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Help Please!! Computer Power downs! ARGH!
I leave my two year old PC on pretty much all the time, cuz' mainly because it is used everyday.
Tonight, it just randomly powered down all of a sudden. Then when I rebooted it, it started to come up, powered down again within seconds while booting up. Third time within about 5 minutes.
I have loaded the BIOS and left it there for like 10 min, no power down. I checked ALL voltages and temps and all LOOK good atleast to my knowledge.. But the main thing I was checking was the auto power down on all temps/voltages.. and nothing is set in BIOS to auto power down at a certain temp or voltage... which is what I wanted to see...
But now, what else could be powering down this system? All the temps are good for sure. Voltages in BIOS look good as well. But I'm a little less certain about voltages.
Current Temps: HD0: 36C ; CPU: 30C ; SYS: 47C ; PWM: 42C ; AMD K8 Core: 40C ; Video Card Core: 50C ; Ambient Video Card: 41C
Current Voltages: HTV: 1.22V ; VCORE: 1.40V ; DDRVVD: 2.63V ; 3.3V: 3.44V ; 5V: 5.31V ; 12V: 12.45V ; nForceSB: 1.53V ; nForce4: 1.60V ; DDRVTT: 1.33V ; 5VSB: 5.24V ; CPUVDDA: 2.60V
I have an AMD 4200+ Dual Core. Abit AN8 SLI motherboard. Enermax Noisetaker II 600 W power supply, 2 GB (4x512) Crucial Ballistix Ram sticks, XFX 6800XL 256 MB video card, Windows XP, regular Seagate 300 GB 7200 Hard Drive. Pretty much it.
I already gave the tower, the PS fans, video card fan, and all fans a good blow down with a can of high pressure air just a few days ago.. so everything is pretty much dust-free.
Gonna go ahead and post this before my computer likely powers down again on me... hope someone can point me in the right direction or give me something to check out. I kinda suspect the power supply going bad, but I dunno.
Thanks in advance!
- Zaxx
PS. UPDATE: This is the longest my PC has stayed up. Only changes I made in BIOS was turning OFF a "Cool & Quiet" feature. I fully expect to see yet another power down any moment though... it's lost power now like 5 times in about the last 30 to 40 minutes. (11:25 pm Mtn Time)
Update: Still up at 11:40 pm Mtn time, been up for about 30 min or so now... (crosses fingers)
Comments
You would be amazed at how fast the temperatures change. We are talking in fractions of a second here, especially the cpu that can go from 30 degrees to over 70 almost instantly and just as quickly back again if you have a decent cooler. That said the most likely problem on an older system is indeed overheating so before you swap out the psu (which is second favourite ) go and buy a can of compressed air, open up the machine and blow all the dust out of there, paying attention to the cpu heatsink / fan, the graphics card and the psu itself.
There is no real need to open the actual psu but if you want to do that and clean it out make sure that you don't touch the capacitor ( the big silver thing behind the shield ), don't want you taking early flying lessons hehe.
Thanks Eric.. good stuff. But i just updated my OP to state that I just gave everything inside a good blow down last week...
With that being said, should I unsnap the CPU fan and blow that fan out better and blow off the cpu chip itself? Might not be a bad idea huh? But the CPU temperature STILL looks good, and computers been up about 40 min now when it lost power like 5 times in the 30 minutes previous.
Could a "Cool & Quiet" feature in the motherboards BIOS be the difference here? I'm having a real hard time convincing myself of that, heh. ...I guess I could reboot, turn that Cool & Quiet back ON, and see if I lose all power within a few moments.. But I just can't see that being the problem now. That feature has obviously been "on" for the past two years since I built this PC. That just don't make sense. Coincidence I'm sure.
ALSO Eric.. If the CPU or something else was overheating causing the powerdown, what would be actually taking the system down since I have ALL auto powerdowns at a certain temp UNCHECKED in the motherboards BIOS. Probably not real smart, but according the the bios settings that's been set by my friend when I built this PC, my CPU (or any other component) should just melt before it actually powers down. Or is there other safety features built in that will still power the PC down to be safe even when nothing is checked in the BIOS to auto power down at specified points?
- Zaxx
Actually yes to both. If you feel confidant opening up the psu then do so and clean the dust out, avoid that capacitor though
As for the cool & quiet system turn it off and allow your cpu fan to run at maximum for awhile, see if that helps. Also check in the bios at what speed the cpu fan is running at when on maximum and if it's low then swap out the heatsink/fan for a new one. As with all fault finding change the cheapest stuff 1st.
If none of that helps then I'm afraid it looks like the psu could be on it's way out and will need replacing. The usual fault here is that under load the psu isn't able to maintain a steady stream of power on the 12 volt rail, dropping to 10 or even 9 volts and that will cause a shutdown.
Sorry missed your edit
No offence but your friend is an ass lol. The shutdown temps are there for a reason and that reason is to stop the cpu from heading into terminal meltdown
Some psu's have overheat protection built into them and that can cause a shutdown. It does sound though like the psu is going faulty. Try what I suggested above 1st and see how it goes.
The CPU fan was running about 2,200 RPMS when I checked in BIOS. According to the SpeedFan utility, it's buzzing at 2,280 RPM currently.
Computer's been up for 50 minutes now. The first time I was shut down, I was playing "Eve Online". So I'll be doing a little troublehsooting soon to see if pressing the video card again graphically kills my PC or if turning ON the Cool & Quiet kills it again quickly.
Either way, something's not right I'm afraid. Even though my PC has been up almost an hour now, I still think something is wrong somewhere.
- Zaxx
Yeh, he is a computer tech guy that works for a college, so he came over about a week after I built this PC (my first PC build by the way) and he changed all the bios power off sequences to NEVER shut off at any range. I was kinda curious why he did that. I remember asking him, but forget his specific answer. Heh. Maybe he does that with all his PC's at the school he works for, because if one blows up, it comes out of the governments pocket book and not his own, I dunno though.
Yes, I will try cleaning out the power supply. I'm pretty sure it DOES have an auto power off built in itself, think I remember reading that when I bought it. So if I tax the graphics card again with a game, and it powers down again, then it very likely is a bad power supply -or- the power supply is fine, just dusty inside and needs cleaning out to prevent over heating. Agree?
Well anyhow.. I'm gonna boot up Crysis and see if I can MAKE my PC power down again, heh.
- Zaxx
..Oh, and thanks a ton for all your help. Seriously. Appreciated.
cpu fan speed is fine, no problem there.
In order of possibility from what you have told me and knowing that you are playing eve.
If the pc remains stable while playing the game now that cool & quiet is turned off then it's likely that was the culprit.
If not then we are left with two possibles, graphics card overheating or psu not holding it's end up. Take the side off the case and visually check that the graphics cards fan is actually spinning and hasn't gone bust. If that's ok and as you say you have already cleaned it recently then I'm afraid it's the psu.
Does the pc powerdown more when actually playing games? not just 3d games but any that push the machine?
You know i had an almost exact problem with my old PC b4 i upgraded it did exactly as yours did was running fine then all he sudden it just died. I thought it may have been a good virus or something so i reformatted , cleaned everything out, pulled everything apart and re seated everything done absolutely everything i could think of. I got it running again for a few hours after doing all this and b4 too long i just died again
but instead of it rebooting this time it just freezes? i though maybe a hard drive issue but the hard drive works fine in my other pc,then i thought maybe a video card issue? still am unsure to be honest with you at what it is then i noticed there was something running at 127 degrees
i nearly crapped myself lol but still to this day am unsure of what it was that was running at that temp as speed fan did not specify what it was (anything that i could see that would warrant a temp reading was accounted for and running correctly) and my Bios did not say anything was running at that temp so something inside my Pc was cooking but i could not figure out what
i kind dismissed it and just bought a new PC bt was gonna look at my old 1 to use for games at work but still have this problem it seems to work ok untill i load a program of any kind (firefox,games,email) then it just freezes.sometimes i wish i knew what i was looking for when things go wrong cause the missus takes the piss out of me when i open my pc and see's me scratching my head cause i have absolutley no idea what im looking at.
Okay after last nights hour of no power downs, ran a 3D graphics game, and the computer lost its power again within seconds.
So... I took it apart again and now it looks like my computer is FIXED. Thanks for everyones help and especially you Eric.
Took out the power supply and opened it up, just as you suggested. Blew it out with high pressure air and saw dust flying everywhere! Amazing how so much dust can get into a power supply box inside a tower, heh.
I DID check the video card fan as well.. it's working great. I also took out my power supply today and took it to a PC repair shop to have them test it for free. They said it looks like it is working perfectly.
So put it all back together, and have been "shut-down" free since. Going almost 24 hours now.
I'll be sure and post here if I do lose power again, but it sure looks better as it will run graphic intense games now and not lose power.
Thanks again!
- Zaxx
np happy I was able to help
After putting this computer away for a little while, and discovering that the power shut down problem is STILL there... I decided to simply try the memory.. knowing that ram can certainly cause some wild problems.
Sure enough. Took out two sticks of ram, left the computer up and running.. and about 4 hours later, the power shut down again. Swapped the two sticks I removed with the two that were inside the PC, and now it's been running 24/7 for about 48 hours now, including over 20 hours of my nieces playing "grand theft auto: san andreas" on it.
Seems weird that ram would cause a power shut down problem, especially this ram. All 4 sticks of 512mb memory are Crucials high end "Ballistix" stuff with the heat spreaders or whatever the shields are called.
But it sure is looking like a stick of this memory has been the culprit this whole time. Currently I am trying to narrow the problem down to just one of the two sticks.
Anyone else ever have a ram stick cause a PC to just randomly power off? it sure looks like a heat shut down, I have plenty of case fans running and this computer had no problems for over 2 year before this started. Perhaps one of these sticks is just getting too hot and causing an automatic shut down via the motherboard or something?
- Zaxx
OK it seems you solved your problem and there is not anymore need for help, so...
HAHAHAA CRUCIAL SUCKS, OCZ ALL THE WAY!!!
Sounds like the PSU. And please, don't take eric's advice. Do not open your PSU. If you don't know your way around one you are likely to get the shock of a lifetime.