[SOLVED] Suspected Power Supply Issue

[HerzeleidMeister]

About 6-8 months ago I did a custom build desktop. I'm not new to building out PC's, so my knowledge is not limited but I'm having an issue with my current setup. At any given point for absolutely no reason my machine is turning itself off randomly & I suspect now that it maybe the power supply, although I'm not entirely sure and do not want to start replacing things until I have a better handle on the problem. It has been awhile since I've built a machine. I used a laptop for many years. I want to make sure its not a "builder" error.

Here Are The Specs:

• Kentek 400 Watt 400W ATX Power Supply ATX12V SATA 20/24 Pin Intel AMD KENTEK Brand Power Supply
• Rosewill Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case, Supports Micro-ATX/Mini-ITX M/B, Supports CPU Cooler Height up to 140 mm - SCM-01
• ASRock J3455-ITX Intel Quad-Core Processor J3455 (up to 2.3GHz) Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo (Actually this is a 1.5GHZ processor)
• Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
• 2 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 8GB RAM (Total 16GB)
• LG Electronics 14X SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter without Software, Black Model WH14NS40 - OEM
• APEVIA CF12S-BK 120mm Case cooler Fan
• Another 80mm fan but don't know the make/model at the moment.
• Windows 10 Home 64BIT

I've installed a few temperature monitors on the PC including HWMonitor and a few others that really did not work very well. I have not really noticed any super high temps in the setup over the course of time that I've monitored this (about 2 weeks).

You can see my readings with HWM below:

...AND:

Things I have done to rectify this:

• Monitor the temps in the unit with various programs as reported above there were really no super high findings. The worst I think it got was about 120F.
• I don't play hardware intensive games. The most "intensive" games I play are Microsoft Sudoku, Solitaire and Mahjong. This is PC for surfing, email & working on websites.
• I have run spyware scans, anti-virus scans and all kinds of related scans and found no infections, viruses etc.,
• I formatted & reloaded the PC with a fresh copy of Windows 10 Home 64BIT thinking that possibly the virus/malware scans just did not find the culprit and reloading may "Fix" the problem. Obviously it has not.

So now I'm down to what piece of hardware is causing this annoyance since it continues even after a format & reload. Ideas & thoughts on what to try next?

TIA!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ditch HWmonitor and use HWinfo. FAR more accurate. MUCH more religiously updated so that it is always current, as well as consistently fixing older bugs known to cause reporting problems with some chipsets. Just better all around.

Run HWinfo and look at system voltages and other sensor readings.

Be sure to choose the "Sensors only" option when you start HWinfo.

Monitoring temperatures, core speeds, voltages, clock ratios and other reported sensor data can often help to pick out an issue right off the bat. HWinfo is a good way to get that data and in my experience tends to be more accurate than some of the other utilities available. CPU-Z, GPU-Z and Core Temp all have their uses but HWinfo tends to have it all laid out in a more convenient fashion so you can usually see what one sensor is reporting while looking at another instead of having to flip through various tabs that have specific groupings, plus, it is extremely rare for HWinfo to not report the correct sensor values under the correct sensor listings, or misreport other information. Utilities like HWmonitor, Openhardware monitor and Speccy, tend to COMMONLY misreport sensor data, or not report it at all.

After installation, run the utility and when asked, choose "sensors only". The other window options have some use but in most cases everything you need will be located in the sensors window. If you're taking screenshots to post for troubleshooting, it will most likely require taking three screenshots and scrolling down the sensors window between screenshots in order to capture them all.

It is most helpful if you can take a series of HWinfo screenshots at idle, after a cold boot to the desktop. Open HWinfo and wait for all of the Windows startup processes to complete. Usually about four or five minutes should be plenty. Take screenshots of all the HWinfo sensors.

Next, run something demanding like Prime95 (With AVX and AVX2 disabled) or Heaven benchmark. Take another set of screenshots while either of those is running so we can see what the hardware is doing while under a load. Here we want to see the section showing the system voltages, 3v, 5v, 12v, etc.

*Download HWinfo​

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

Next, run something demanding like Prime95 (With AVX and AVX2 disabled) or Heaven benchmark. Take another set of screenshots while either of those is running so we can see what the hardware is doing while under a load. Here we want to see the section showing the system voltages, 3v, 5v, 12v, etc.

​

I'm sorry I have no idea what Prime95 or Heaven is. About the most intensive program I run is Adobe Photoshop.

Also I've installed the monitor you suggested, but the PC has been running for a while so I'll get screen shots in the AM after its been turned off for awhile.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, well regardless I can tell you up front that Kentek is one of the worst possible brands you could get stuck with. I would HIGHLY recommend you change to a reliable power supply model immediately, if not sooner. No joke, they are very poor quality and it's probably a miracle you haven't had a catastrophic failure yet, but you are experiencing the warning signs right now so I wouldn't ignore them if I were you.

I don't think we even need to bother with screenshots or monitoring. Just get that thing out of your system now, before it damages anything else if it hasn't already.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

I'll have to switch it out at the beginning of the month no money right now.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's probably a good thing anyhow, because right now power supplies are in short supply and are almost prohibitively expensive due to the simple fact that they basically ALL come from China, and China had shut down manufacturing and not sending out anything to keep retailers supplied with inventory for a couple of months. So what is out there that is good quality is either, not out there, or is expensive, right now. That seems to slowly be getting better but it's likely that another week or two will help to ease some of the supply issues, hopefully. Hard to say though because I see that China might be getting ready for a new round of lockdowns as well since there are some new clusters of outbreaks there.

Regardless, since most of the manufacturing in China then the market here is highly volatile when things THERE are unstable.

Right now, this is probably about your best choice, assuming you don't have a discreet PCIe graphics card installed since you don't mention one in your specifications. If you DO have a graphics card installed or are planning to get one, then a different PSU is called for. Keep in mind, this is probably a little more expensive than it would normally be, but since this is a very basic OEM style Seasonic unit, which is very good for the type of PSU it is (50x better than that Kentek unit), it is not likely experiencing the same lack of availability that other more enthusiast classed units are currently.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: SeaSonic 400 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $64.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-20 13:00 EDT-0400

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

Not planning on getting any type of high end graphics card and the graphics/video is on board with the mobo, so its pretty low key in that respect.

Thanks for the heads up on the power supply part on Amazon. I'll have to look into it when I can.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good luck to you, if you have further questions later, just ask.

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

Ok when I had looked at those readings before shutting the PC off for a few hours it showed that the mobo was really hot, so I went on ahead and took the screen shots using the program you suggested. Could these high mobo readings be an issue? These screen shots below are done cold

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, sorry, but you're going to need to do it again. And by "idle", for the purpose of what we can reasonable CALL "idle", you don't need it to be "cold". Just start up HWinfo, then let the system sit for about two or three minutes, with no other open/running applications. Take a set of screenshots.

Then, run something demanding like Prime95, Furmark, or even Photoshop with a large high resolution image and Chrome/Firefox with a bunch of tabs open and some videos playing, some kind of encoding program like Handbrake, something to put the system under a fair amount of stress, and then take a second set of the same screenshots showing the system temperatures and also the system voltages. It might take several screenshots to capture all the sensor values.

The reason I want you to do it again, is that I want you to go into the options on HWinfo, first, and change it from F to C. Everything on the PC should be done in Celcius and your screenshots are showing Fahrenheit, which makes things look much worse than they are because Fahrenheit readings actually translate to much lower Celcius readings. Translating is problematic though, and time consuming. Everything in the thermal specifications will be in Celcius so lets get accurate screenshots and go from there.

You can change it to Celcius by opening HWinfo, run Sensors only, click on the button that looks like a gear (settings) in the lower right bottom of the HWinfo window and on the "General" tab change the temperature fields radio button to Celcius. Save and exit the settings window. Restart HWinfo and you should accurately be showing Celcius now.

 

[Vic 40]

The 3VSB reading is too high so new psu wil probably help with that. Might well be cause of shutdowns.

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

Yeah I'm gonna go with a new PSU because I had noticed that it tends to shut off when I'm using my external hard drive or transferring files to it and from my research that is a definite PS problem. So at the first of the month I'll get a new one and see if that helps. Thanks all for the help!

 

[HerzeleidMeister]

Just posting back to let you know that switching out the PSU has seemed to solve my issues. Thanks all for the help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Thanks for letting us know. Glad it worked out for you man. Good luck.