Computer Lost Power and Shut Down

[snarl]

My computer completely powered off after a gaming session, It has done this 4-5 times over the last two weeks for no apparent reason. This time however it would not restart, on power up I could here the CD-ROM door open and close, lights in case would flicker and the until would shut down again.

My complete Spec is at the bottom of the post.

I began the following to try to identify the culprit;

- Removed one Video card and tried again, still no Power up
- Removed Second Video card and tried again, still no Power up
- Removed Sound card and tried again, still no Power up
- Removed all RAM and tried again, still no Power up
- Removed Fans from Mother Board and tried again, still no Power up

At this point I disconnected from the wall socket and walked away for 1/2 Hour, I then tried to power up again and it worked.

- Reinstalled the Fans to the Mother Board and tried again, Powered up
- Reinstalled RAM and tried again, Powered up
- Reinstalled one Video card and tried again, Powered up
- Reinstalled Sound card and tried again, Powered up
- Reinstalled Second Video card and tried again, Powered up

Okay, at this time everything is back in the case and PC appears to Power up, however I have not let it try to load Windows at this point, after I added a component I powered up the machine and if it looked like okay I powered down to add the next component.

Now I tried to boot into Windows, no Go, windows also cannot repair the install so I boot to windows DVD and reinstall. This works and gets be back to a desktop. This is as far as I've gone so far, no testing with Games etc.. as I'm focusing on back-ups etc.. before I proceed to far, just a basic Win7 Install with the newest ATI Drivers (10.12a).

I'm stumped as to what the problem is, I suspect motherboard but so Far cannot prove it, any ideas ??

Some Points of Note;

Temperature - All were/are great, I monitor GPU's with MSI Afterburner and CPU with AIDA64 and my case is a HAF-X with lots of air flow and Fans.

Power Supply - I have an HX850 which according to any research I have done has enough power for 2 x HD 6970's in crossfire. It has never gotten hot, fan works fine, lots of air flow etc..

Motherboard - The Gigabit LAN's built into the motherboard no longer work, one does'nt even register and the other just does not work, keeps saying "Unconnected". Also having some problem with USB Ports lately i.e. Slow speeds with my USB Sticks etc..



Complete Spec;
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT

Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Heatpipe Cooler W/2 X NH-P12 120MM Fans
Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ
ASUS P6X58D Premium X58 ATX LGA1366
Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB

2 x XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB DDR5 Video Card in Crossfire (2 x PCIe x16)

AuzenTech Forte PCI-E 7.1 Sound Card

2 x LG GH24NS50 24X Super Multi SATA DVD Writer Black
1 x LG GGC-H20L 16X SATA Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM Black
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache

Coolermaster HAF-X EATX Tower Case Black w/USB3.0
I Front: Coolermaster 230 x 30mm red LED on/off fan x 1
E Top: Coolermaster 200 x 30mm fan x 1
I Side: Coolermaster 200 x 30mm fan x 1
E Rear: Noctua NF-P14 Flex 140 x 25mm fan x 1
I Video Card Shroud: Noctua NF-P12-1300 120 x 25mm Fan x 1
E Power Supply: 140mm Fan x 1

Corsair Professional HX850W 850W ATX Modular PS Active PFC

Samsung PX2370 23" LED/LCD Monitor 1920 x 1080
Razer Mako 2.1 Speaker System

 

[mlc]

... so in reality, you may no longer have the problem, since the reinstall of windows, correct?

It could have been a poor connection to a drive, or poorly seated card or stick of ram causing the initial problem.. and when you reconnected /reseated the components. everything now works ...

Since you've reconnected everything, and resinstalled windows.. I would proceed with some testing...
1) run memtest or memory diagnostics...
2) run check disk
3) do some stress testing..

If everything looks ok.. you may be ok .. The original problem , assuming it's not a connection issue, would appear to point to either a faulty PSU or motherboard.. A bios upgrade or reflash, may help... or try swapping in another psu.

 

[stargazr]

I agree with mlc to look for a hardware issue, it does seem like there was a loose connection or something. It's strange that it came on without doing anything after removing all the hardware. However when I saw your video driver version I remembered a thread in Video Cards & Graphics about issues with 10.12. When did you update the ATI drivers? Did you see any BSOD's? That might explain the initial crash.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2134915

Also, this is a remote possibility with the intermittent power issues but if your problems continue I would check your electrical outlet with one of those inexpensive testers -

http://www.ehow.com/how_5260048_test-outlets-common-wiring-problems.html

 

[snarl]

I tried the 11.1a beta drivers and no difference

I'll need to update all my mother board drivers etc.. and do some testing this weekend

Power from the wall is good, my gut says Motherboard but I'll see what happens this weekend with some more testing.

 

[denis280]

it is your ati update the cause. It append to me

 

[snarl]

Problem Solved...

1) The 24 Pin Power Connector has a Retaining Clip that locks it in the socket, this was broken.
2) The 24 Pin Power Cable routed from behind the motherboard tray, thus there was pressure pushing the connector out of the socket.
3) The Connector had "Slightly" unseated on one end (Near the 4 Pin Section (4 Pin + 20 Pin)

So this is what I figure happened... The connection around the 4 Pin Cluster and that end of the 20 pin was tenuous at best. When the computer started working i.e. Crossfire/CPU Power Draw the poor power connection resulted in some Arcing, think Spark Plug on a Car. This was random and hard to pin down, when looking into the case the slight separation was not readily apparent (combination my Eye's, poor light etc..).

This ultimately caused a power surge to the Motherboard and resulted in problems with the LAN Controller/Circuitry and the USB Controller/Circuitry as a result I swapped out the motherboard. The Power supply appeared to be okay however a Friend had an HX1000 he was swapping out with an AX1200 so I grabbed it for $75 (8 months old), system now rocks, problem solved.