PC shutting down intermittently - run tests

captainoats

captainoats

Geek Trainee
Reading some other posts from Willhub" the symptoms sound similar to mine, apart from the fact that my computer will shutdown at various stages;
Whilst playing a game
Normal desktop usage or idle
Even before XP is loaded

I tested the memory from a bootable disk - got to 20% and then the system powered off.

Interesting thing is this only started about 1 1/2 weeks ago. The system for no reason just started turning itself off and when attempting to power back on nothing happens!
I thought it was a ventilation problem so installed Thermaltake fan/temp controller to see. All temperatures were fine but still kept shutting down. Removed the controller and decided to fit a Zalman fan on my graphics card just incase that was creating a problem with overheating (would have expected a warning message first if it was the graphics card overheating!) Unfortunately I damaged the graphics card :swear: (needed replacing anyway! :O ) so I purchased a 256mb 6800GT, checked all the connectors in the case and checked airflow for case fans and it still shuts down intermittently Run virus checkers, ran Norton Windoctor (not my best friend but gave it a shot!) and Norton found some registry files which might have created some problems with the machine crashing - but this doesn't make sense for the computer shutting off when it was testing the memory in DOS!
Lets see, the only other application I installed on the machine was the latest Nvidia drivers for the card. Installed motherboard monitor and temps are 49 for the CPU and 28 for the motherboard.
Wondering if others have similar issues in the past and managed to rectify? I think it might be the power supply playing up; (Maybe my current PSU is dying!)
Q-Tec 500W Big fan (16 months old) - I have read that these are not favourable with alot of people so was hoping if I replace it with the Hyper 525W fan this would solve the problem. Or, is the Jeantech Arctic 600w better? The advantage of the Hyper PSU is the 3 year warranty and the place near to me has then in stock. I have a new Thermaltake 480 silent PSU in another machine which, according to a sticky thread, the admins appear to like Thermaltake. So from experience not Hyper or Jeantech psu's? :confused:
After just rebooting the computer again (its a different machine I am using at the moment) the screen size on the monitor has gone all squished in the corners like the pin cushion edges are messed up completely, haven't seen that before.
I am open to advice and suggestions to try please.
Setup.
AMD 2500+(Barton)
CPU Coolermaster AERO fan
1 Gig Ram PC400
ASRock K7S8XE+ motherboard (vile board but does the trick until upgrading the CPU)
NEC DVD RW 3520a
Maxtor 120 HD (in Zalmon cooling rack)
Maxtor 120 SATA HD (in Zalman cooling rack)
1.44 (just in case!)
XFX Geforce 6800 GT 256MB
SB 5.1 Digital sound card
Q-Tec 500W Big fan PSU
XP Pro sp 2
Direct X 9c
(I have restricted the amount of software on this machine so no big applications - just games)
I loaded Razor mouse drivers a few weeks ago but that’s about it since the problems.
Case: Thermaltake Tsunami case
Case fans: Thermaltake Large silent fans X2 (one at front sucking in cold air, one at rear blowing out)

:ff: - Oh yes - we love Firefox
 
Sounds like a PSU problem to me, I was getting random restarts until eventually my PSU completely died. Thermaltake are good and so are Antec, Fortran/Sparkle.
 
have you checked your temperatures with anything like speedfan?, get speedfan, and check all your temperatures, then post a screendhot of speedfan, as it could be somthing to do with temperature sensors, if it is faulty motherboard, but yea, it does sound like psu if its started about 2 weeks ago, i first experienced my problems form the first time the motherboard was used, but at first, i thought nothing about it.

hehe, i would not reccomend jeantech psu's, hyper is the best :D.
 
Thanks for both your posts and suggestions.
I Checked all the leads from the PSU and hooked up a voltage meter to it and ran some tests and all fine. No shorts or lack of power. Removed and tested PSU in another machine for 6 hours straight and didn't power down once. Re-connected to the problem PC and I ran a few more tests and also ran windoctor with System works and it appears to have fixed the problem. It found alot of issues in my registry editor within various HKEY areas and has now been running for 24 hours solid with no powerdown at all. This appears to have resolved the problem. I will buy the Hyper 525W PSU, although my PC is now stable I would prefer a 3 year warrenty on a new PSU just incase it blows any components in my machine!
 
I think he meant try running a completely different PSU in there. We've seen Q-Tec power supplies, and they're almost always the source of the problem. Q-tec makes very poor quality units, which is why I'm highly suspicious of it. Even if it wasn't the case, I'd still try a new, know working unit for awhile to see if you continue to have the problems.
 
Big B said:
I think he meant try running a completely different PSU in there. We've seen Q-Tec power supplies, and they're almost always the source of the problem. Q-tec makes very poor quality units, which is why I'm highly suspicious of it. Even if it wasn't the case, I'd still try a new, know working unit for awhile to see if you continue to have the problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will get the Hyper 525w PSU and install it. Shall post if any other problems after the new PSU install
 
willhub said:
is the hiper 525w one that lights up and stuff like uv reactive cables?
Click to expand...

No its not. It doesn't have any uv cables :)

Ok, so I installed the PSU and the PC just powered itself off again. This is after stripping the whole PC down and reinstalling every component again so it isn't the PSU. Can faulty memory cause the computer to turn off just like that and not power back on again? Or could it be a problem with the motherboard? The PC cable is plugged into a 4way extension lead with two low powered items plugged into the extension lead but it has always been like that and never been a power issue before.
Checked the PC power cable itself and used 4 different ones and still the same problems.
 
try building you pc up gradually and see what happens
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and one stick of memory
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and the other stick of memory
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and both sticks of memory
then add the other things one by one, (HDD, CD/DVD drive) and see what you get, also try Memtest86 to test your memory, if its a bad stick of RAM then this should find it, let it run at least 5 passes.
 
Matt555 said:
try building you pc up gradually and see what happens
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and one stick of memory
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and the other stick of memory
- motherboard, cpu, graphics and both sticks of memory
then add the other things one by one, (HDD, CD/DVD drive) and see what you get, also try Memtest86 to test your memory, if its a bad stick of RAM then this should find it, let it run at least 5 passes.
Click to expand...

Ok,

MB/CPU. GFX, one stick of memory. Started memtest and it got to 68% and then powered itself off. You advised to run it 5 times, but have changed the stick over to the other 512mb to see what happens and at 78% it powered off. Tried them both again and they both powered off, not at the same percentage but were both over 50% of the test. Tried putting the hard drive in and powers off after awhile. DVD burner in and managed to backup 4gig of data to a DVD and then left it idle for a while. Put a couple of DVD movies into the drive and played them no problems. All in all the burning and watching the DVD movies in total was around 1.5 hours. It didn't turn itself off once. Loaded up GTA SA and worked fine. Then loaded up Counter Strike and whilst it was searching for my online account the PC turned itself off.
Another thing is that the PC won't power back on when pushing the front power switch. Removing the mains connector from the rear of the case and reinserting it then powers back on straight away.
I am wondering if there is a short somewhere but then why would it power back on straight away after reinserting the cable! Possibly something connecting to the sides of the case or the motherboard and causing it to short out and the system shuts itself down as a precaution but then if this is the case then wouldn't it power off at the same point everytime? I have already rebuilt the case three times now and still having the problem..... What I don't understand is nothing has changed on the machine for it to start playing up.
Stupid :swear: thing, can't believe how much its annoying me! :confused:
 
if its shorting out take it out the case and put it on a non-conductive surface and try again. if not then it could be your motherboard, also try some known working RAM if you can
 
Matt555 said:
if its shorting out take it out the case and put it on a non-conductive surface and try again. if not then it could be your motherboard, also try some known working RAM if you can
Click to expand...

Damn, I should have thought of that! Will try that later on and post results. Thanks
 
I just encountered a similar problem -- just re-load the fail safe bios defaults and work your way up from there. In my case, the problem was -- would you believe this -- the AGP Video Card! Swapped it out with a new one (after loading set-up defaults) and that was it. :)
 
bobbyk said:
I just encountered a similar problem -- just re-load the fail safe bios defaults and work your way up from there. In my case, the problem was -- would you believe this -- the AGP Video Card! Swapped it out with a new one (after loading set-up defaults) and that was it. :)
Click to expand...

Hi, Took the whole PC out and tested the board, PSU connected, memory, CPU & 3 different gfx cards. Also connected a floppy drive to run the memory test. After various stages (changing memory, video cards) the machine still powered off even when not in the case so not a case issue. Not a memory issue and not a gfx card issue. Totally wiped the motherboard. Installed a new battery (just incase!) and reloaded last bios version. Still same problem. I am putting it down to the motherboard. Running more tests tomorrow (not that I can think of many more to do!).
 
Are you using a UPS/AVR along your AC Power Supply lIne? It could be voltage spikes from the UPS triggering the PSU Auto-overload circuits. If you're sure you have a good PSU, check your AC Line Voltage. I can't see any other reason why this is happening. By the way your statement: " Another thing is that the PC won't power back on when pushing the front power switch." strongly suggests memory timing issues. Focus on this area. Good luck.
 
bobbyk said:
Are you using a UPS/AVR along your AC Power Supply lIne? It could be voltage spikes from the UPS triggering the PSU Auto-overload circuits. If you're sure you have a good PSU, check your AC Line Voltage. I can't see any other reason why this is happening. By the way your statement: " Another thing is that the PC won't power back on when pushing the front power switch." strongly suggests memory timing issues. Focus on this area. Good luck.
Click to expand...

It was the motherboard after all! Oh well at least I have a spare PSU.
Got a new Abit motherboard, lovely :)
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help.

:cool:
 
captainoats said:
It was the motherboard after all! Oh well at least I have a spare PSU.
Got a new Abit motherboard, lovely :)
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Dont forget to update your my computer with your new motherboard, good motherboard, abit are :good:
 
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