Random PC Reboot while Gaming

1ddqd

Ok, I've been having this issue for a couple weeks now. I reformatted and went Vista64, thinking if it's a software issue it would be cleared up. Here's the system spec:

Intel Q6700
4GB Geil EvoOne @ 1066 (native)
Asus P5E-VM HDMI
BFG 8800GTX OC 768MB
PC Power & Cooling 610W
Seagate 7200.11 500GB SATA
Silverstone TJ-08

The case has 2 120mm fans, which are unobstructed by wires/dust/crap. The CPU is cooled by a Zalman CNPS9500 and sits at 25C idle.

The only things I can think of (hardware-wise) would be 1) Graphics Card, 2) Motherboard, or 3) Power Supply.

All 3 are under warranty and I can have them swapped.

I've used a PNY 8800GT for the past 3 days - still gets restarts, seems less often though. I'm thinking it's less graphics card, more PSU or motherboard. Any thoughts on how to test either? I'm going to pick up a PSU tester tomorrow.

corky842

Try turning on the error screens since MS in their infinite wisdom decided to turn them off by default and just make the computer restart. They might have changed that in vista, but i doubt it.
I was going to say it's the power supply (the GT is more efficient than the GTX), but the power supply should be giving plenty of power.
I would run memtest and check the RAM. Random reboots + RAM I've never heard of + all the other parts are good quality.

Wibod

According to newegg it seems your mobo is a little picky about RAM. And is it using one of the Nvidia chipsets that are known to cause problems?

1ddqd

Thanks for that! I bought 2GB of RAM when I first built this machine, then another 2GB (of what I thought was the same type, but turned out to be SLIGHTLY different) a little later. I'll take these out and try gaming to see what happens. Already tried reseating, no luck there.

Thanks for that idea!

wunderbar

yea, that screams ram to me. try memtest86 as well.