[SOLVED] Power Surges detected shutdowns (ASUS Z97)

[AtNvme]

Hi,

Now 3½ years ago, I built my PC. It always ran smoothly, except for a few times where it would freeze on shutdown (I believe this was due to some sort of compatibility issue with my Anti-Malware, which I have since fixed and haven't seen more of).

A few days ago, I had my first ASUS Power Surge protection shutdown, they've been happening often since, at least 2 to 3 times a day, up to 5 I would say.
Basically, the PC shuts down, then boots back up by itself, into the BIOS, which then tells my it was shut of by ASUS Power Surge protection to protect my hardware from unstable PSU.
The PSU is an EVGA 750G2, which I know is a very reliable brand and model, but that obviously doesn't mean it can't fail.
My motherboard is an ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer, released 2014-2015 (not sure), which I know are somewhat renowned for this type of issue.
Putting these assumptions together would probably have people think the motherboard is at fault, but I am not willing to take the risk to disable the protection yet JUST IN CASE, since I run the risk of cause permanent damage to the rest of my hardware.

----

The crashing often (but not always) seems to happen when I start new tasks, like launch a game, or OBS, for instance. It seems to crash 5-10 seconds after starting.

We have been renovating the house lately, which means a lot of power tools are being used, could the variation of power in my house cause such issues? Though it doesn't only happen when those are running.

Would a BIOS update fix, or help fix the issue? I know those can cause issues, like a bricked board or such, but perhaps it could be an option.

I changed Anti-Virus the day before this started. I also ran a 10 HOUR LONG full PC scan the day it started, which means my PC had been running for a while when it first happened. Could this have played a role?

----

I have access to an old, somewhat sketchy PSU I took out of my friend's PC a week ago. His PC had issues, which I believe could have potentially been linked to the PSU, though I am very unsure about this. What I do know, is that I can hear some piece dangling around in the PSU when I move it around, which makes me a bit reluctant to the idea of trying it on my PC.

I will not make this message any longer, just in case it shuts down on me.
If any extra info is needed, feel free to ask.

Thanks,
AtNvme

 

[jay32267]

"could the variation of power in my house cause such issues? "
It could but I think probably not.

"Would a BIOS update fix, or help fix the issue? "
Only if ASUS knew they had an issue with the "anti-surge" and that should be documented in the BIOS documentation.

"Could this have played a role? "
I think perhaps....but I'm not sure how.

and I wouldn't use your friends PSU because I think it's risky.

If it were me I would swap in a known good PSU because I think that's the quickest way to get an answer......as in....if you still get the message.....I would be leaning on the motherboard being the problem.

Being you don't have one....you could buy one. If you don't want to buy one.....another option would be to run HWInfo.

This will monitor your PSU voltages. You can set up a log file to log these voltages right up to the shutdown.

Then you can look at the file and see if any of your voltages varied more than 5% from what they are supposed to be.

If they did.....then I think it's a PSU issue.

 

[AtNvme]

"could the variation of power in my house cause such issues? "
It could but I think probably not.

"Would a BIOS update fix, or help fix the issue? "
Only if ASUS knew they had an issue with the "anti-surge" and that should be documented in the BIOS documentation.

"Could this have played a role? "
I think perhaps....but I'm not sure how.

and I wouldn't use your friends PSU because I think it's risky.

If it were me I would swap in a known good PSU because I think that's the quickest way to get an answer......as in....if you still get the message.....I would be leaning on the motherboard being the problem.

Being you don't have one....you could buy one. If you don't want to buy one.....another option would be to run HWInfo.

This will monitor your PSU voltages. You can set up a log file to log these voltages right up to the shutdown.

Then you can look at the file and see if any of your voltages varied more than 5% from what they are supposed to be.

If they did.....then I think it's a PSU issue.

Will do, thanks for the nice answer!
EDIT: I meant the HWInfo thing, see if I can get anything off of this.

 

[AtNvme]

"could the variation of power in my house cause such issues? "
It could but I think probably not.

"Would a BIOS update fix, or help fix the issue? "
Only if ASUS knew they had an issue with the "anti-surge" and that should be documented in the BIOS documentation.

"Could this have played a role? "
I think perhaps....but I'm not sure how.

and I wouldn't use your friends PSU because I think it's risky.

If it were me I would swap in a known good PSU because I think that's the quickest way to get an answer......as in....if you still get the message.....I would be leaning on the motherboard being the problem.

Being you don't have one....you could buy one. If you don't want to buy one.....another option would be to run HWInfo.

This will monitor your PSU voltages. You can set up a log file to log these voltages right up to the shutdown.

Then you can look at the file and see if any of your voltages varied more than 5% from what they are supposed to be.

If they did.....then I think it's a PSU issue.

I do not see a PSU section in HWinfo. I would assume it's in the motherboard voltages?
Here are all of the sensors in the motherboard section (not CPU). Am I missing something or is it just oddly complicated?
https://gyazo.com/01dc2010626408bf7fe92b406e7d12dd

 

[jay32267]

The +12, +5 and + 3.3 are your PSU voltages and they all look good at the moment.

....but what can happen is.....when you put more load on the PSU....buy running a game or whatever.....those voltages drop.

....and if they drop more than 5%.....they can cause crashes and can also trigger the power surge warning.

 

[AtNvme]

The +12, +5 and + 3.3 are your PSU voltages and they all look good at the moment.

....but what can happen is.....when you put more load on the PSU....buy running a game or whatever.....those voltages drop.

....and if they drop more than 5%.....they can cause crashes and can also trigger the power surge warning.

I see now, I'm logging the +3.3, +5, and +12 as I am writing this and putting good load on my PC, similar to as if I were streaming. I also set the log polling period to 200ms, that sound fast enough?

The thing is I'm thinking, for the motherboard to shut down for this reason, doesn't it have to read power surges? Like could the motherboard be at fault BECAUSE of faulty sensors? Which would mean the results that would display a faulty PSU would be caused by the faulty MOBO, and there would be no proper way to really know?

I am thinking perhaps the best way to know is to stress test the PSU, but I do not know how this is done, and highly doubt I have the equipment for it.

 

[jay32267]

"I also set the log polling period to 200ms, that sound fast enough? "
Probably plenty fast.

" Like could the motherboard be at fault BECAUSE of faulty sensors? Which would mean the results that would display a faulty PSU would be caused by the faulty MOBO, and there would be no proper way to really know? "

This is true.
It could be the MB.
Although usually when I hear people complaining about ASUS Power Surge it....I don't think their PC shuts down on them....I think they just get a message.

Here's how I would approach it. If you find any voltages in that log that are out more than 5% I would automatically replace the PSU.

If not.....I would be suspecting the motherboard....but I would probably call ASUS before I did anything.

 

[ElectrO_90]

What I can think is this

1. Buy a UPS, that will smooth/help your input AC
2. Swap with the dodgy PSU (but disable all hardware you don't really need/trust to run on that, which could mean your GPU and use iGPU)
3. Buy a new one from Amazon, try it, if that doesn't work send it back? - Then the fun starts to what is causing it.

 

[AtNvme]

"I also set the log polling period to 200ms, that sound fast enough? "
Probably plenty fast.

" Like could the motherboard be at fault BECAUSE of faulty sensors? Which would mean the results that would display a faulty PSU would be caused by the faulty MOBO, and there would be no proper way to really know? "

This is true.
It could be the MB.
Although usually when I hear people complaining about ASUS Power Surge it....I don't think their PC shuts down on them....I think they just get a message.

Here's how I would approach it. If you find any voltages in that log that are out more than 5% I would automatically replace the PSU.

If not.....I would be suspecting the motherboard....but I would probably call ASUS before I did anything.

Alright, will be patiently waiting for my PC to shut itself down and then look at logs.

I have already contacted EVGA for the possibility of getting a replacement unit, since my PSU has a 10 year warranty, will see how that works out.
I will also look into BIOS update notes, see if anything would be linked to this issue, and I will also contact ASUS on this subject.

Buy a UPS, that will smooth/help your input AC

As for this part, I doubt this would be an issue, because it never happened before, and my house is equipped with a commercial grade electric system (I dont know why), which can reliably supply lots of power. It COULD still be a cause, but I'll leave it for now, since I think it's pretty unlikely.

Thanks for the answers, will get back shortly.

EDIT: I'm still unsure I want to use the dodgy PSU, think I'll leave that for now.

 

[AtNvme]

My PC hasn't shut down since I started logging. I'm going to say it's a good thing and perhaps it was the power tools, which have since stopped.
I'll keep logging just in case, but perhaps this is case closed, I hope so anyways.

Thanks for the replies, I'll update if anything happens.

 

[AtNvme]

Updated post on the matter, it has come back 10 months later.

[SOLVED] - Power Surge Protection Issues - ASUS MOBO

Well... (I'm unsure wether this goes into the MOBO or PSU section, I guess both potentially). I hoped I would never have to come back here again for that specific issues, but it has come back after a whole year, I had nearly forgotten about it. It all started in June of last year, where I had a...

forums.tomshardware.com