This is my personal gaming PC that I have experiencing issues with. Built the system myself. Parts used are as listed:
Sabertooth 990x motherboard first revision
Phenom II x6 1100T @ 3.31
Hyper N520 aftermarket CPU cooler
Corsair 850 watt HX series
8 GB ram (4 GB x 2) G skill sniper
Sapphire R9 290 vapor X GPU
Samsung SSD 850 pro 256 GB primary OS drive
WD caviar black 500GB secondary drive
DVD combo drive light scribe
Windows 7 pro 64 bit SP1
Motherboard, Ram, CPU, WD black HDD were purchased same time end of 2011. SSD is few months old, Graphics card about 8 months old; Corsair power supply is a 1 ½ years old.
The problem I am dealing with is UN expected shutdowns. Doesn’t matter what I am doing. Gaming battlefield 4 or browsing the web etc… could be few minutes or a few hours but at some point the monitor will go black and suddenly my PC is doing a POST Like I just turned it on. I have suffered this experience over 50 times trying to troubleshoot it. Sometimes it will crash and reboot directly after windows loads. Before you get the chance to see the login screen it has already crashed. Sometimes it will loop crash. Crashed and rebooted from login screen exactly 4 times before it became stable to log in. I just watched it load, crash reload, and repeat until I finally could use the system again only to crash maybe 15 minutes later. The crashes are so entirely random and I can’t cause it by doing anything specific. There are times when I can play a game for a few hours and seems ok but then boom out of no were… POST.
Event viewer is showing event ID 41 (unexpected shutdown) I want to say every time this occurs. Once in a while there is an event ID 10. Not sure if this has anything to do with it. There were no big changes that recently occurred I can think of to affect my system. This has been on and off the last 6 weeks or so. I experienced a very similar issue maybe once or twice 6 months ago. Problem disappeared for long time with plenty of use to prove it. I think it was fixed via a CHKDSK run, errors were found and fixed. I do want to point out I now have a new drive and clean OS install with same problem so I doubt windows or HDD are the problem. 1 time specifically while I was watching the Voltages in bios UEFI screen for a few minutes. The computer actually crashed just the same to a new POST… from the bios screen. My mother board does have the LED notifications on it for the Dram, CPU, south bridge, etc. I have noticed sometimes during a crash. And specifically when it loop crashed the 4 repeated times. The CPU LED flashes briefly followed by the Dram LED very quickly will flash 1 time. And start the new post from there.
What I have tried to fix the problem:
Virus, malware, rootkit scans.
CCleaner registry check
OS clean install.
Removed extra peripherals to just keyboard and mouse, also tried different keyboard
Complete removal of all hardware from case and reinstalled.
Pulled CPU examined for bent pins, applied new thermal compound.
I only populate 2 of the 4 dims, tried the extra ram slots.
Used windows memory test application to test memory. Found no problems
Attempted 1 stick of ram and tested. Flipped and tried both sticks 1 at a time
Used a power supply tester to check voltages. 12v was 12.2v 5v was at 5.18.
Also while PC was running I used a multimeter to check molex connectors confirming the same result
Multimetered the 6 pin connectors to GPU at 12.17
Also tried my PC over a heavy gauge extension cord to a different circuit on a known good outlet/circuit free of appliances.
Normally use a monster brand surge protector. Also tried without the power strip
Isolated Hard drives. Tested with 2 different drives 1 SSD and 1 HDD.
Swapped sata cables
Manually set timing for ram and speed setting 1600, also tried 1333. Usually motherboard is on AUTO for these
Pulled CMOS battery and disconnected the PSU for 15 minutes. Doing a clean bios setup and tried DEFULT settings.
Latest GPU driver settings but also tried an older driver
Motherboard has been on latest bios for at least 2 years.
Monitored all temps through ASUS suite program, and AMD catalyst for GPU temps.
Idle temps are well in the clear for GPU, CPU, motherboard, and Drives. Max CPU temp I have been able to reach was 51C. GPU topped out at 78C and of course I can crash at a simple idle so I know this can’t be a heat issue.
I feel I carefully examined and tested this system to the fullest but can’t point a single finger to any possible bad component. Any help is greatly appreciated I of course want to get this fixed ASAP while most my components are still under warranty. Thank you in advance
i am also new to toms hardware so i hope i posted this correctly. if not please excuse my error
-Chris B
Sabertooth 990x motherboard first revision
Phenom II x6 1100T @ 3.31
Hyper N520 aftermarket CPU cooler
Corsair 850 watt HX series
8 GB ram (4 GB x 2) G skill sniper
Sapphire R9 290 vapor X GPU
Samsung SSD 850 pro 256 GB primary OS drive
WD caviar black 500GB secondary drive
DVD combo drive light scribe
Windows 7 pro 64 bit SP1
Motherboard, Ram, CPU, WD black HDD were purchased same time end of 2011. SSD is few months old, Graphics card about 8 months old; Corsair power supply is a 1 ½ years old.
The problem I am dealing with is UN expected shutdowns. Doesn’t matter what I am doing. Gaming battlefield 4 or browsing the web etc… could be few minutes or a few hours but at some point the monitor will go black and suddenly my PC is doing a POST Like I just turned it on. I have suffered this experience over 50 times trying to troubleshoot it. Sometimes it will crash and reboot directly after windows loads. Before you get the chance to see the login screen it has already crashed. Sometimes it will loop crash. Crashed and rebooted from login screen exactly 4 times before it became stable to log in. I just watched it load, crash reload, and repeat until I finally could use the system again only to crash maybe 15 minutes later. The crashes are so entirely random and I can’t cause it by doing anything specific. There are times when I can play a game for a few hours and seems ok but then boom out of no were… POST.
Event viewer is showing event ID 41 (unexpected shutdown) I want to say every time this occurs. Once in a while there is an event ID 10. Not sure if this has anything to do with it. There were no big changes that recently occurred I can think of to affect my system. This has been on and off the last 6 weeks or so. I experienced a very similar issue maybe once or twice 6 months ago. Problem disappeared for long time with plenty of use to prove it. I think it was fixed via a CHKDSK run, errors were found and fixed. I do want to point out I now have a new drive and clean OS install with same problem so I doubt windows or HDD are the problem. 1 time specifically while I was watching the Voltages in bios UEFI screen for a few minutes. The computer actually crashed just the same to a new POST… from the bios screen. My mother board does have the LED notifications on it for the Dram, CPU, south bridge, etc. I have noticed sometimes during a crash. And specifically when it loop crashed the 4 repeated times. The CPU LED flashes briefly followed by the Dram LED very quickly will flash 1 time. And start the new post from there.
What I have tried to fix the problem:
Virus, malware, rootkit scans.
CCleaner registry check
OS clean install.
Removed extra peripherals to just keyboard and mouse, also tried different keyboard
Complete removal of all hardware from case and reinstalled.
Pulled CPU examined for bent pins, applied new thermal compound.
I only populate 2 of the 4 dims, tried the extra ram slots.
Used windows memory test application to test memory. Found no problems
Attempted 1 stick of ram and tested. Flipped and tried both sticks 1 at a time
Used a power supply tester to check voltages. 12v was 12.2v 5v was at 5.18.
Also while PC was running I used a multimeter to check molex connectors confirming the same result
Multimetered the 6 pin connectors to GPU at 12.17
Also tried my PC over a heavy gauge extension cord to a different circuit on a known good outlet/circuit free of appliances.
Normally use a monster brand surge protector. Also tried without the power strip
Isolated Hard drives. Tested with 2 different drives 1 SSD and 1 HDD.
Swapped sata cables
Manually set timing for ram and speed setting 1600, also tried 1333. Usually motherboard is on AUTO for these
Pulled CMOS battery and disconnected the PSU for 15 minutes. Doing a clean bios setup and tried DEFULT settings.
Latest GPU driver settings but also tried an older driver
Motherboard has been on latest bios for at least 2 years.
Monitored all temps through ASUS suite program, and AMD catalyst for GPU temps.
Idle temps are well in the clear for GPU, CPU, motherboard, and Drives. Max CPU temp I have been able to reach was 51C. GPU topped out at 78C and of course I can crash at a simple idle so I know this can’t be a heat issue.
I feel I carefully examined and tested this system to the fullest but can’t point a single finger to any possible bad component. Any help is greatly appreciated I of course want to get this fixed ASAP while most my components are still under warranty. Thank you in advance
i am also new to toms hardware so i hope i posted this correctly. if not please excuse my error
-Chris B
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