suddenly lose power like that? If the MB had a problem, wouldn't the system just lock up or bluescreen? If the MB were to cause a restart, I would expect the whole system to instantly just go back to the POST screen shown at bootup; not shut down, wait, and then power back on...

 

Just as I started loading up a few random stress tests to put some load on the system, it shut down on me again, for the third time that day. Except this time, it never even got far enough to display a POST message.

Now, the system had gone into a reboot loop all on its own. The system would shut down for one or two seconds, turn back on, spin the fans up to full speed for about 13 seconds, and then power down again.

 

Well, I think I've finally found the culprit. It was there all along, fooling me into thinking that the power supply was the one causing trouble. Apparently somehow the MSI motherboard's BIOS got corrupted somehow... I haven't had the board for long, but I think the person that had it before me recently flashed the BIOS. Maybe something went wrong and it took until now for the board to finally quit.

 

Now I have my old motherboard and other components back in my computer, so I guess I can call it a day for this thread, unless my system starts experiencing problems again with my original motherboard now re-installed.

 

Ah, that sucks

 

If it got corrupted when it was flashed then it's not really fixable :(

 

Well.. Unless you flash it again, I guess

 

Yeah, a crash can do anything... like when my RAM timings are too tight, sometimes my computer will freeze and sometimes it'll just shut off and turn itself back on... never once restarted the 20 times it shut off/froze... most of the times it just shut itself off and skipped the freezing part

 

Never got a BSOD either... but really I've only gotten those I think twice the whole 3 years I've had this computer... one was a uncorrectable hardware error due to my cpu voltage being too low (most of the time it just crashes programs/freezes/shuts off the computer, so a BSOD was VERY rare) and one was an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

 

Maybe I'm just luckily I don't get BSODs more often, heh

 

 

 

I guess it wasn't necessarily a crash that was causing the problem but my point is it can do anything really... sometimes my computer just randomly restarts itself and sometimes my computer just shuts off and turns back on, sometimes it freezes, sometimes applications crash, etc. etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...