Hard Shutdown

[Dean78]

Ok I got an issue here. My PC will just randomly shut down, go dead and not let me turn it back on for about 5 min.

So a couple weeks ago I go to defrag my PC. It would not let me saying there was an error and I needed to run CHKDSK. So I am thinking ok reformat time (Its about that time anyway).

Anyway so last week, my PC just started dropping dead. First time was while playing CoD2 sp and the map was changing.

Then a few days later I tried the new patch for BF2 and loaded a map. When the map ended, the PC just shut down dead and would not restart for about 5 min.

Now about 8 out of 10 times it will do this on map changes for either game and I can reproduce this.

If I shut down the PC (Not a restart), it will go dead and not let me restart for 5 min.

I have run MSI core center and my PSU seems to be at optimal levels and my temp maxs at around 54 loaded. I also ran memcheck to make sure my ram was ok overnight and it check out fine.

Any ideas on whats going on here? My main goal at this time is to narrow down what it could be. It does not appear to be an overheat issue as temps are not that high and I can reproduce the issue with doing certain tasks. I am not overclocking or anything like that. This PC is now about 10 months old and never had an issue until now. Any help at all would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

MSI K8N Neo 4 Plat
3800 AMD Newcastle
BFG 6800 GT
560 Thermaltake Purepower
2 gigs Corsair RAM

 

[Scout]

Just to clarify, did you actually reformat and reload your OS a week ago and then the machine started the same behavior again?

Also, could you be more specific on what happens when it "goes dead"? Will anything come on, lights, fans? If you unplug it then plug it back in will it still not start till after the 5 minutes?

That 5 min delay kind of speaks of a thermal issue where something cools down. Wonder if that power supply may have something tripping that resets once it cools down :?:

 

[mpjesse]

Kinda sounds like a PSU issue to me. (power supply) Could also be motherboard and hard drive. either way it's almost certainly a hardware problem if you can't get the system to turn back on. (maybe the hard drive is overloading the psu somehow?) Try putting the hard drive on it's own molex cable. also try unplugging non-vital things like maybe an optical drive and see if you can still duplicate the problem.

(go to www.gamecopyworld.com for a no-cd/dvd CoD2 patch if you have to)

If the problem is still duplicated after trying all that... i dunno. lol. that's a strange issue.

-mpjesse

 

[Dean78]

I had this problem and then did a reformat to see if that would help. Problem persited.

When it goes dead, it goes dead. Nothing will work. The lights might flicker the first time when i try to turn it back on but nothing happnes at all after that. If I turn off or unplug the PSU nothing changes either. After about 5 min I hear a little click and it lets me turn on the PC and it boots right up and does not give me any error messages.

I will try removing the optical drives and see what happens.

This is a really odd issue for sure and thats why I came to these forums. Thanks for the help so far, I hope we can solve this one.

 

[endyen]

A little click eh? That's the sound of your thermal cutout resetting. Make sure your psu fan is spinning nicely. Got a spare?

 

[Scout]

Yep... sounds like power supply.

 

[Dean78]

I wish I had a spare. If it is my PSU, why would all the readings on it be fine from the bios and core center?

Also do you guys have any brands or particular PSU's you would recomend if this is indeed the problem?

 

[Scout]

I've never had a PSU trip due to overheating, but that's what it sounds like your's is doing. Antec and Enermax are good brands.

But before I'd buy a new one, I would want to swap one in temporarily just to be sure it's what's causing the problem. Do you have one you can borrow from another computer or from a friend?

 

[mpjesse]

Enermax!!!!!!!!!!!
www.enermax.com

They're my favorite.

 

[endyen]

Here's another idea. Hold an old $5 bill behind the psu fan, and see how much it moves. Then take the side off your case, and try again. If the second time, you get a lot more action for your $, you have a negative airflow problem. To confirm this, see if your system hard crashes with the side off. If it doesn't, you need a fan that sucks air into your case.

 

[Dean78]

fans seem to be going in correct direction. Though the air is very warm coming out of the PSU as compared to the rest of the case.

 

[Scout]

That's pretty normal actually, the PSU puts off quite a bit of heat itself.

 

[liquidpaper007]

I have a crappy PSU that does that.every once in a while I just have to wait a few minutes to turn it back on. I used a miltimeter to check the voltages on my pc, try checking the +12 while it is loading.

 

[Dean78]

Guys thank you so much for your help. It was the PSU and I am back up and running again. Once again thanks for all the help.