Random Shut Offs

[jfaust]

Hey guys,

Recently my rig has been shutting down at random. At first it seemed during more intensive actions, like games, but now it is just whenever it feels like it. Also just for reference, I haven't modified anything, its been running on the same parts for over a year without any issues.

It is an instant power down, everything blanks out, like you pull the power cord.

At first I could just press the power button and it would turn back on and it would be fine for days or weeks. After a while it started to take a few seconds to register the power button and turn back on. Now, I am lucky if it will even attempt to turn on before 5 minutes have gone by.

It would boot up and start working fine till the next black out, but then it started dying right after windows fired up, or even right after I logged in during boot up.

Now, I am lucky to even make it to the login screen, it basically shuts off after 10 seconds.

After poking around other similar situations, I did some troubleshooting and disconnected most devices and just turned it on with just the motherboard powered. Even with just the motherboard and cpu drawing power it would turn off.

So I figured it was the Power Supply, even though my Corsair GS700 seemed in prestine condition, I went out and got a Corsair GS800, slapped it in. It actually made it to my desktop, then it died, much to my dismay.

Now I do not really know what it could be, my guess is the motherboard. I cleaned everything, reseated everything, checked the CPU(which again, looks pristine). I inspected the motherboard and cannot find anything visually wrong with it, but I understand there could be a short somewhere.

Advice would be greatly appreciated, Thanks very much

I dont remember my specs 100% since im on a different computer but heres a close guess

CPU: 2.8ghz Intel i-7
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2
RAM: Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D, 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr
PSU: Corsair GS700 also Corsair GS800

 

[zdbc13]

Check your motherboard for blown or expanded capacitors. It sounds like some sort of power problem but not with your power supply. Also look very carefully for burned smaller components.

 

[jfaust]

Ive been looking it over pretty good, the only thing I could find, was 2 blemishes on the back of the soldering where the pin sockets are for one of the RAM slots. Its in 3 areas spanning 2 of the slots.

They look almost burnt, the coating around them looks sorta melted and slightly distorted.

Not sure if that is an issue, or just a visual blemish from the manufacturing. It is quite small, and looks no where near as bad as when one of the components on the front burn out and leave a scorch mark.

My CPU is first gen i-7, so theres almost no motherboards available supporting that socket type.

Contemplating building a new rig if I have to replace the MB or CPU, seems like a bit of a waste though. However, so does paying 200$ for an outdated motherboard.

 

[zdbc13]

I agree. One thing I would try is to breadboard the system on a piece of cardboard outside the case. Try this and see if it continues the problem. I've known of standoffs or other parts of the case intermittently short and cause problems.

 

[jfaust]

So oddly enough, I finally got the computer to stay on. I disassembled everything, and blew all the dust off all the parts with the air compressor(gently).

I noticed when i took the CPU fan off, and inspected the CPU the thermal paste was basically worthless, probably to a point it was a hindrance to the cooling. I had some minor overheating issues a month or 2 back, so I figured it could be an overheating problem now, so decided to clean the old thermal paste off and buy some new paste and apply it.

It didn't really occur to me it could be overheating since it would only be on for like 30 seconds, but when I did a test run earlier when the CPU fan was off, I noticed it got very hot in just a few seconds time.

Hopefully that's the problem, or perhaps the universe is teasing me, only to destroy me later.

thanks for the tips

-Jordan

 

[zdbc13]

Good job. Now that I look back at your original post it does have classic overheating symptoms. Thermal paste does dry out over time, some brands are better than others.

 

[jfaust]

Good job. Now that I look back at your original post it does have classic overheating symptoms. Thermal paste does dry out over time, some brands are better than others.

Ya i started to catch on a bit after a while , it just didn't occur to me because I had no idea exactly how fast a CPU could overheat. Apparently it only takes a few seconds to start churning out serious heat, never would have thought the standard fan + heat sink would work that well.

Currently keeping an eye on core temps, seems to be staying at 38-50 degrees now. Might look into some additional fans or perhaps try out a water cooler.

So far it seems stable

 

[zdbc13]

That's great. At 38-50 I wouldn't worry. A good aftermarket air cooler is your best bet like a hyper 212 evo.