Computer Hardware Problems???

[jasonlclei]

I have a pretty newly built PC that occasionally would not power down. Windows would finish all its logging off, saving, and shut down stuff, the system would still remain on when the monitor turns off. This happens once every 5 times I use the computer... And I have not found any software associations with this problem yet.

Ran Prime and memtest and the results are all good.

Any ideas??? Thanks.

Rigs:
Athlon x2 3800+
ECS nForce4 A939
Ultra x-connect 1.5 500W
Seagate 120 gb
Ati Radeon x700pro

 

[sieistganzfett]

hi, perhaps flashing the bios to the latest version might have some affect since it is a newish cpu core. have you happened to try disabling everything from startup using msconfig? is this consistent at all in the sense of always after you run a certain program, or if you were to power right up, wait 10 minutes then power down, it will occur 1/5th of the time?

 

[jasonlclei]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I have the newest BIOS already. And I haven't been messing around with msconfig at all. My problem doesn't seem to be related to any programs or anything, because it happens sometimes when I play games for hours or just surfing the web for 15 min. Yeah it happens like 1/5 of the time.

 

[sieistganzfett]

this problem is a ah heck... just try out the msconfig thing, or try to make sure all drivers are the latest, maybe reinstall might shed some light, is the pc overclocked or anything btw?

 

[jasonlclei]

What would you like me to do with msconfig?

Yeah I tried to update my drivers already, and my comp isn't oc'ed at all. Do you think it's some software or hardware problem?

thanks

 

[sieistganzfett]

run msconfig, then uncheck everything listed under the startup tab, ok it and reboot, then test everything out for a dozen boot ups, if this occurs at all, then its something else, i think its software, maybe windows issue causing it. hopefully its just a program that starts up with the pc that causes the 20% of the time shut down issue.

 

[jasonlclei]

Thanks.

I'll try disabling the starup programs and see if it affects it.

 

[jasonlclei]

Quick update:

Today I shut down my comp again and again to test it... And the results: if Windows just loads all my start up programs and I do nothing more, then shut down, the power downs are all perfect. Seems like the trouble only occurs if the system's been on for quite a while.... and maybe some specific program runs....

But overall, when i used my comp for gaming the power down issue occurs more frequently, like over half of the time. And that goes for any games, not just a specific one. Maybe a hardware incompatibility somewhere???

Also, I checked my voltages and they fluctuate every 2 secs or so. Is this normal? The CPU, for example, would stay at around 1.33v for the majority of the time but sometimes it goes to 1.22v or 1.44v. And I didn't oc at all.

Thanks for any possible suggestions.

 

[sieistganzfett]

its possible its hardware. all start up programs are disabled now and this is still happening though, right? the cpu clock speed should also be changing constantly with those voltage changes since you have cool and quiet enabled unless your motherboard had it off. so you can turn off cool and quiet in the bios and see if that stabilizes the cpu voltages (it should once C&Q is disabled) another thing is your other voltages, are they all within 10 to 15% of what they should be once you disabled C&Q? what did you use to check your voltages? if you turn off cool and quiet and recheck both the clock speed (using something like cpuz) and the voltages, you will see each core at 2.0GHz and the voltage at 1.35 or 1.4V. if that voltage or your 12V, 5V, 3.3V is off by more than 15% i would say thats your power supply, but ususally voltage drops cause a computer to restart or lock up, monitor the voltages when your in a game, they may drop a little, but they still need to say in the range. another thing you can try is reinstalling windows and starting from scratch with the latest drivers for everything and all of the windows updates..