Computer powers off within 2 seconds

[slavadon]

I have an NVIDIA EVGA 680i Motherboard. I recently replaced my graphics card and also reformatted my computer. Put the new card in, installed windows, mobo drivers, graphics card drivers, and while I was installing the drivers for my X-Fi the computer just powered off. When I push the power button now the lights all come on and the fans spin up and then almost immediately the computer powers off.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[mike99]

What PSU, make and model?

Mike

 

[chris1784]

I think this is due to insufficient power, this just happened to me when I installed a new fan, so I had to pick between an LED light or the fan. See if there's an LED you can unplug.

 

[slavadon]

Thermaltake Toughpower 700 Watt PSU
E6600 CPU
X1950 PRO GPU
My cooler is a Cooler Master RC30 or whatever, it's a gimp water cooling setup but it seems to be doing its job.

I left the computer off for about 20 minutes and was able to power it up and it stayed on for a good 30 seconds before powering off. When I tried to power it up again it lasted about 5 seconds. The third time it lasted less than 2. I got into the Bios system monitor for about 10 seconds and my temps looked fine...Mem and CPU were about 35 Celc, System was 27. I'm totally lost.

The only thing I saw in the few moments I had to look around the Bios that might have been out of the ordinary was that the Memory voltage was set to 1.90v...I have no idea if that's a problem or not.

 

[chris1784]

no idea, i'm interested to see what others have to say ..

 

[jsc]

What kind of psu?

Try unplugging everthing from the motherboard except cpu and memory. Boot. The boot process should run until the hex display on the motherboard indicates a video failure. Since I am on vacation and away from my computer, I cannot tell you what the failure code should be.

If this does not work, the problem is probably the PSU, motherboard, cpu, or memory.

If it works, plug in the video card. Boot. If the psu shuts down, the problem is probably a defective or inadequate PSU or a bad video card.

At this point a good friend with a similar system to help you test components will come very handy.

 

[jsc]

Thermaltake Toughpower 700 Watt PSU
E6600 CPU
X1950 PRO GPU
My cooler is a Cooler Master RC30 or whatever, it's a gimp water cooling setup but it seems to be doing its job.

That was posted while I was replying to the original post.

OK. A TT 700 w PSU should be more than adequate.

Basic troubleshooting procedures indicate that if you have a working system and you change one component (the video card) and the system now doesn't work, back up.

Try reinstalling the old video card. Don't worry about the drivers. All you want to do is see if the system now boots.

 

[jsc]

I forgot to mention memory. If the memory voltage is wrong, the system might hang, but the PSU should not shut down.

 

[boner]

mmmmm.... this is weird dude..

 

[PCKid777]

Check for any shorts. Also, make sure all connections are tight. If you have the old graphics card, then try to boot with that.

Attempt a boot up with no HDDs, 1 stick of RAM (test each one if you have 2 or more), and no optical drives.

If possible, check your voltages in the BIOS - although I like TT, I have had issues with them before (older Pure Power models) and there are of course, the occasional defects in new items...

I'm betting on a MB issue. I had a similar problem with a Gigabyte board. It would begin losing my USB devices and the system would freeze. After a reboot, it would just hang with nothing on screen. Finally, I turned it off. To my demise, that would be the last time it would turn on. I could, however, flip the PSU switch and make the fans spin . I had the MB repaired 4 times before I realized that Gigabyte kept screwing me over.... but anyhow, that's why I'm thinking you have a MB issue.

 

[slavadon]

Don't have the old video card...It melted.

I just got back from being out for 5 hours and the computer is running fine right now. I'd imagine this is going to last about 20 minutes, like it did last time I left it alone for along time. And then it's going to power off.

I already tried 1 stick of memory and no pci/hdds. It didn't change anything. It never even got to signal the failure code. It shut down while checking 1C, which is like a CMOS check or something standard like that.

It's so weird because the only thing that makes sense to me for this consistantly diminishing power times would be temps, but I have coretemp up now and my temps are definitely fine. Never going above 45C. I would think a mobo short would either stop me from booting up entirely or shut me down totally randomly or at a regular spot during boot up, but I'm not an engineer, so maybe I'm wrong about that? No clue what kind of problems the PSU could be causing. I'm thinking the most likely cause of the problem is that the voltage is unstable or the PSU is dying and the system is shutting off due to insufficient power?

Maybe I'm way off. That's my logical thought process on this, but I'm no expert or anything.

 

[PCKid777]

Well, believe me, a short on the MB is unpredictable. When I first built a PC, the manual failed to mention those brass standoffs that I was suppose to use to mount the MB. Needless to say, I was shorting my MB the moment I flipped the power switch. However, despite some random freezes, shutdowns, etc, it worked for an entire year before I upgraded the GPU - and fried the board in the process....

If possible, try boosting the voltages to your NB and RAM. I would try to get a different MB to test out your PC.

 

[slavadon]

Is there a way to check specifically for shorts, PCKid?

 

[slavadon]

I did that with my first custom build The DS3 manual says nothing about mobo mounts and I killed the board the moment I hit my power switch on my CM Centurion

 

[slavadon]

Just replaced the PSU and it didn't fix the problem so a mobo short sounds like a good call.

 

[chris1784]

how did your GPU melt?

 

[Yoosty]

slavadon said :I have an NVIDIA EVGA 680i Motherboard

Which version of the EVGA 680i do you have.

EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR

EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1

EVGA 122-CK-NF67-T1

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 *

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 *

* denote's onboard LED Debug port.

Have you checked to see if the CMOS Battery is not dead and or cleared(reset it). Plus have you checked out EVGA Forum boards to see if anyone else has had same problem that you are experiancing at this link below.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=13

Or you could also contact one of EVGA RMA Tech specialists from link below.

http://www.evga.com/support/

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[jsc]

I wrote earlier:
"Basic troubleshooting procedures indicate that if you have a working system and you change one component (the video card) and the system now doesn't work, back up."

OK. Now we know that you didn't start with a working system.

You could have a power problem. Swap out the PSU. Test.

If that doesn't work, I suggest that you breadboard your computer. Take the motherboard out of the case, and reassemble the whole thing on an insulated surface to eliminate the possiblity that one of the case standoffs is shorting something out. I would also suggest that if you have multiple drives, cable up just the boot drive. Remove anything else, such as a sound card, that you do not need to boot. Then you need to short the power switch pins on the motherboard to turn it on.

I do a fair amount of work with old computers. I scavenged LED's, case wiring, and a small speaker from an old ATX case and put the parts into a small plastic box. That lets me test a mother board without needing a case. And I pretty much reserve the 4th port of my KVM switch for testing. This lets me test a computer without breaking the rest of my network down.

 

[slavadon]

I have the 122-CK-NF68-BR

Tried swapping out the PSU, that didn't work. Where would I get a static free insulated surface like that? Not exactly a knowledgable hardware person here. Could I just go buy a big foam pad at walmart or something?

I'm not entirely sure how my GPU melted. I left my comp alone for about a day and a half and left it on. When I came back I had artifacts all over my screen and opened the case up and the plastic on the back of the card was rough in spots and covering the metal. It was an 8800 GTX. My best guess is that some cat hair was pulled up against the case by the intake fan and that stopped cool air from coming in.

 

[PCKid777]

Use a piece of cardboard (the box that your MB came in will work) and power on the system. Good luck.

 

[Yoosty]

On static surface, use what the motherboard can in and place motherboard on it.

You have one of the Debug LED boards by EVGA, so you will need to do this. The instructions are also in Manual and you can also download the Manul from EVGA in PDF file form (using Adobe Acrobat reader to view it).

Once you have it all out of case, follow the below steps.

1) Place on static free sheet/surface.
2) Put in CPU, Graphic card and 1 stick of ram.
3) Connect PSU to motherboard and grapic card.
4) Turn on power and hold in DIY Reset & Power buttons near the Debug LED. page 22 of pdf manual
5) Debug LED Codes on pages 166 thru 168 of pdf manual

If you get a FF code then everthing is OK with what you have in motherboard.

Here is link to PDF Manual http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/680i%20manual.pdf

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[slavadon]

Same problem. Randomly just shuts off. No error code.

 

[azimuth40]

One more shot if you have a spare three wire fan, disconnect your cooler fan and plug the spare fan in, place it so that it blows on the heatsink. If your system is still running an hour later you have an intermittant heat sink fan. It only takes a momentary glitch in the tach pulse to make the system power off. I have seen it before.

 

[PCKid777]

Then it is almost certainly a failing MB.

 

[Rogue77777]

I have an NVIDIA EVGA 680i Motherboard. I recently replaced my graphics card and also reformatted my computer. Put the new card in, installed windows, mobo drivers, graphics card drivers, and while I was installing the drivers for my X-Fi the computer just powered off. When I push the power button now the lights all come on and the fans spin up and then almost immediately the computer powers off.

Have you taken a look at your sound card?
If not, make sure that your onboard soundcard is turned off and if you can, uninstall your X-fi drivers.
Also if your overclocking, reset your bios back to its default settings (Make sure to turn off your onboard sound card) and trying running your system.
Good luck