Random Windows reboots plus some BSODs

[xecutable]

It's been a nightmare in the past 3 days.

All the sudden, the pc started rebooting itself without any apparent reason. The first thing when I do after installing windows is disable automatic restarts ,so this is why I found this strange.

I tested my ram for over few hrs and found out that the first dimm had errors so I removed it. Then restarted the test left it for 4 hours and no errors were found.

The computer however keeps getting driver bsods, so I thought It might be an old driver or something, reinstalled all of the latest ... the restarts keep on coming with occasional driver irql less or equal errors.

Could be the power supply although it's not a cheap one Fortron Bluestorm which I bought an year ago.

Basically it seems like it might be malfunctioning mobo,power supply, or something else I can't see.

I am pretty sure it's a hardware issue since reinstalling windows or different kinds of windowses = errors and bsods after the 1st start.

I am including a minidump of what I have logged and I hope someone can put some light into the whole mess

P.S: All reboot errors have this message in the event log:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000009c (0x00000001, 0x8054e0f0, 0xf6002000, 0x00000152).

I tried staying under safe-mode, no reboots at all

 

[xecutable]

Since I can't post a link I had to reply with my 2nd dump

I just had a driver bsod and loaded the dump.

 

[Route44]

Your first error is 0x9C: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
This is a hardware issue: an unrecoverable hardware error has occurred. The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

Honestly, this is a very difficult error to work with because as it says a clear diagnosis rarely comes forth and I have never seen a minidump with either error codes give a definitive answer. I know IT techs that don't like working with it. What makes it so difficult is that it can be any hardware in your system -- and I mean any.


Please attach your second minidump that is the 0xD1 in your next post.

 

[xecutable]

Hi thanks for your reply.

After inspecting my parts, I found that 4 of those resistors, or I am not sure how exactly you call them, have leaked, just like a dead battery leaks.

I have given the motherboard already for a quick fix (having the rest inspected and the bad ones replaced)

I really hope this is the cause, but I am not sure how important these things are on the board and can they really cause restarts and errors?

P.S i just looked up that electrical component, and it's not a resistor it's called Capacitor . Sorry for the misinformation

P.S2 the 0xD1 is attached in my 2nd post above yours .

 

[Route44]

Yes! Leaking capacitorss will absolutely cause your issues. They can be replaced but often people just buy a new board.

As for the attached file those particular logs leave out a valuable component entitled PROBABLE_CAUSE: thus my request.

 

[xecutable]

Thanks for the follow up, I appreciate it.

Yeah, I just googled more info about what capacitors can do, and I find myself lucky that this polarity switch that they cause didn't damage anything else on (or at least i hope so )

I will probably get it back tomorrow and fire the pc up, hopefully everything would work as before.

Should I replace just the damaged ones, or ask for full replacement or is that overreacting ?

 

[Route44]

Many people just replace the capacitors but a lot of the decision has to be based on age and make of the board. Just how old is it and what is the make?

 

[xecutable]

It's few years old, it was good back in the days. It's a ASUS A7N8X-XE with the nforce 2 Ultra 400 chipset.

When you look at it, it's just like a brand new, but with these 4 capacitors damaged near the heat sink.

As of the age.. hmmm I burned my cpu + old mobo again asus similar model a7n8x-e , while trying to unlock my AthlonXP with a pencil, funny story, but anyways at the time i thought I burned the CPU only so I bought a new Socket A cpu, then found out the Motherboard was dead as well, so what can you do I had to buy again a Socket A motherboard.

So I would say ... top 3 years old.

 

[Route44]

Hmmm, this is my own opinion but it being three years old and you have four capacitors that have already gone bad I would seriously consider a new board.

 

[xecutable]

I have spent over 600$ in the past 6 years over this Socket A pc, i think I will go for a brand new one, cause its maintenance is getting pricey ... cause those parts are old hard to find, or 2nd hand without warranty.

And at the end let's face it, you are not getting anything improved, just the same old machine from 2002 with replaced parts

The ironic thing is the new parts cost less... talking about RAM, and CPU mostly. For example that Barton 3200 I am running atm is sold on very few places for 70$ I mean come on....

 

[Route44]

And then you have the new AMD Athlon X4 quads for $99. I kid you not. The Athlon quads don't have the L3 cache but their new Phenom II quads sure do.

People are loving the 620 and 630 cpus. And then there is the dual-core 555. Talk about sweet.

Right now AMD has the best bang for the buck going.

 

[xecutable]

I am still doubting on what to go with AMD or Intel.

I tried few months ago that new Windows 7, but the old hardware was killing me with Driver BSODs so I went back to XP.

One thing is sure thought I am never going ATI again, and since AMD acquired them I stopped being a fan of AMD as I used to be.

At one point I was using Ubuntu...those ATI drivers were a mess,