Computer restarts/freezes randomly - MOBO?

[Madalienmonk]

Hello everyone and thanks for any possible help. First, the problem: my computer restarts or freezes randomly, and I MEAN randomly. I can be in the BIOS and it can freeze/restart, I be doing anything with Windows loaded and it can restart/freeze. It can ever be posting or loading Windows and it will restart/freeze. Sometimes it won’t happen for a while, sometimes it keep happening, it really does seem random.

My computer specs:

Q6600 G0 stepping not overclocked with Tuniq Tower h/f.
Corsair 4gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 )
EVGA 680i LT MOBO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188015 )
EVGA 8800 GTS 320MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082 )
HD Seagate 300GB
PS Corsair 750watts

I posted this in the MOBO section because I believe it might be MOBO related. I’ll explain: when I first built the computer everything was fine. I ran 3dMark and all the programs similar to it. I stressed/burnt in CPU and checked temps with CPU temp and the temps were low ~40s upper 30s. I ran memtest and there were no errors. Everything was fine until the beginning of April (few months after the comp was built). Then random restart/freezes. I had a Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card in, and I heard it can cause problems so I removed it and went with on board audio – problem still occurs. I have a NEC USB card and I removed it and problem still occurs. I remember a couple of times when posting some white horizontal line started popping up all over. And, a couple of times, when loading the screen where it checks for a cd in the drive (boot from cd drive was enabled) the screen overlapped itself – I could seethe bottom part of the screen at the top of my screen. I even reset the CMOS with no luck. Sometimes I get this error when posting : “Warning! Now System is in Safe Mode. Please reset CPU or Memory Frequency in the CMOS setup.” I tried running memtest again but it just freezes, last time I tried it froze 45 minutes in. I also flashed (before this started happening) to P07 for the MOBO, and I think there’s a newer version but I’m afraid it will freeze or restart while flashing….

I’m at my wits end on this one.

 

[haadij404]

Sounds like faulty memory. Can you borrow some ram to see if that fixes the problem?

 

[Wolfie]

Have you updated the BIOS for the Motherboard and video card?
Tried a different power supply?

Tested your memory? (memtest86 or mother board diagnostics off the UltimatebootCD)

 

[Overvolt]

test all of the above options but if everything else continues to elude you then consider the power outlet itself. I posted a little bit ago about random reboots and after taking the computer for some testing i found that when not plugged into the comp's current location my random rebooting was gone. turns out the grounding was faulty in the outlet. just something to consider.