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Question

(Help!!) PC Randomly Restarts

Apr 8, 2018 12:27PM PDT

Hello! I built this PC myself a few months ago, it runs perfectly fine but it has one issue, that being it restarts at the most random of times without any warning. I can't seem to find why or how after hours and hours of research so I thought I'd ask the community. First, some specs:

Windows 10 64 bit Pro
AMD FX-6300 (non-overclocked)
ZOTAC GTX 970 (non-overclocked)
GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 rev 6.0 motherboard
TOSHIBA HDWD110 1TB HDD
2x4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengance
600W EVGA Silver rated PSU
Coolermaster CPU cooler (forgot the name but its a tower cooler and very effective)
3 Case fans

Now, the restarts. I've deduced it is definitely not due to overheating. This PC can go on mining crypto for over 40 hours without any restart or slowdown, once it reaches the 50 hour mark it restarts I assume due to overheating. I can game for hours without issue and do everything you'd normally do. However sometimes when browsing chrome, or hovering around in League of Legend's menus, or discord, it restarts. The PC won't be warm, no prompt or popup but it'll just restart itself. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It's entirely random as to when it decides to happen, I can go for a week without any restart and then get 2 in one day somehow. The most recent restart was around 30 mins ago, I left my PC idle mining crypto for around 3 hours. Came back and opened up chrome, went on a website and it restarted. I honestly don't know what to do so any help would be very appreciated. This system was just built 2-3 months ago.

Many thanks for your time!

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Are there used parts here?
Apr 8, 2018 12:33PM PDT

The CPU is from 2012. That's 6 years ago.

What's old, new, etc.?

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Yes
Apr 8, 2018 12:38PM PDT

Hey, thanks for your response. The PSU, HDD and CPU Cooler are all brand new. The motherboard, RAM, CPU & GPU are a few years old.

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This is very typical of old motherboards.
Apr 8, 2018 1:06PM PDT

You can try updating the BIOS and pulling back on clock rates for CPU and RAM but the symptoms are typical of old PCs.

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Thanks
Apr 8, 2018 1:33PM PDT

BIOS is up to date, I'll try pulling back on the clock rates, thanks!

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Still getting the issue
Apr 10, 2018 11:06AM PDT

Are you sure it's the motherboard? Wouldn't the restarts be more consistent if it was hardware related rather than random?

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Only one sure way to tell.
Apr 10, 2018 12:35PM PDT

Change it. We see this all the time on old boards. The clients ask the same questions and some are put off by us telling them we see it all the time. Some demand testing, which we will do for a fee.

That aside, I won't build on AMD's old CPUs due to so many showing up a few years later.

If I were to build I'd get the builds at https://www.reddit.com/r/PCMasterRace/wiki/builds a look for which CPU and board to choose next time.

-> The technical reason is almost always capacitor aging. Since what the CPU does is not static, the reboot may seem random. Also, most tests come back passing which confuses those new to this field.

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What if..
Apr 10, 2018 5:14PM PDT

I forgot to mention, my PC is plugged into an extension cord, not the mains power outlet. When I first built this PC I was using a 500W PSU and it was having very frequent restarts. Which was odd because 500W is more than enough for this build, I upgraded the PSU and the restarts became way, way less frequent but instead a rarity. Do you think there's a chance that it's the extension lead that's causing the problem? Maybe sometimes the power draw drops due to the extension cord causing a restart?

Many thanks for your time and help, really do appreciate it! I'll plug it into mains and see how it goes, if I still get restarts I'll save some money and get a new Mobo, CPU & RAM in summer.

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Why not?
Apr 10, 2018 5:23PM PDT

But where that nice 600W EVGA Silver rated PSU?

The problem as I see it is you have reported the same problems others do with old motherboards. At the shop we have to return old parts and my bet is the owners gives them away or sells them and the next owner gets to find out why the motherboard was free or cheap.