Random reboots

[Lowe]

So, interesting update.

I stripped everything back to the bare essentials, CPU , mobo and RAM. Pulled out the BIOS battery again.

Fired the machine up and it had a few fits and whatnot, but eventually settled down and sat in the BIOS for a good few hours. I bought a new battery, fitted that and tried again. Still worked. Put the graphics card in, worked. Put everything back in, it booted without issue. Sat at desktop for an hour or so. Played games for another hour, no problems at all. Slept on it, tried it again in the morning. Booted, left it for a bit and it restarted once. But after that worked fine for another 3 hours. I applied the old overclock and memory profiles. Rebooted, worked fine and played games for 3 hours without issue. I don't think the BIOS battery has 'solved' the issue, but it certainly has helped a little bit. Very odd.

[Lowe]

Spoke too soon. Won’t stay on for like 5 seconds now

[blueball]

You may have to take the painful route and go back to barebones then add one item and leave it for a day or so before adding the next. A real PITA but might find out what is causing the problem.

[cptwhite_uk]

I can only say from experience my suspicion would be the motherboard. If it's played games for 1+ hours it's not a loading or overheating issue, and unlikely to be a graphics card, PSU, CPU or RAM issue. If the reboots appear at random it's almost certainly a faulty motherboard component or a software issue. I'd get the motherboard replaced as a first point of call if the issue persists.

[DanceswithUnix]

I can only say from experience my suspicion would be the motherboard. If it's played games for 1+ hours it's not a loading or overheating issue, and unlikely to be a graphics card, PSU, CPU or RAM issue. If the reboots appear at random it's almost certainly a faulty motherboard component or a software issue. I'd get the motherboard replaced as a first point of call if the issue persists.

That's my take on it as well.

Without any spares available to swap out, I think I would be pricing up a CPU update. Even if you get a new motherboard rather than second hand, I worry that it would have been sat on a shelf for years.

[AGTDenton]

Spoke too soon. Won’t stay on for like 5 seconds now

I'd honestly try disabling the integrated GPU on the CPU. Your symptoms are incredibly like my experience, I'd rebuilt my PC several times, all with seemingly random results, worked for days, then hourly reboots to the point it wouldn't boot at all. I was thinking mobo, but when replaced the same symptoms occurred. I was about ready to throw the CPU when I stumbled upon a post somewhere to try disabling the iGPU and it became stable.