Random reboots: PSU or GPU (I think)

[Ormitar]

Hello everyone,

Specs first:

Mobo:Asus P6TSE
CPU: Intel i7 920 2.66
GPU: Asus EAH 4890
PSU: Chieftec 1000W Modular (Good 12v Amperage)
2X HDD WD Velociraptor 320GB
4X External HDD (2X Teac, 2X Seagate)
3X 2Gb Corsair Memory Sticks DDR3
H70 Corsair Hydroseries

O.K., so I've been experiencing these random reboots at seemingly increasing intervals that have become seriously annoying. They mostly seem to happen while playing games (screen freezes, sound loops and then either the comp reboots, or I have to hold the power switch to shut down and perform a hard reboot, as the reset switch won't work) but it can also happen while idle, or even while booting into windows (but that mostly happens after a game crash as described above). The problem seemed to go away when the pc would completely refuse to boot due to HDD corruption, forcing me to buy a new HDD and do a clean install of Win7 ultimate (Vista being the previous OS). However, now , after more or less a month, the problem has come back leading me to believe the HDD corruption, occured because of the numerous unexpected reboots. Windows debugger and minidumps describe the error as XO7E (a very common bugcheck, seems to be the debugger's opinion making me long for the 80's and DOS V 2.0) putting the blame on atikmdag.sys. Things I've tried so far: 1)Tried every catalyst driver from 9.1 to 11.5 (Clean installations using Driver Sweeper. 2)Tried reseating the GPu. 3)Installed only the Catalyst driver without the CCC. 4)Extensive memtesting with no errors. 5)Prime,furmark, 3D mark passed with ease. 6)A different PCI slot for the GPu 7)Booting with no USB devices attached 8)Booting with only 1 stick of ram 9)Disabling C-State in Bios 10)Overclocking Ram Voltage 11)Overclocking/downclocking the GPU by a few Mhz. 12)It is not malware! 13)Setting power plan to high performance 14)Core Temp reports 35c idle and 57-60 C while playing DDO. I think I've narrowed it down to the GPU or PSU. Any thoughts before I go out to spend 500quid on a GTX 570 and a Corsair power supply?

Thnx everyone

 

[Mark56]

Considering what you have already tried I would say the chances are that your mobo is faulty.

If you would like to attach the last six or more minidumps to your next post so I can analyse them I may be able to make other suggestions. Please zip them up all into one file.

 

[Ormitar]

Hey Mark,

Thnx for getting back to me on this one. You can find the minidumps attached. In the meantime I'm borrowing a psu from a friend. See if that fixes anything.

 

[Mark56]

Well, I have found the same as you, the ATI Radeon driver, but there is also mention of Direct X so you could have a go at reinstalling that.

One crash dump has the error 116 is is quite rare but unfortunately doesn't shine any more light on the problem, it lists these possible causes: Video driver, overheating, bad video card, BIOS, Power to card. But, again it also named the ATI driver.

So, your thoughts on the PSU may be correct. I would also check for a bios update and see if you can borrow another graphics card before rushing out to get a new one.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Ormitar]

I'll give it a go 2morrow.BTW, no crashes today, but I'm sure they're bound to come sooner or later.As far as Bios is concerned,I'm a bit afraid to update, should a reboot occur in the process, so I'm swapping the PSU first. I also have an old GTX 8800 that I can try. Will replace both and post back.

Cheers