Cold restarts

[Howard]

What annoys me is that while I was in the middle of typing this post, I restarted. Lame-o. I'm going to post this right now and edit it progressively so I don't lose anything.

OK, so I'm getting random restarts out of nowhere. Monitor and PC shut off instantly when this happens; the first time this happened I thought I had a brownout or something. I recently installed an ASUS GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5 so that might be a culprit (or some software that came with it). I think I've gotten restarts in all sorts of situations and it could be as frequently as more than once per hour.

Is it possible that the graphics card itself could be bad, or is it some sort of incompatibility between itself or its software and something else on my system, or I installed the software wrong? When I had my old card in, a Radeon HD4770, it was very stable.

Hardware:

Core i5-750 /w stock Intel HSF
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R
GTX650 Ti Boost - see above
4GB Kingston HyperX Genesis whatever RAM (should be fine)
generic PCI FireWire card
Crucial M4 128GB SSD (CT128M4SSD2)
WD 2TB Green HD (at least I think Green)
Corsair TX750W

Software:

Windows 7 64-bit
NVIDIA driver version 327.23
ASUS GPU Tweak running (factory clocks)

 

[Howard]

Restart log:

2013/09/26 8:40PM - while typing a post
2013/09/26 9:19PM - browsing a web page
2013/09/26 9:35PM - typing a message in Viber
2013/09/26 9:46PM - during a call in Viber
2013/09/27 12:34AM - can't remember
2013/09/27 1:40AM - watching a YouTube video

 

[Steltek]

Is the machine bluescreening, or just shutting off? If it is bluescreening, what stop code is it throwing? Otherwise, if it is just turning off, that screams either bad power supply or overheating component to me. Are you running any type of temperature monitoring software like HWMonitor or Speedfan to check for overheating components?

Another thing you might try is disconnecting the case switch to ensure it is not failing and causing the machine to shut off. Finally, did you try resetting the CMOS memory?

I presume that you uninstalled all the AMD drivers and software before installing the nVidia card?

 

[Matt1970]

I am with Steltek

 

[Howard]

Is the machine bluescreening, or just shutting off? If it is bluescreening, what stop code is it throwing? Otherwise, if it is just turning off, that screams either bad power supply or overheating component to me. Are you running any type of temperature monitoring software like HWMonitor or Speedfan to check for overheating components?

Another thing you might try is disconnecting the case switch to ensure it is not failing and causing the machine to shut off. Finally, did you try resetting the CMOS memory?

I presume that you uninstalled all the AMD drivers and software before installing the nVidia card?

It is just turning off without any sort of feedback.

I wasn't running any temp monitoring but I just installed SpeedFan. Everything is reading below 40C, and even in situations like these I can get restarts.

I will disconnect the reset switch but the power switch should be OK. If I press the power switch it shuts me down and doesn't turn me back on, unlike the problem.

Did not reset the CMOS memory yet. What will this do?

I think I did uninstall the AMD stuff before installing the nVidia card... how can I verify if this is causing the problem?

 

[Howard]

Confirmed it is not the reset switch.

 

[Steltek]

If it was just a driver issue, it would be bluescreening instead of just shutting off. One other thing you could check (since you have been working inside the machine) is to make sure the power supply connectors are firmly seated in both the motherboard and the video card power sockets.

Were it my machine, I'd start with swapping out the power supply. Based upon your descriptions and everything you've done up to now, the power supply is the most likely culprit and the best place to start.

 

[sm625]

When you say "the monitor turns off" you dont mean you have to actually physically switch the monitor back on? I assume you mean it just loses the video signal, but the monitor actually doesnt shut off. Because if the monitor is turning off too then you are looking in the wrong place.

 

[Howard]

When you say "the monitor turns off" you dont mean you have to actually physically switch the monitor back on? I assume you mean it just loses the video signal, but the monitor actually doesnt shut off. Because if the monitor is turning off too then you are looking in the wrong place.

Sorry, the monitor doesn't turn off. It just loses the video signal.

 

[Howard]

If it was just a driver issue, it would be bluescreening instead of just shutting off. One other thing you could check (since you have been working inside the machine) is to make sure the power supply connectors are firmly seated in both the motherboard and the video card power sockets.

Were it my machine, I'd start with swapping out the power supply. Based upon your descriptions and everything you've done up to now, the power supply is the most likely culprit and the best place to start.

I think the power connectors are fine. They are fully seated and clipped in, and again were working with the previous setup.

Why do you think it might be the PSU? For whatever reason, I don't seem to get restarts while playing 3D games.

 

[Howard]

I put the old HD4770 in. If I don't get any restarts today, proving that the rest of the system is fine, then I'm going to make sure to uninstall the drivers and then put the GTX650TIB back in. If it goes back to restarting, then I'm returning the card.

EDIT: So far so good.