Chronic Rebooting Problem

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Lately I have a persistent problem with my C2D system. My pc has has been randomly rebooting, this occurs when I browse the web with Firefox, running Azureus, watching a video file, running any source game, and other games. Just before the pc reboots there is distorted or paused audio from the task that was previsouly running, then the pc shuts down and boots back up.

My system is as follows: C2D E6400, Asus P5B-D, Muskin 2x1GB, Evga 7900gt, Audigy 2PTM, 2x Seagate 320GB 7200.10 Sata3.0, Seasonic s12-500. This is a new build from last September, and I only ran into problems in the last few weeks. I run Window XP Pro SP2, updated and clean. I thought the problem was a virus, so I ran AVG 7.5 on my system and it came up totally clean.

My next thought turned to a hardware problem, or power problem. My rails have been rock solid and consistent from the day I built the pc. My housemate bought a killawatt, and we tested the wattage used at idle and load. At idle the pc draws 210 watts, at load (dual prime 95, HDR stress test) the pc draws 285 watts. This leads me to believe my problem is not with my power supply. Nvidia hasn't updated their drivers since November, so I don't think its the video card. I updated my bios back in January but only have had problems recently.

I decided to stress the PC to narrow down the occurrences and problems. Many people like 3DMark06 for stressing the video card, but I have found an HDR Stress Test that maxes the video card much more efficiently.

rthdribl - Real-Time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting 1.2 -

Idle:
CPU: 46c
MB: 33c
GPU: 52c

Load (Orthos only):
CPU: 56-60c
MB:36c
GPU: 53c

Load (Orthos & 3DM06):
CPU: 57-58c
MB: 36c
GPU: 68c

Load (Orthos & HDR ST):
CPU: 58-59c
MB: 36c
GPU: 72c

(I included a range for the CPU load, due to the fact that depending on what test Orthos was running there would be different max temps.)

Before I ran 3DM06 and HDR ST, Orthos was running for half an hour with out any errors. When I built this system back in September I burned it in with over 30hrs of memtest86, over 30hrs of dual Prime95 with HDR ST running together. My pc passed both of these test with no errors or rebooting problems.

My memory voltage is at 2.0, the range for my ram is 1.8-2.0. Asus reports my CPU vcore to be 1.2880, but it always shows up less than the setting in the bios. I watched the voltage rails with speedfan during the tests, and they were very stable, the most change was one tenth of a volt. So unless I missed something it looks like my system has passed this test.

I am over clocking my E6400 from 2.13 to 3.2. I also thought it was my over clock that was causing the problems, so I put the speeds and volts back to stock, and the problem still persisted. I over clocked my pc back in October after I built it, and the problems began a few weeks ago, so the over clock did not seem to be the main cause behind the rebooting.

One thought that occurred to me is that it might be my creative sound card. So I removed it and all the drivers, and cleaned it with drivercleaner. I then downloaded the latest drivers from Asus and installed them. Even using the on board sound the problem still persists.

So now I am out of ideas to fix the problem. I would hate to wipe the drive and reinstall everything. I am open to ideas and suggestions. TIA.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

With all the suggestions from TF I was able to solve the problem. (Sarcasm)

Since I built, over clocked and burned in the pc during the winter months, and I live way up north, where it is often under 0 deg F for most of the winter months, in a poorly insulated room. Since the pc was burned in when it was cold, and when it started to warm up the increased heat has caused resistance which lead to instability. Increasing the CPU VCore by one setting, all the stability problems have gone away, and the pc doesnt reboot at all any more. I have had days of stability.