Power issues inside the computer. Ideas?

[Sebiale]

Okay, so I put together a new computer this summer, seemed to work fine at home.

Went to college (I live in the dormitories while there) and it seemed to be working fine for awhile, until the computer randomly decided to start losing power. Completely random as far as I can tell, it will lose power whenever: when I'm gaming, browsing the web, reading e-books on the desktop. Absolutely no correlation between the incidents as far as I can tell. After it dies, I can always start the PC back up without issue.

At first I thought it was a problem with the amount of power the computer was getting from the outlet. The power supply itself is 850 Watts, it should be more than enough for my PC, so I figure it might be the dorm's poor power supply at work. So I got a power backup. Sometimes the power backup works and kicks in, but the computer still randomly dies at times. So next I went back into the computer and reseated the power connector for the power button. That hasn't seemed to help either.

I doubt it's the power supply itself, I would expect that to just quit all the way, not be wishy-washy about; working for a full week without issue and then stopping for a second doesn't seem like the behavior of a malfunctioning power supply to me.

 

Another strange issue that's popped up (not sure if it's related) is that my monitor will randomly (lot of randomness involved here >.>) stop receiving the signal from the DVI cable. The cable is fine, it's plugged in, and the computer is still running fine as far as I can tell. The signal just disappears, stranger yet, after this has happened, I can't reset my PC by holding down the power button, I have to reach back and hit the power switch on the back and then start it back up, But as long as the monitor hasn't done it's little "lost signal" routine, I can reset the PC by holding down the power button. I did a clean install of my nVidia drivers and it hasn't happened since, but since it's random . . .

 

I've checked, and all of my other stuff seem to be up to date, save for the BIOS. But MSI sucks and doesn't have the ability to upgrade their BIOS' through their own LiveUpdate program on 64-bit Windows 7 systems yet. -_-

 

 

Any ideas what might be going on here?

[Quetzlsacatanango]

You might be getting thermtrips. This where your processor overheats so the system shuts down to prevent damage.

If your graphics is overheating too, this might explain your loss of video signal. It's doubtful that both of your heatsinks are not functional, but check. My guess is that your box is somewhere without adequate ventilation or you are not getting airflow through the case for some other reason.

[Sebiale]

You might be getting thermtrips. This where your processor overheats so the system shuts down to prevent damage.

If your graphics is overheating too, this might explain your loss of video signal. It's doubtful that both of your heatsinks are not functional, but check. My guess is that your box is somewhere without adequate ventilation or you are not getting airflow through the case for some other reason.

I suppose its possible but I think it unlikely.

I have four fans running inside the PC in addition to the fans on the heatsinks for the CPU and video card. I have a Zalman Z9 Plus (images from Newegg) and one side of that case is essentially open. I also have a thermal sensor inside of it to read the temperature. Although I'm not sure if it's optimally placed, I still doubt it would be overheating if it read as 24 Celsius in around the center of the case.

 

How does one check to see if a heatsink is "working"? It's just a structure.

Edited September 23, 2011 by Sebiale

[Quetzlsacatanango]

The fan should be turning of course.

A lot of BIOSes these days I think can display your CPU temperature. If not there are utilities for it though I wouldn't trust them as much.

Lastly, an open case does not necessarily improve cooling. They are designed to be closed.

Anyway if it's not a thermal issue it could be the PSU itself or some other hardware problem.

[prandiningrat]

you can check the fan speed on BIOS settings, just enter DEL during POST. then go to hardware monitor...

 

another possibility from MSI mainboard is BIOS, you can check their site probably your bios already updated... I use MSI too but I dont use live update to find a new BIOS, for manual update you can put your motherboard model here : http://www.msi.com/service/download/ and download the latest version of BIOS..if you have latest of motherboard you can upgrade through BIOS setup, just put on USB..but for old MSI Bios, you still need bootable floppy or USB, and use command prompt to update, dont use live version, i think. since your problem is suddenly shutdown the system...

[Erik005]

If you get BSOD's download bluescreen-viewer this should tell you what is causing the crashes.

[N3C14R]

The power supply itself is 850 Watts, it should be more than enough for my PC

What brand is that psu?

 

I bought a hec 780watt psu thinking I could future proof my pc with it, but upon researching on the web it's actually a 600watt psu with overload protection up to 780watts. >:(

 

Most budget manufacturers don't even label their psu's right.

Edited September 24, 2011 by N3C14R

[samadchaz]

Okay, so I put together a new computer this summer, seemed to work fine at home.

Went to college (I live in the dormitories while there) and it seemed to be working fine for awhile, until the computer randomly decided to start losing power. Completely random as far as I can tell, it will lose power whenever: when I'm gaming, browsing the web, reading e-books on the desktop. Absolutely no correlation between the incidents as far as I can tell. After it dies, I can always start the PC back up without issue.

At first I thought it was a problem with the amount of power the computer was getting from the outlet. The power supply itself is 850 Watts, it should be more than enough for my PC, so I figure it might be the dorm's poor power supply at work. So I got a power backup. Sometimes the power backup works and kicks in, but the computer still randomly dies at times. So next I went back into the computer and reseated the power connector for the power button. That hasn't seemed to help either.

I doubt it's the power supply itself, I would expect that to just quit all the way, not be wishy-washy about; working for a full week without issue and then stopping for a second doesn't seem like the behavior of a malfunctioning power supply to me.

 

Any ideas what might be going on here?

 

May be CPU overheating.One of the cause is wrong way to put thermal grease,just apply it in the center and put the heatsink on it, Do not spread or apply it on the corners and side of proc, this will stop releasing heat from itself.And for the power supply, name please? :ohdear:

[Sebiale]

PSU is a Raidmax, it's listed as Gold, but according to Overclock.net it's actually just average.

 

The conclusion I'm currently at is that I was having overheating issues and power issues. The random shut-downs I used to get came from both brownouts and (I believe) the CPU overheating. The power backup I got solves the brownouts. I also checked in the BIOS and it seems I didn't have the smart fan turned on ( :wallbash: ) so that's now on to try and keep the CPU at or below 40C now and I keep it at a minimum of 87.5% speed. (Also gonna see if I can move some cables around to help air flow, it's a bit of a mess in there.)

Since then I haven't gotten any full shut-downs while on high temperatures and the fan seems to be able to keep the CPU relatively cool (the thermal sensor at its hottest is reaching 39C, and that's a few inches away from the CPU. The thermal sensor used to get above 40C at that location while playing video games, so the CPU fan is trying harder at least).

 

However, I'm still getting monitor issues where it says it's lost the signal from the computer but the computer is still running and the cable is fine. Originally I thought that everything else was still working, I'd just lost video, but now I've noticed that after the monitor loses the signal while playing a video game (which is when it usually does), the temperature of the case starts dropping pretty rapidly. So it would seem that whatever is happening when the monitor loses video is also killing programs/processes so the CPU isn't working as hard. I also lose the ability to reset the computer by holding down the power button (I managed it once, but I haven't been able to repeat the success since).

 

If it was the CPU itself overheating I would expect the full shut-down, so I'm guessing maybe the graphics card overheating is responsible? Unless the CPU is doing some kind of partial-shutdown.

[samadchaz]

PSU is a Raidmax, it's listed as Gold, but according to Overclock.net it's actually just average.

Good luck and now its in my list too :whistling:

 

I also checked in the BIOS and it seems I didn't have the smart fan turned on ( :wallbash: ) so that's now on to try and keep the CPU at or below 40C now and I keep it at a minimum of 87.5% speed. (Also gonna see if I can move some cables around to help air flow, it's a bit of a mess in there.)

Smart fan is only to control noise and energy,If you put it off then the fan will run at maximum RPM :confused:

If it was the CPU itself overheating I would expect the full shut-down, so I'm guessing maybe the graphics card overheating is responsible? Unless the CPU is doing some kind of partial-shutdown.

Or maybe your PSU cant supply adequate power to your graphic card?