florek

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I'm having a really frustrating problem with a system I built for a friend. It keeps shutting itself off, then when I reboot it the first screen says 'the system was shut down due to a thermal event.' It shuts down randomly. Sometimes it runs for hours, sometimes it shuts off before Windows has even booted. It always shuts off if I load a game.

P4 @ 3.0
Intel D865GLCLK
1Gb Kingston DDR433
Sapphire 9800 Pro
400 watt Allied ps

I've installed a front fan, a back fan, a side fan, a two fan power supply (bottom and back), and the new CoolerMaster Jet 4 on the CPU all to fix this stupid problem. I'm not even overclocking. The temperature readout in the bios stays around 100 in the CPU zone, and 86 in zone 1 and 2.

Swapping out the CPU didn't fix the problem. If I take the video card out, the problem seems to go away. I've taken the fan off the card and replaced the thermal grease to no avail. Should I RMA the video card? I've been at this for a week. If anyone has any ideas, please help.
 

ecar016

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Try running it with the case open to see if the temps. go down....are u sure that all fans are running?????
I have a 9800pro and had temp. problems till I installed an extra fan in the case.

PS: is it 100 and 86 F or C !!!!! big diff.
EC


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florek

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Sorry, I meant Fahrenheit.

Taking the sides and top off lowers the temperature slightly, but it still reboots. I don't know if it's really a heat problem. My temperatures are pretty low.

What I'm wondering is if the error message about the thermal shutdown is from the video card or the motherboard. If you dont plug in the four-pin power adapter to the video card, you get an error message on bootup and can't get any farther. Could a card conceivably shut down your system too?
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Hmm, could be a power problem. When your power fluctuates, heat builds up. That card takes a huge load on the power supply.

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GeneticWeapon

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Crash, I have a window in my case with lots of l.e.d. fans, lately I've noticed that the l.e.d.'s shimmer in unison...kind of dim and brighten for a fraction of a second faintly but continuously. Ya think my power supply is going bye bye?

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florek

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I don't know what else could cause the l.e.d.s to do that. In the system I just put together, if I let the bios control the fan speed the l.e.d.s strobe. Enough to make you throw up, really. Luckily, they aren't loud at full speed.

The back, front, and side fans are all blue l.e.d. fans, and I replaced the two in the power supply with l.e.d. fans also. It lights up the room!

Crashman, don't you think 400 watts is enough? I've already swapped out the power supply with a 450 and a 300 and had the same problem, though.
 

silverpig

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100 F is not a critical temperature for shutdown. That's nice and cool actually.

Get a program that will show you what your temps are in windows. Launch the program and see what your temps are with nothing running. Then play a movie and see how high they go. If they're fine, then add a winrar compression of a couple files. Then open up windows calculator type in 99999999 and hit the ! (factorial) button. Check your temps again (the 99999999! thing just runs your cpu at 100% for quite some time as this is an insanely large number to compute).

If your cpu temps stay fine then you KNOW it's a video card problem as you already suspect. Try underclocking the card by a large margin and running a game. If it runs fine at a really low clock, then RMA the card as it's defective.

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Crashman

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Former Staff
It could be line noise in the power grid, are you using a UPS?

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Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Unfortunately some power supplies have a weak 12v line, and most are overrated.

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florek

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Thank you!

That will help me narrow down exactly which component is causing this. The 9999999! is an especially cool trick! I'll post to this thread again once I've figured it out.
 

florek

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OK. I need help again. I took the video card out, and the problem went away. I put the video card in another computer, and experienced no problems on that system. WTF?

On the messed up system, without the video card in, I can run 99999999! all day long and it doesn't break a sweat!

One strange thing is Intel Active Monitor doesn't work. It half worked, then I uninstalled it. Now I can't get it to load at all. Intel Tech Support told me to reflash the bios using the emergency recovery, which I did. Active Monitor still won't install.

This is f'ing bizarre! This system runs really, really, really cold. 100 F is nothing. I'm about to lose it. It's all I can do to stop myself from typing in all caps. Help me please!
 
thats what your problem is then.

you need a bigger PSU.

MORE power is what you need man.

Get you a 450 watt or more PSU and you will be fine.

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silverpig

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Try finding a program on the internet that will let you see what your voltages are on your 12V lines etc. I think sandra will do that for you.

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Crashman

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Former Staff
I do play MotoGP2, been playing it for a while now.

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