Computer problems

[Intertoothh]

Darn darn darn....

Years of computing without any trouble, but now it starts.

Did not have time yet to checkout what exactly the problem is, but i have taken some staps allready.

Okies, the story what happend, i was a happy minecrafter and then the computer completly shutdown on his own. Not the nice 'windows is shutting down', more like somebody pulled the plug shutdown.

2 things that i thougth could be wrong at this point. The motherboard is prefenting some dammage, (should give me a bios note next time i boot what it did not), OR my Powersuply is fucked.

Once i opend the case, i noticed the power supply was realy hot. So thats a sign something is wrong. After inspecting it, i noticed its fan was not moving at all... Hmm i think it might overheated.


After demolishing my powersuply, 'carefull' testing my fan. And it worked! it was alive!


Sooo i put all the parts back in, booted up. Woot! we have powah! fans are turning, system is workin! And then booting into windows... wanted to click on minecraft... and then... it happend again. But this time the powersupply remaind cool.

Darn... i yet have to figure this out. But i still think my power supply is faulty.

This will have inpact on my online time, as i dont have much time to fix this soon.

[Ollieboy]

I have this problem with more intense games, and more often than not it is my cooling.

When you boot up your PC if it comes back, run this program and monitor the heat of your components. http://openhardwaremonitor.org/. It will give a temperature for your separate parts. Primarily look at the GPU, as that is where my problems are mainly. Normally to play games I have to take the side of my case off or it will overheat soon enough. If everything is fine until you run a game, maybe check your heatsink over your CPU, as suddenly thinking hard might cause a meltdown if heat isn't being properly transferred to the heatsink (thermal paste).

Also check that your fans are running while you use the PC. Take the side off the PC and watch them.

[Intertoothh]

The 2nd time i booted, i left the case open. First to just check my power-suply fan.
But they all where running.
My videocards did not run, but they started once windows was booting.
And i also tried with less hardware to boot (removed 2 video cards and cd-drive).

Everything did not help, sometimes the pc did not even booted into windows.
To make sure it wasn't a windows/driver problem i even booted linux.
Same problem only took a bit longer to shutdown again, but that can be a single case.

I dont have time in windows to install stuff, it will shutdown before, but looking in my bios i can see some tempetures as well, i'll try that next time.

I'll have time again sunday i think to check the next steps, any idea's are welcome

[Wundsalz]

The symptoms are typical for overheated CPU,GPU or an insufficient or defect power supply unit .
as your PSU might have taken damage while running overheated for an unknown timeperiod, I'd personally suspect this little fellow to cause your problems.
Do you have another PSU or know someone who could spare one for testing purposes?

[Ollieboy]

In regards to PSU's themselves, I had a lot of trouble with mine for a while too. This was because I purchased cheap $30 ones that would last for a couple of months to a year and then burn out. I went all out and got a proper powerful one and I haven't had any problems with Windows booting since, just an overheat every now and again when I forget to take the side of my case off . Wund is right, invest in a new power supply and hope that your PSU being faulty didn't damage any other components internally.

[Hafnium]

My FANTASTIC ASUS laptop does something similar to me all the time because of how ridiculous its GPU fan temperature triggers are. I have to actually use an external desk fan to play anything 3d in the summer months.

[Intertoothh]

Its a antec, one of the top brands in PSU's.
But i borrowd a new one from a friend, going to try it tomorrow.

[Intertoothh]

And the winner is!

A faulty cpu cooler.

The freaking thing did ´turn´. But only at ´low speed´ and when the cpu realy needed cooling it should shift into high gear. But that part did not work anymore, and the fan coudn´t cool eneugh on the low setting.

After rigging my mobo/bios to ignore the ´smart fan´ and make it run in high speed al the time the problems where over. Only problem now is that my fan is making noise... but thats better then nothing. And it keeps my cpu now cool at a nice 65 C (full load).

Why it CAN run at high speed now? it freaking studdels me.
But i'm buying a new fan anyhow when i have time, so who cares!

[Pemalite]

And the winner is!

A faulty cpu cooler.

The freaking thing did ´turn´. But only at ´low speed´ and when the cpu realy needed cooling it should shift into high gear. But that part did not work anymore, and the fan coudn´t cool eneugh on the low setting.

After rigging my mobo/bios to ignore the ´smart fan´ and make it run in high speed al the time the problems where over. Only problem now is that my fan is making noise... but thats better then nothing. And it keeps my cpu now cool at a nice 65 C (full load).

Why it CAN run at high speed now? it freaking studdels me.
But i'm buying a new fan anyhow when i have time, so who cares!

65'C at full load seems a little high to me, and if it's a Phenom 2/AMD FX chip it shouldn't ever hit 61'c. (As that's the thermal limit in AMD's whitepaper.)
I would look into getting a new cooler, something cheap would be the Coolermaster Hyper 212 for like $30 bucks, then just get a couple of decent 120mm fans (Noctua?) to chuck on it in a push-pull configuration.
It should work out less noisy that way too as you don't need to run the fans at a high RPM.

As for PSU's, I could bitch about them all day, Antec isn't to bad, but they are far from the best, but far better than the cheap shit $30 PSU's, the Antec Neo Eco line is actually built around a Seasonic design and great for a budget build, the rest... Meh, get a Corsair! Those PSU's will outlive your PC.

[Intertoothh]

Yeah, but it was in a warm room, and with a cpu-stress test.
Idle its way way lower.

The mobo or proc dont know who starts it, but they shutdown at 100 C to make sure no dammage is done.

BUT, i'm going to buy a new cpu-fan anyhow as this one is now making to much noise (high-fan-speed).