Solved Rebooting i7 950 with 12GB of ram

[4rre4rt6e]

I have a i7 950 not overclocked, 12GB of Mushkin Enhanced Silverline on a ASUS Sabertooth x58 mobo and every once in awhile the computer will reboot its self and I think its the ram but I am not sure.

 

[TVeblen]

When this happens, does Windows complain that it was not shut down correctly every time?

I would suspect the power supply, or the power switch or the reset switch on the case.

500 watts is a borderline size for a power supply running 12GB of RAM, a GTX 630, and 3 hard drives. Not so much when it was new, but as it gets older. This is due to capacitor aging. The total output will get reduced by up to 10% per year depending on the quality of the capacitors.
How old is the power supply?

Another cause could be just a faulty switch in the case. The power and reset switches are dumb contact switches (they literally just touch two wires together). If these become sticky or faulty they can make unintended contact, which will restart the computer.
You can test this by disconnecting the switches from the motherboard and running like that for a while. You can start the computer by using a small flat blade screwdriver to contact the 2 PWR pins on the motherboard (where you pulled the case switch lead from.

 

[4rre4rt6e]

Its a evga gt 630 not a gtx
The PSU is not that old its my 2nd one I have had

 

[TVeblen]

You could test the power supply with a multitester. You find a spare molex connector and connect the leads to the 12v (yellow/black) pins and then run the PC as usual, watching the voltage the whole time. It shouldn't deviate more than 1-2 tenths of a volt, if at all.

Otherwise do the case switch test.

Any other hardware or drivers faulting while running Windows will normally result in a crash or bluescreen. Only power and motherboard problems will shut the PC down suddenly and completely.
(that is the case, right? - see first line, post #2)

 

[4rre4rt6e]

Yeah it says it shutdown unexpectedly every time

 

[4rre4rt6e]

Its not the PSU its fine

 

[TVeblen]

You did the tests?

 

[4rre4rt6e]

I ran the memory test for a couple of hours and said it was fine

 

[kyHAS]

What are the +3.3v +5v and +12v lines in BIOS? The +12v can only stay within 10% tolerance range and +3.3v and +5v can safely stay within 5%. This will determine if your PSU is failing via no stress tests. If you decide you need a more accurate measurement TVeblen has noted the multitester.

 

[TVeblen]

I ran the memory test for a couple of hours and said it was fine

So now you know that your RAM tests good. You have no defective sticks of RAM.

How many sticks of RAM do you have on that board? Three 4GB sticks, or six 2GB sticks?

 

[4rre4rt6e]

I have in it right now is 3 x 4 GB sticks

 

[TVeblen]

Sometimes when all the RAM slots are populated there can be voltage drops on the motherboard that could explain your symptom, but that should not be the case with just 3 sticks.

 

[4rre4rt6e]

3.3v is at 3.216v
5v is at 4.998v
12v is at 12.025v

Yeah I have 3 of the 6 ram slots used the CPU is rated to have 24gb of ram but not this one

 

[kyHAS]

Many thanks sharkd777, Your PSU looks great according to BIOS. One more thing may I ask of you, Could you please provide us with your system temperatures? I use Speccy from piriform and I have used it for a year now without any problems. You can download it with this link, http://download.piriform.com/spsetup128.exe When and if you do download it, You can go to file and save a snap shot. Then you can post it as an image so we can see. Thanks again.

 

[kyHAS]

Sorry I also meant to add, You can go to computer, right click, properties, then click on <windows index experience> and click <runtheassessment> on the right side of the window. This will put a stress test on your PC, watch your temperatures on speccy simultaneously and post a image of it.

 

[4rre4rt6e]

This is from core temp the program I use and this is after a Intel burn test run it show the lowest temp and the higher temp and I have a corsair h50 cooling my CPU and is not overclocked

 

[TVeblen]

44 degrees Celcius (110 F) is a little high for that processor but not out of spec.
The processor will cut out (shut down suddenly) if it hits the thermal cutoff, usually around 80 to 100 Celcius.

 

[4rre4rt6e]

100 is where this idles around and sometimes even lower and it Never goes over 150f ever

 

[TVeblen]

I'm running out of guesses here.

 

[4rre4rt6e]

yeah me too. its not my gpu the thing is just over 1 year old, the cpu is not getting hot enough for it to shutdown, the cooler is not even a year old yet