Failing Power Supply?

[acecold3]

I've just built a new rig about 2 months ago and recently its been shutting itself off, usually when I'm playing a game. At first I thought it was a nasty bit of malware so I just wiped my HDD and re-installed my operating system and it seemed to work, but then this problem occurred again, after downloading something not so trustworthy so I repeated the whole process of wiping my drive and installing the OS again only this time it didn't solve the problem. Now my computer will shut itself down whenever I try to download the first set of windows updates. I'm fairly certain my PSU is to blame, but I have no way to know for sure and would like a second opinion. Is my PSU failing? Here is the link to the parts list for my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WMGw7P Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[acecold3]

so if its not the drive its looking like a network issue ?? like the lan's aer bad and failing ?? its looking like when you access the internet you shut down right??

It looks that way, I've been sitting in BIOS for about 10 minutes now with no shut down yet

 

[junkeymonkey]

what motherboard is this ??

 

[acecold3]

what motherboard is this ??

its an Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard

 

[JRFET]

unless you are really overheating after awhile

 

[junkeymonkey]

looking at the newegg reviews on it just 52% and the I look at the 1 & 2 egg reviews and see the high failure rate that don't help ... my ''LAST'' asus was a real pain in the but and did not last around here to long

 

[volcanoscout]

Try booting to BIOS, then just let it sit with the temp monitor on-screen and watch to see what it shows. If it shuts itself off, disconnect your HDD and ODD and try it again. If it still shuts off, then you've narrowed it down to mobo, PSU and GPU and we can go from there.

If it doesn't shut itself off immediately with the peripherals connected, let it sit for an hour or two just to make sure. If it's still running after that, then it's likely that it's a setting, driver or software issue.

When you re-installed the OS, did you clear your CMOS prior? Have you flashed your mobo BIOS at any point?

I've never flashed my mobo BIOS and I have no idea what my CMOS is and probably haven't cleared it......

Okay, try this - shut everything down, then follow these instructions for clearing the mobo's CMOS.

To clear your CMOS: http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1000851/

Once you've completed that and have everything plugged back in, power up and boot to BIOS (hit the delete key when it starts to boot). You can flash your BIOS from within BIOS or using the USB BIOS Flashback utility. Here's some links with instructions. In the manual, look at page 4-25:

http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008279/
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/E8046_M5A97_R2.pdf

Here is the BIOS download you'll need. If you flash the BIOS from within your UEFI/BIOS, you can load the unzipped BIOS file to a USB drive and plug it in. When it asks for the BIOS file, just select the file on the thumbdrive. If you use the USB method, download and unzip the BIOS and BIOS Renamer utility to the root directory of a thumbdrive, then execute the Renamer program. This will rename the BIOS file so your mobo can read it properly.

BIOS: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/M5A97-R20-ASUS-2501.zip
BIOS Renamer: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-M/BRenamer.zip

 

[junkeymonkey]

guy don't you read he cant down load

 

[volcanoscout]

guy don't you read he cant down load

I can read (and write, and type). If he can't download it on the problem build, he can do it from any other computer that has internet access and a USB port. Family, friends, library, etc.

 

[junkeymonkey]

that's cool so you got this under control now i'll check back on this in about 12 hrs.

 

[acecold3]

Try booting to BIOS, then just let it sit with the temp monitor on-screen and watch to see what it shows. If it shuts itself off, disconnect your HDD and ODD and try it again. If it still shuts off, then you've narrowed it down to mobo, PSU and GPU and we can go from there.

If it doesn't shut itself off immediately with the peripherals connected, let it sit for an hour or two just to make sure. If it's still running after that, then it's likely that it's a setting, driver or software issue.

When you re-installed the OS, did you clear your CMOS prior? Have you flashed your mobo BIOS at any point?

I've never flashed my mobo BIOS and I have no idea what my CMOS is and probably haven't cleared it......

Okay, try this - shut everything down, then follow these instructions for clearing the mobo's CMOS.

To clear your CMOS: http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1000851/

Once you've completed that and have everything plugged back in, power up and boot to BIOS (hit the delete key when it starts to boot). You can flash your BIOS from within BIOS or using the USB BIOS Flashback utility. Here's some links with instructions. In the manual, look at page 4-25:

http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008279/
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/E8046_M5A97_R2.pdf

Here is the BIOS download you'll need. If you flash the BIOS from within your UEFI/BIOS, you can load the unzipped BIOS file to a USB drive and plug it in. When it asks for the BIOS file, just select the file on the thumbdrive. If you use the USB method, download and unzip the BIOS and BIOS Renamer utility to the root directory of a thumbdrive, then execute the Renamer program. This will rename the BIOS file so your mobo can read it properly.

BIOS: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/M5A97-R20-ASUS-2501.zip
BIOS Renamer: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-M/BRenamer.zip

So I did all of this and updated the BIOS, and now My computer shuts down immediately after I log in, which is worse than before

 

[acecold3]

At this point should I start looking into getting another motherboard from ASUS through their RMA process or is my mobo saveable?

 

[volcanoscout]

At this point should I start looking into getting another motherboard from ASUS through their RMA process or is my mobo saveable?

That depends on how much time and effort you're willing to spend on it. If none, then you can RMA the mobo and hope that fixes the issue. If you are willing to put some time into it and go through a logical process to eliminate all the possibilities and positively identify the issue, even if it's not fixable at least you can be reasonably sure that if you replace a component it's the right one to replace. Don't let the length of this thread or the number of posts fool you - at this point you really haven't eliminated any of the possible causes, just identified symptoms.

Guessing at solutions when you haven't identified the problem is one way of going at. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky.

 

[JRFET]

Beware of Asus RMA it could get ugly haha

 

[acecold3]

I'm willing to do all I can to fix this, with help from this site of course! That being said, what's the next step?

 

[volcanoscout]

Note - In case you're wondering, this process is not a strictly linear progression. I suggest you read through it first before you do anything else. If you look around in this forum or elsewhere online, you'll find lots of alternatives methods, this is just the way that makes best sense to me. If you think I'm smoking dope and want to use a different method, feel free.

Okay, go into your BIOS, and on the Main menu ensure that the BIOS version listed is 2501 dated 2014/05/14. While it's still in BIOS, hit the MemOK! button next to your DIMM slots in the upper right hand corner of the mobo. When it's done going through it's routine, the DRAM LED should go off and stay off (if it stays lit, there's a DRAM issue), then post and logo screen should come up again on the monitor.

At this point, you can try to boot to Windows, but I would recommend you go ahead and do a clean install. I know you've already done that, but if you're dead lucky, the problem involved a conflict with the original BIOS, and a BIOS update, clear CMOS and fresh OS and driver install may take care of it. Once you've gotten Windows installed, go ahead and install your basic drivers. I'd recommend downloading all of the latest drivers from the website rather than loading them from the support CD, then installing them with a thumbdrive in one of the USB 2.0 ports. You'll want to download the following Asus utilities also: EZ Update, PC Diagnostics, Asus Boot Setting, and CPU-Z. Finally, download AIDA64 (30 day free trial) and Sea Tools for Windows.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
http://www.aida64.com/downloads/aida64extreme460exe


If your PC hangs up, crashes or shuts down prior to or during the loading of Windows, then it probably is a hardware issue. Without onboard graphics, one way to see if it's the GPU is to try it in a different machine and/or try a different card in yours. Same deal for the PSU - the only real way to verify if it's the problem is try it out on a different PC and/or try a different one on yours. The best way to check the ODD is just to disconnect and run the PC without it. The HDD can be disconnected and health-checked on another PC.

When you load the drivers, do them one at a time and reboot after each. Once it reboots, before loading the next one play around on Windows (open and close folders, play the video samples, move some files around, go through control panel settings, what ever) and see if you can induce a shutdown. If you don't get anything, go ahead and load the next one. Save your LAN driver for last. If you get a shutdown at any point during driver loading and installing, make sure to note what driver was being loaded and any pop-ups, warning messages, etc that show up, if any do.

Once all the drivers and utilities are loaded up, but before connecting to the internet, install and run PC Diagnostics, Sea Tools and AIDA64 Compatibility Test. Let the AIDA Compatibility Test run for at least 20-30 minutes but preferably an hour or two. During the testing, keep an eye on your CPU temps until they stabilize. If it passes all of these without shutting down, install your A/V and connect to the internet and run EZ Update, reboot if necessary, then try updating Windows.

This whole process will take a while and will be tedious, but the idea is to be meticulous about it. Hopefully the process itself will eliminate the problem, but if not, the various steps and tests should be able to either identify the source of the problem or at least drastically narrow down the possibilities.

 

[junkeymonkey]

not trying to say yes to a rma but like I said looking at the newegg reviews this board seems to have its issues with these things just not working or failing with in 6 months to a year. [opinion] so lets just assume that now your lan ports failed and causing a short or what ever just seems funny now that it stays running as long as it don't use the lan for something ?? not saying this is 100%your issue but it leans that way for now .. you could try to uninstall the lan drivers and reinstall them from the boards driver disk to be sure there right and retry .. also as said above put the bios back to its default settings and see if there was some wrong or accidental changes made that may have affected this

 

[acecold3]

Note - In case you're wondering, this process is not a strictly linear progression. I suggest you read through it first before you do anything else. If you look around in this forum or elsewhere online, you'll find lots of alternatives methods, this is just the way that makes best sense to me. If you think I'm smoking dope and want to use a different method, feel free.

Okay, go into your BIOS, and on the Main menu ensure that the BIOS version listed is 2501 dated 2014/05/14. While it's still in BIOS, hit the MemOK! button next to your DIMM slots in the upper right hand corner of the mobo. When it's done going through it's routine, the DRAM LED should go off and stay off (if it stays lit, there's a DRAM issue), then post and logo screen should come up again on the monitor.

At this point, you can try to boot to Windows, but I would recommend you go ahead and do a clean install. I know you've already done that, but if you're dead lucky, the problem involved a conflict with the original BIOS, and a BIOS update, clear CMOS and fresh OS and driver install may take care of it. Once you've gotten Windows installed, go ahead and install your basic drivers. I'd recommend downloading all of the latest drivers from the website rather than loading them from the support CD, then installing them with a thumbdrive in one of the USB 2.0 ports. You'll want to download the following Asus utilities also: EZ Update, PC Diagnostics, Asus Boot Setting, and CPU-Z. Finally, download AIDA64 (30 day free trial) and Sea Tools for Windows.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
http://www.aida64.com/downloads/aida64extreme460exe


If your PC hangs up, crashes or shuts down prior to or during the loading of Windows, then it probably is a hardware issue. Without onboard graphics, one way to see if it's the GPU is to try it in a different machine and/or try a different card in yours. Same deal for the PSU - the only real way to verify if it's the problem is try it out on a different PC and/or try a different one on yours. The best way to check the ODD is just to disconnect and run the PC without it. The HDD can be disconnected and health-checked on another PC.

When you load the drivers, do them one at a time and reboot after each. Once it reboots, before loading the next one play around on Windows (open and close folders, play the video samples, move some files around, go through control panel settings, what ever) and see if you can induce a shutdown. If you don't get anything, go ahead and load the next one. Save your LAN driver for last. If you get a shutdown at any point during driver loading and installing, make sure to note what driver was being loaded and any pop-ups, warning messages, etc that show up, if any do.

Once all the drivers and utilities are loaded up, but before connecting to the internet, install and run PC Diagnostics, Sea Tools and AIDA64 Compatibility Test. Let the AIDA Compatibility Test run for at least 20-30 minutes but preferably an hour or two. During the testing, keep an eye on your CPU temps until they stabilize. If it passes all of these without shutting down, install your A/V and connect to the internet and run EZ Update, reboot if necessary, then try updating Windows.

This whole process will take a while and will be tedious, but the idea is to be meticulous about it. Hopefully the process itself will eliminate the problem, but if not, the various steps and tests should be able to either identify the source of the problem or at least drastically narrow down the possibilities.

I was able to install windows again, but immediately after the installation finished and I set up the password and it tried having me log in there was some error message displayed pertaining to the password then it rebooted and shut down once it reached the login screen. Also, the BIOS version listed was correct, but I didn't see the date on it.

 

[junkeymonkey]

as with my ''last'' asus I found I was better off going with a something else non asus

with all these issues your getting its the hard drive having write read issues and corrupting all it try's to do or the board is failing [opinion]

 

[volcanoscout]

Note - In case you're wondering, this process is not a strictly linear progression. I suggest you read through it first before you do anything else. If you look around in this forum or elsewhere online, you'll find lots of alternatives methods, this is just the way that makes best sense to me. If you think I'm smoking dope and want to use a different method, feel free.

Okay, go into your BIOS, and on the Main menu ensure that the BIOS version listed is 2501 dated 2014/05/14. While it's still in BIOS, hit the MemOK! button next to your DIMM slots in the upper right hand corner of the mobo. When it's done going through it's routine, the DRAM LED should go off and stay off (if it stays lit, there's a DRAM issue), then post and logo screen should come up again on the monitor.

At this point, you can try to boot to Windows, but I would recommend you go ahead and do a clean install. I know you've already done that, but if you're dead lucky, the problem involved a conflict with the original BIOS, and a BIOS update, clear CMOS and fresh OS and driver install may take care of it. Once you've gotten Windows installed, go ahead and install your basic drivers. I'd recommend downloading all of the latest drivers from the website rather than loading them from the support CD, then installing them with a thumbdrive in one of the USB 2.0 ports. You'll want to download the following Asus utilities also: EZ Update, PC Diagnostics, Asus Boot Setting, and CPU-Z. Finally, download AIDA64 (30 day free trial) and Sea Tools for Windows.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
http://www.aida64.com/downloads/aida64extreme460exe


If your PC hangs up, crashes or shuts down prior to or during the loading of Windows, then it probably is a hardware issue. Without onboard graphics, one way to see if it's the GPU is to try it in a different machine and/or try a different card in yours. Same deal for the PSU - the only real way to verify if it's the problem is try it out on a different PC and/or try a different one on yours. The best way to check the ODD is just to disconnect and run the PC without it. The HDD can be disconnected and health-checked on another PC.

When you load the drivers, do them one at a time and reboot after each. Once it reboots, before loading the next one play around on Windows (open and close folders, play the video samples, move some files around, go through control panel settings, what ever) and see if you can induce a shutdown. If you don't get anything, go ahead and load the next one. Save your LAN driver for last. If you get a shutdown at any point during driver loading and installing, make sure to note what driver was being loaded and any pop-ups, warning messages, etc that show up, if any do.

Once all the drivers and utilities are loaded up, but before connecting to the internet, install and run PC Diagnostics, Sea Tools and AIDA64 Compatibility Test. Let the AIDA Compatibility Test run for at least 20-30 minutes but preferably an hour or two. During the testing, keep an eye on your CPU temps until they stabilize. If it passes all of these without shutting down, install your A/V and connect to the internet and run EZ Update, reboot if necessary, then try updating Windows.

This whole process will take a while and will be tedious, but the idea is to be meticulous about it. Hopefully the process itself will eliminate the problem, but if not, the various steps and tests should be able to either identify the source of the problem or at least drastically narrow down the possibilities.

I was able to install windows again, but immediately after the installation finished and I set up the password and it tried having me log in there was some error message displayed pertaining to the password then it rebooted and shut down once it reached the login screen. Also, the BIOS version listed was correct, but I didn't see the date on it.

With no drivers installed, a clean BIOS flash and CMOS, RAM compatibility set by MemOK! (I'm assuming the light didn't stay on) , there might still be a mobo issue but it's just as likely that it's the HDD, considering where it's failing at. The PSU or GPU could be the problem, I guess, but it seems unlikely considering the nature of the fault. Do you have access to another computer that you can hook this HDD to as a secondary drive? If so, you can run Sea Tools on the drive to see if it's healthy. If it checks out, I think you will be looking at a mobo RMA.

I was hoping it would turn out to be a simple driver/BIOS conflict. I have three Asus mobos that I ride hard and put away wet and haven't had any issues with them at all (knock on wood), so I don't have any personal experience with Asus' RMA process, but hopefully it's not too painful. If it turns out to be the HDD, I've heard that Seagate's support is good, but again I don't have any personal experience with it.

Edit: I should mention that even with MemOK!, it's possible you have a faulty RAM stick. I don't think they're the likely cause either as it's probable that they would put you into a boot-loop or refuse to boot at all, but I could be wrong. You can check them by creating a bootable USB with MemTest86. It doesn't run in Windows, so it's likely that you'll be able to test the RAM as currently installed.

 

[junkeymonkey]

looking at the psu readings above for whatr its worth they look good now weather it snaps under a load is not known for sure and I did not se where a download should stress then so fast as he was saying ????

After running for 8 minutes:
CPU temp:33 degrees Celsius
Mobo temp: 26 degrees Celsius
CPU voltage: 1.332V
5V: 5.035V
3.3V: 3.312V
12V: 12.097

 

[volcanoscout]

looking at the psu readings above for whatr its worth they look good now weather it snaps under a load is not known for sure and I did not se where a download should stress then so fast as he was saying ????

After running for 8 minutes:
CPU temp:33 degrees Celsius
Mobo temp: 26 degrees Celsius
CPU voltage: 1.332V
5V: 5.035V
3.3V: 3.312V
12V: 12.097

I agree - if it was the PSU I don't think it would be cutting out so regularly, especially during specific activities. If it was just shutting down when attempting a download, I would suspect a faulty LAN adapter, but with it shutting down at OS sign on like that... I could be way off but I think it almost has to be the HDD or mobo.

 

[acecold3]

With it being narrowed down to either the motherboard or HDD I think I'll just have it looked at by a local tech and go from there. Thank you all for your help and especially the specific instructions.

 

[volcanoscout]

Any time - sorry we couldn't help more. Please let us know what the shop techs' come up with.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I cant figure best answer on this seeing I all ready covered all that way above ?? thanks