PC keeps restarting

Just purchased a pc from a friend who put it together using his spare parts but it keeps restarting and crashing

intel q6700
4gb corsair ram
gtx 480
1tb hdd
windows 8

Thought it was the power supply at first so he switched it to a TX850 and its still happening (more so when I'm playing a game but also happened when downloading steam and upgrading windows)
It just restarts without any warning but the last time it restarted it came up with an error message saying your pc ran into some problems and needs to restart and when it came back on this came up

This could be due to any of a large number of problems. It could be bad RAM. It could be an overheating issue. It could be that some settings in bios are inappropriate. It could be a bad driver for the video card or for the chipset or some other hardware component. We need more info about what is going on. We need pictures.

Please be prepared to make some screen captures and attach pictures with your posts. Here is what I would like to see:

1. A picture of device manager
2. Pictures of CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Motherboard", "Memory" and "SPD". CPU-z is a freeware utility that gives lots of information about the hardware and the bios settings.
3. A picture of HWMonitor (non-pro version) (another freeware utility that shows a lot of frequency and voltage settings).

Also, tell us what is the make and model of the CPU cooler.

It often means a hardware issue causing random bits to be flipped and that causes a BSOD.

Having too little Vcore can cause random flipped bits and thus random data mismatches.

Real high core temps can cause random bit flips.

trents said:

We need more info about what is going on. We need pictures.

Please be prepared to make some screen captures and attach pictures with your posts. Here is what I would want to see

2. Pictures of CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Motherboard", "Memory" and "SPD". CPU-z is a freeware utility that gives lots of information about the hardware and the bios settings.
3. A picture of HWMonitor (non-pro version) (another freeware utility that shows a lot of frequency and voltage settings).

Also, tell us what is the make and model of the CPU cooler.

Click to expand...

this.

What are the load temps of your gpu/cpu since it happens when gaming?
Have you tried reinstalling/updating to newer/roll back your drivers?

- - - Updated - - -

all drivers are up to date.

Isn't 2.2v a bit much for ddr2? And doesn't Intel kill @ 105F or is that only specific chips? I'm pretty sure the max temp my core2 will do is 105F

knoober said:

Isn't 2.2v a bit much for ddr2? And doesn't Intel kill @ 105F or is that only specific chips? I'm pretty sure the max temp my core2 will do is 105F

Click to expand...

No, it isn't.
And you mean 105°C, which he isn't close to.

ATMINSIDE said:

No, it isn't.
And you mean 105°C, which he isn't close to.

Click to expand...

I though 2v + was over clocking range and stock was 1.8 v for ddr2, my apologies

And while 105c is correct, I was still just giving bad advice and had my C and F crossed

*bowing out for the folks who know what they're talking about now *

knoober said:

I though 2v + was over clocking range and stock was 1.8 v for ddr2, my apologies

And while 105c is correct, I was still just giving bad advice and had my C and F crossed

*bowing out for the folks who know what they're talking about now *

Click to expand...

It isn't a low voltage for DDR2, but I consider anything 2.3V and under safe with good airflow

WhoCrashed is saying the issue is a driver bug. That is no necessarily what is actually the problem but a place to start looking.

Nonetheless, bethydolla, as a first step I suggest going into bios and forcing default frequencies and voltages by hitting the F9 key. I'm thinking the current RAM frequency is an overclocked state for DDR2. Not all memory controllers in that era were able to handle memory running at 1066 mhz, at least not without some additional voltage to the memory controller itself. So what I want you to make sure is that you dial the RAM frequency back to DDR2 800.

Report back to us if that helps or not.