[Grake]

Hello, I have a problem with my computer at the moment. Started about 2 weeks ago out of the blue. I keep getting a kernel power error and the system restarts at random times. I am able to get into safe mode, and I took a screen shot of the error. The actual error message doesn't help, but it keeps happening after an RTL8167 Warning, so that might be a clue.



What I've done:

I Installed new thermal paste for the CPU heat sink, since it was a bit dry.

Disabled Realtek Onboard LAN, & Realtek Onboard HD Sound, and another HD Audio in device manager.

I reinstalled windows and installed the motherboard drivers from the CD that came with it.

When I installed the video card drivers, it automatically restarted again. I tried the drivers from the CD, drivers from XFX and through windows update. All did the same, so I uninstalled all the drivers and left it at VGA default drivers. It didn't restart for a couple of days, but it restarted again with the default drivers. I tried this with Windows 7 x64 & x32 and Windows XP. After installing the drivers it automatically restarted.

Any ideas? bad video card? or the drivers? or something else?

Help please, Thank you.

This post has been edited by Grake: 21 September 2010 - 06:34 PM

[puntoMX]

Grake, on 10 June 2010 - 09:43 AM, said:

When I installed the video card drivers, it automatically restarted again. I tried the drivers from the CD, drivers from XFX and through windows update. All did the same, so I uninstalled all the drivers and left it at VGA default drivers. It didn't restart for a couple of days, but it restarted again with the default drivers. I tried this with Windows 7 x64 & x32 and Windows XP. After installing the drivers it automatically restarted.

I don't think it's the drivers, but I would start with the memory first; again, Intel based boards are picky. Set timings by hand and use memtest86 to test it for example. PSU and the video card would be my 2nd and 3rd guess.

[cluberti]

The Realtek warning is more likely a line-state issue (due to the reboot) rather than an actual problem. In looking at the event, a few things spring to mind (including the aforementioned memory issue) - an i5 750 (Nehalem) is actually almost the same internally to a Xeon x5550 (i5 is basically an x5550 minus having HT capabilities), and the 5550 and i5-7xx series has a known errata issue with 2008 R2, and potentially Windows 7, that cause the same thing (bugcheck, then a kernel-power error in the event viewer).

See if disabling C-States in the BIOS and/or the OS makes the problem go away as per the linked KB article.

[Grake]

Thanks for the replies. I started to run the memtest, and i'll follow the KB article after it's done.

Why does the computer restart as soon as the video card drivers are installed though? Are these just 2 unrelated problems?

[cluberti]

Hard to say, but likely unrelated. Unless it's a bad video card or underpowered PSU, it's probably just dumb luck.

[Grake]

Sorry to get back to you late, just had time to get to work on this.

I ran the memtest for 2 days straight, and it ran without any errors. I set up the timings manually, and followed the workaround on that KB article.

The computer hasn't restarted since I ran the memtest though, but the video card problem still exists. As soon as I install the video drivers, be it for Win 7, Vista, XP, it automatically restarts when it hits the welcome screen. I'm trying to get it replaced. Is there anything else I can try?

[cluberti]

As to the video card problem, I had similar issues with an ATI Radeon 3650 for months, until I replaced the card (drivers were the same, replaced it with another 3650) and the problem magically went away. It would restart at the welcome screen, or on resuming from sleep. I thought it was the drivers, but obviously the hardware was bad (replaced via RMA, new card as I mentioned works fine).

[Grake]

cluberti, on 08 July 2010 - 12:10 PM, said:

As to the video card problem, I had similar issues with an ATI Radeon 3650 for months, until I replaced the card (drivers were the same, replaced it with another 3650) and the problem magically went away. It would restart at the welcome screen, or on resuming from sleep. I thought it was the drivers, but obviously the hardware was bad (replaced via RMA, new card as I mentioned works fine).

Short of trying this card in another computer, which I don't have, I think I've done everything else. I'll be RMA'ing it soon. Thanks.

[Grake]

Bumping this topic as it has really stumped me. Still no solution to this problem. I've RMA'd the video card and the memory and still having problem. It took a while because I just got the memory back, and still in the same situation.

Only parts that are left are the power supply, motherboard and the hard drive. I did keep getting a hard drive needs to be checked for consistency lately, so would it be the hdd?

I'm wasting so much time and money on this, and have no clue what's going on. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[cluberti]

It could be - again, without a memory dump from the crash that throws up the error, we're making educated guesses. Chkdsk /f on the HDD is never a bad idea when you're getting those sorts of warnings, although you should *definitely* back up all of your important data elsewhere beforehand, because if there is a problem with the filesystem on disk (or the underlying disk itself), chkdsk could make it unbootable if it tries to fix something and is unable to do so, for any reason.

Might also be worth backing up and rebuilding Windows itself, to be sure you've got a clean build (don't add anything yet), and see if the problem persists or not with just Windows and inbox drivers on the system.

[MagicAndre1981]

Windows Kernel event ID 41 error in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2: “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first”

http://support.micro....com/kb/2028504