Does this sound like a PSU issue to you?

[BlueWeasel]

We've got a Micron system here at work....

P4 2.4Ghz
Asus P4PE board
1024MB PC2700 (single stick in DIMM slot1)
GF4 MX440 AGP
Onboard sound and LAN (SoundMAX / Broadcom LAN)

[Edit]
The monitor shuts off (like going into power-saving mode), but the case lights and fans continue to run. The keyboard lights freeze up and pressing the KB or moving the mouse does nothing. Pressing the power button on the case also doesn't nothing -- the cord has to be unplugged from the PSU.

Late last week, the issued started happening at random times, and it seemed to do it mainly as applications were starting up. A spyware and AV scan revealed only a few minor tracking cookies and no viruses. Sometimes the system would lock up twice in 10 minutes, or it might go a whole day before seeing the problem again.

All fans were still being reported as running in the BIOS. The CPU temperatures were fine (less than 45 to 50C), and the PSU voltage rails look OK.

I just assumed it was a bad OS, so I reformatted and installed XP on it Friday with SP2 and the latest patches from Windows Update. I got all of our networking settings and applications on it and it didn't crash at all on Friday during the time when I was installing, testing, configuring, etc.

The person who uses the system came to me on Tuesday morning and told me it had crashed again (it ran all day Monday). I go check it out this morning and it crashes twice in 5 minutes with me.

I upgraded the RAM about a month ago to the single 1GB stick, and it's ran fine up until last week. I'm gonna run Memtest on it just to make sure, but I doubt it's a RAM issue.

Does this sound like a PSU problem or something else?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Bueller?.....Bueller?.....Bueller?

 

[Bobthelost]

I'd put prime 95 on it and stress test it, if it's PSU related then it'll fall over very quickly, also run memtest to check that it's not the RAM. Try keeping the side open to drop the case temps, if a PSU is hot then it loses efficency and will struggle to work as well.

The easiest way to check would be to take the PSU out and put it in a working computer.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, the RAM has been running MemTest for 5+ hours with no errors. I may run Prime95 on it overnight and see how it does.

 

[Slicedbread]

Im actually having the same problem.

I honestly can not say what the problem is, I can play BF2 for an hour and not have it shut off but then next reboot the monitor would shut off immediately (fans all spin, graphics spins to 100% and sometimes full HDD activity). Recently it would not boot, so I unplugged it, disconnected fans and reconnected-- It started. I reconnect the fans and-- it starts normally again.

I dont really have an idea of whats wrong:
I can play games for extended periods of time, GPU goes up to 52 c -not graphics card
Didnt boot once- Not an OS problem
Voltages with and without fan are the same, graphics card runs fine - Not PSU

Im thinking it can be my motherboard, maybe a grounding error or something, but it happens randomly and doesnt seem to be related to stress.

My specs:

AMD 64 3000+ (s754)
Aopen Ak-86-L
512 Corsair VS
80GB seagate 7200.7
nvidia GF 6800nu (unlocked)
Raidmax psu (came with case)

 

[Zepper]

Locking up is usually from RAM or bad drivers - yes even mouse drivers. Random restarting is usually PSU.

.bh.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, Prime95 ran a torture test through out the night for 15+ hours with no errors or shutdowns. This, on top of running Memtest yesterday for 5+ hours pretty much indicates it's not a RAM/CPU issue.

I don't think it's a driver problem, as it ran fine for 2 years using the same drivers.

Maybe a MB issue, although I would have expected errors in Memtest or P95 if that's the case. I'm just going to pick up a new PSU locally and see how that goes.

 

[Bobthelost]

It's not PSU, or probably not imo. The PSU is most likely to fail when it's under the maximum strain, which happens when you're running the CPU and memory hardest for a work PC (for gaming you'd want 3d mark or RTHDRBL in there too).

You can try a new PSU, i could be wrong afterall, but first download speedfan, it's an app for temperature monitoring but it also has a health check function for the hard drive. You may well know of another program that does it, but i'd see if the HD is starting to get towards the end of it's life.

Sliced bread, i haven't got a clue on that one either. When it failed to boot did it beeb an error code at you or were there any diagnostic LED systems etc. with the motherboard?

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'll give Speedfan a try as well. I may also use the HD monitoring programs on the Ultimate Boot CD to do a health scan as well. I believe SMART is enabled in the BIOS and I'm not getting any warnings.

There aren't any error beeps at startup. I'm not sure if this Asus board has the onboard diagnostics or not, but I'll check.

Maybe possibly the video card? I think the MX440 cards are fanless, but I'll check that as well.

 

[Bobthelost]

SMART will normally only tell you if the HD is going to die in the next few second i think, but the same SMART gear can be used to tell you if the HD is starting to look like it's nearing the end of it's lifespan if you use something like speedfan to check.