Random reboots

So I don't know if this is a hardware issue or not, but I'm tempted to start here this time as opposed to the software section. Here is a brief history: (this first sentence may not be relevant but I'm starting here.) My old PC started having problems so the first thing I replaced was the power supply; I got a Corsair GS 800. This seemed to help for a while but the problems continued and after replacing everything else I discovered it was a bad motherboard which I replaced. Then I decide to build a brand new PC and bought a second GS 800 power supply. Here is some of the relevant info from PC pit stop: Browser MSIE 8.0 System OS Windows XP Pro SP2 x64 System OS Install Date 7/16/2012 8:17:50 PM System Make System manufacturer System Model System Product Name System Serial Number 107407490000464 Main Board Make ASUSTeK Computer INC. Main Board Model M4A78T-E Main Board Version Rev 1.xx Main Board BIOS American Megatrends Inc. Default System BIOS UNKNOWN 20100820 Processor Description AMD Phenom II X4 945 Number of Processors 4 Processor Clock Speed 3000 Mhz Graphics Description AMD Radeon HD 6570 Memory Installed 8192 MBs Memory Slots 4 slots Memory Configuration 4096+4096;DIMM Synchronous This system, with a different video card, ran fine for a number of months, then started having locked up, shutdown and reboot problems. Thinking it was the power supplied, I swapped out the old GS 800 and requested RMA on the new one which I received within about a week. During that week the computer seem to be fine but then started having similar problems, so I swapped out the new power supply and within about half an hour started having shutdown issues so I quickly shut the system down and ordered a new power supply of a different manufacture, having read bad reviews (AFTER buying them) about Corsair PSUs. At some point during this process I had removed any additional video card and was running exclusively the onboard video which it is a 3300. I received my new Rosewill power supply and installed it earlier this week and everything seemed to be fine. I then installed the new video card 6570 and the latest ATI drivers from AMD, rather than going to the XFX web site and downloading theirs, even though I read it least one report where someone could not get their XFX card working until they downloaded the proprietary driver. Everything seemed to be fine, running only two monitors off of the new video card rather than three because I cannot use the onboard video with the current ATI driver, until I launched Winamp, in addition to some other running programs, and the computers suddenly rebooted. I just ran Malware bytes and found nothing. It is getting frustrating crossing my fingers and hoping that my computer will continue to run every day. I would REALLY appreciate any tests or diagnostics to figure out what is wrong and fix it. One thing I'm considering is rebooting the system into Linux and running that for a while a see if it reboots, although I'm not a Linux expert and not sure how to stress-test the system. Thanks Eric

What kind of Error Messages are you receiving? (and if you are not getting Blue Screen warnings, consider disabling auto-restart feature so that you can see the STOP or Error messages) What Warnings are you seeing in Event Viewer? Any driver warnings in Device Manager? Have you monitored Temperatures? Side question: What has prompted you to load a 64bit version of XP on this apparently new(er) machine?

What kind of Error Messages are you receiving?
(and if you are not getting Blue Screen warnings, consider disabling auto-restart feature so that you can see the STOP or Error messages)
What Warnings are you seeing in Event Viewer?
Any driver warnings in Device Manager?

Have you monitored Temperatures?

Side question: What has prompted you to load a 64bit version of XP on this apparently new(er) machine?

Not usually getting BSOD but have just disabled autoreboot. Prior to new PSU, sometimes it would just lock up.

One (Info) message in Event Viewer after reboot is:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x000000c4 (0x0000000000000081, 0xfffffadf36314210, 0x000000000000008a, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini101112-01.dmp.

I also see some errors from source SideBySide such as:

Dependent Assembly Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

Generate Activation Context failed for C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\1.3.21.123\GoogleCrashHandler64.exe. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

Edit: I also found this message right at the same time the previous Dumps happen:
The COM sub system is suppressing duplicate event log entries for a duration of 86400 seconds. The suppression timeout can be controlled by a REG_DWORD value named SuppressDuplicateDuration under the following registry key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Ole\EventLog.

I just installed CoreTemp and it says my CPU is 27C.

No warnings in Device Manager

I installed XP 64 because I bought a license years ago when I first got the older PC (which has been rebuilt) but stopped using it due to compatibility issues. I recently decided to up the RAM and installed this because I don't have to pay more money for a new OS and I'm not really happy with my Win7 experience, but will probably consider buying it when I can get a copy for $50 that does what I need, Pro perhaps? That's another reason I started testing Linux lately to see if that's an alternative.

no other ideas?

It definitely seems to be a hardware issue because I installed Win7 on a separate partition and left it on overnight and found the PC rebooted the next morning. When I restarted 7 there was an error that Windows had recovered from a serious error, but not much help on what. The next time I ran 7 it was on for a while and then in the middle of launching a program it just locked up, no response and I had to hard boot. I have not launched 7 again yet. PLEASE if anyone can point me to some utils to figure out what is causing this?? thanks, Eric

Run Memory Diagnostics.

Here's a how to…
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-m…stics-tool.html

And set your Windows 7 to produce an Error Code screen instead of auto-reboot.

Run Memory Diagnostics.

Here's a how to…
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-m…stics-tool.html

Thanks, I was just reading about that. I also noticed that I have ECC RAM but ECC was not enabled in BIOS (and the last time the PC crashed, it even locked up when I first booted into BIOS to change that. I have removed 1 of the two 4 Gb sticks just because, but will put it back in before testing. I did run 1 pass on MemTest earlier and found no errors. I've see the BIOS ECC setting to Max.

I have removed 1 of the two 4 Gb sticks just because

Please explain why you did this…. just because of what?

More important is to assure that all sticks of RAM are exactly the same and paired, so they can work in dual channel mode with each other.
If you don't have matched pairs throughout, the system may identify your RAM as single channel. (64 bytes instead of 128 bytes)

I have neither expertise, nor experience in the matter, but there are comments from respected sites which recommend "turning off" error correction if your BIOS has that option. Discovering during error checking can cause processes and the entire machine to crash. I certainly don't know if your machine is experiencing that problem as a cause for what you observe, but it is a safe and reversible option to consider.

My thinking was that maybe one of them is bad. They are both the same, bought as a dual channel 8 Gb kit, and I just called Kingston this morning to get their advice. I will run an extended MemTest and if no errors, it's probably Mobo, CPU or BIOS. I did turn off the ECC because apparently this RAM is NOT ECC. And the PC locked up last night, maybe because of that. My BIOS is only one rev old but they suggested upgrading that too, and the rev does say "improve system stability". It would be nice to get this system stable again.

What Memory Diagnostic are you using? If you are already in the middle of the scans, allow to complete. Hold off on flashing the BIOS if you haven't done it yet. (if you were running Windows Memory Diagnostics, or some Other, from an Optical Disk, remove the Disk) Reboot. Close all Browsers and all application programs Open Internet Explorer in "Run As Administrator" Run a fresh test of PCPitstop OverDrive. In your next Reply, Post the URL of the SUMMARY page. (first page that displays after the tests complete) Exit Internet Explorer (it's never a good idea to do general browsing with IE in "Run as Administrator"

Here is the latest PCPitstop: http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=25099705

You will see I am running XP right now because that system is currently configured and I am still learning Win7. After my last post, I removed the single stick of RAM and substituted the other. The system ran all night so I ran MemTest for 5 hours with no problems. I played some games, watched some videos, even rebooted into Win7 for a bit. Then I shut the PC down and swapped the RAM again and it failed to even POST. Hardbooted, tried again, no POST. Swapped RAM again (same slot) and PC booted right up and is running fine. I called Kingston and they have issued an RMA. Hopefully there is nothing wrong with the mobo and CPU and as mentioned the BIOS is the 2nd newest for this board. Considering it has run for several days now without any problems I am starting to get optimistic again.

Sounds good. I certainly won't argue with your success. Does the working stick of RAM perform equally well in both/either slot?

If the second stick had passed the test I was going to test both in the slots 2 at a time but right now, I'm just glad it isn't crashing so maybe I'll try that this weekend.

If the good stick works in both slots, then you know that both slots are good. If not, then it would indicate a MoBo problem, at least with the functionality of the malfunctioning slot.