Hack started to randomly restart recently - thoughts?

[Reverb6L6]

My hack is an old build - 12 years at this point. Everything was running smooth until about a week ago when it started to restart randomly when I was working.

I opened the hack up and it was dusty as was the cpu fan. I cleaned it all out thoroughly, I unplugged almost all connections and then reconnected - I cleaned the cpu and reapplied thermal paste. I took the ram out and reseated it in the same slots.

It worked for about 2 days just fine and then the random restarts began again.

I use my Hack for audio recording so Cubase was almost always open when the restarts happened - but I have used this setup for YEARS - no updates in a while - so this being software related seems unlikely.

I attached a BIOS image that shows my CPU temp right at boot up and it looks nice and low.

Could this restarting business be due to a weak motherboard battery?

Any ideas what else to check or do?

ALL tips very welcome, thank you!!

 

[P1LGRIM]

Any ideas what else to check or do?

Could be PSU.
If there was dust inside the PC it is likely there is dust in the PSU too. (Don't open it up).

 

[Reverb6L6]

Thanks for your reply - I did also - somewhat awkwardly - blow air into the PSU and dust came out - maybe I need t take it out of the case and try again. Any other ideas? Can a weak mono battier cause this?

 

[P1LGRIM]

Can a weak mono battier cause this?

The CMOS battery is not likely to be the cause but after 5 years it is due replacement.

Random restarts are often heat related.

Could even be capacitors drying out.

 

[Reverb6L6]

Capacitors where? On the motherboard?

 

[zappy39]

Thanks for your reply - I did also - somewhat awkwardly - blow air into the PSU and dust came out - maybe I need t take it out of the case and try again. Any other ideas? Can a weak mono battier cause this?

Try another os like ubuntu or windows if the same thing occurs than must be hardware related...