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Computer works OK at site A, not at site B

mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
This one has me scratching my head. I built a computer for a customer (nothing special: i3-6100, ASUS H170M-PLUS board, ASUS wifi PCIE card, Samsung 850 PRO 256GB SSD, XFX XT-400 PSU, SATA DVDRW). I installed Win10 1607 and tested out the computer at site A (my home), absolutely no problems or even a vague hint of a possible issue. At site B however, it must have rebooted about 7 times in the space of an hour. On each occasion the BIOS reported that a mains surge had occurred and suspected the PSU. A lot of the time the problem happened when the computer was idle, and didn't occur when I ran Prime 95 on it for a short while (about 15 minutes)

To add to the weirdness, I built two computers for this customer at the same time. Identical, just one ended up with MS Office 2016, the other with LibreOffice. They're both plugged into the same mains 6-way surge protect device. The other computer is fine.

At site B I tried a few things:

Checked connections (mains to PSU, CPU power connector, mobo power connector), gave the insides a once-over.
Different mains socket
Different mains cable

I was running out of time so I brought the problematic computer home, guessing that if I ended up stripping it down steadily that I would probably find something silly wrong that would still take a fair bit of time to find (or maybe a dodgy PSU). However, I've been running it for more than an hour at home and it's seemingly fine here. I've now configured it so it doesn't go to sleep for 3 hours and see how it goes.

I've advised the customer and asked them whether they have any known problems with the electrics, of course the answer was no. I've advised them that if they have the time to try plugging the OK computer into another mains socket on the 6-way (and told them the ones I had tried) to see how it goes.
 
They have power issues at that site. Don't see what else the problem could be. You may just need to sell them on a UPS with line conditioner.
 
Do they have any devices with large motors running on the same AC? (Is this an industrial site?) (Back EMF?) How old is the surge protector they have their PCs plugged into? (MOV/filtration failing?)

Barring that, I think that you can disable "Asus Anti-Surge" in the BIOS somewhere. (May not be a good idea, I don't know... but if it's a false positive?)

I had something similar happen to a friend. Once we replaced the (older, came with a Rosewill case) PSU, the problem went away.
 
No industrial equipment on-site, but they are doing home improvement there.

The thing that puzzles me is why the other computer is fine when it's connected to the same 6-way.

I could try disabling Asus anti-surge but it worries me as I've never had to before, and it's fine here.

I've had one other idea for what the problem could be (the computer is still working fine at home) - at site B it had two USB devices plugged in to rear USB ports that I added that are plugged in to a USB motherboard header, whereas at home I had a single hub plugged into one of those same USB ports, then additional devices plugged into the hub (keyboard and mouse in both cases). I've altered the configuration at home to also include a USB flash drive in the other port in case some weird USB issue is causing problems. It's too early to tell if there's any difference as I've only just plugged it in.

Detailing USB now:

At home, one USB port was in use during setup, which had a hub plugged into it, then a cordless keyboard receiver and a corded USB trackball. On-site it has a brand-new Logitech keyboard and mouse (both corded).

On both sites the monitors have been plugged into the on-board DVI port. Analog line-out connected to the monitor (though I don't remember whether I had it plugged in during setup). I used wifi throughout with this PC, whereas on the (working) PC, I forgot to install the wifi card to begin with and did most of the work on ethernet.
 
The computer worked fine for many hours at home so I brought it back to the customer today.

I started by using the power cable and mains socket that was being used by the new 'good' PC.

It started exhibiting the issue pretty quickly. One interesting extra symptom was that it complained that it didn't recognise the USB keyboard. Fine, the customer had a spare PS/2 keyboard so I used that. The main issue still occurred. I then swapped the PCs' positions and peripherals completely and plugged the problematic PC into a mains socket not on the 6-way. The problem still occurred.

I switched off ASUS Anti-Surge. No more problem, for half an hour anyway. Previously the problem had occurred easily within that time frame. Hopefully that's the end of it.

The Internet seems to have more stories of iffy PSUs diagnosed by this feature (ie. problem goes away after replacing PSU), than stories of false alarms caused by the feature. We shall see I guess. I've requested that the computer remain on until it goes to sleep, and I've left a window on the screen just in case it spontaneously reboots without the ASUS Anti-Surge message (this hasn't happened yet btw, but all bets are off!).
 
VirtualLarry said:
Barring that, I think that you can disable "Asus Anti-Surge" in the BIOS somewhere. (May not be a good idea
Click to expand...

mikeymikec said:
I switched off ASUS Anti-Surge. No more problem, for half an hour anyway. Previously the problem had occurred easily within that time frame. Hopefully that's the end of it.

The Internet seems to have more stories of iffy PSUs diagnosed by this feature (ie. problem goes away after replacing PSU), than stories of false alarms caused by the feature. We shall see I guess. I've requested that the computer remain on until it goes to sleep, and I've left a window on the screen just in case it spontaneously reboots without the ASUS Anti-Surge message (this hasn't happened yet btw, but all bets are off!).
Click to expand...

Just a quick note, although I mentioned that you can disable it, I cannot tell you if you should or not, and I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for your client's system if you do, and then later burn up the mobo due to a flaky PSU.

I'm going to assume that you only disabled it to be expeditious, and that you plan on replacing the PSU of the affected system in the near future.
 
I don't like the fact that the anti-surge doesn't pose a problem at your home, but does at this site. I have never used it, so I can't say if it's tolerance is too tight to be concerned about or not.
 
Looks like the Asus anti-surge is a little too sensitive. I'd just turn that "feature" off and recommend a UPS with AVR that can handle the computer in question.

Had to look up "mains". Where are you from, OP?
 
UK. What do you call it (mains)?

@ VirtualLarry - I didn't ask you to take responsibility and how on earth would I get you to assume responsibility even if I wanted to? 🙂

I suspect there's something not quite right about the supply in that house, but I've helped them with computer problems since 2009, and it's not been a long string of stability issues or failures. They have a few computers in their house, and a tendency to buy cheap stuff until these two builds I did for them. I've replaced one PSU in 2009 and another last year (different PCs). Now they're running purely Seasonic manufactured PSUs.
 
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