Help! Computer shuts down unexpectedly and repeatedly

[dca221]

I have a problem with my computer that I can't figure out. It shuts down and restarts unexpectedly and randomly. There is no pattern to the failure, it happens even when it's just sitting idle on the desk top screen.

The failure looks like someone just pulled the power plug. The screen goes black immediately and a few seconds later starts the restart process. Sometimes it keeps crashing and restarting and goes through the cycle until I pull the plug. Just this morning, it failed on me after I started in the safe mode after a crash.

The failure seems to come in bunches; I will have a good week with no failure, then a day where I can't get the computer running

Recently, I started getting the BSOD as well

I wonder if there is a driver problem, or motherboard has a short circuit, or my power source is dying, or a completely different problem.

I'd appreciate any pointers!

 

[Ken g6]

I've had that problem. It's one of the hardest kinds of problems to diagnose.

First, are you overclocking? Try not overclocking. And/or check your CPU and case temps.

Second, do you have another PSU available? If so, swap it in. (What brand is the current PSU, out of curiosity?)

Third, unplug everything nonessential. I had this problem, and eventually replaced everything but one fan and one DVD drive. It turned out to be the DVD drive.

 

[dca221]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I meant to add the basic system specs and forgot. Here is what i have:

- i5 750 CPU, stock heat sink, no overclocking
- Enermax 475 W PSU (about three years old, recylced from a previous build)
- Radeon 5750 gpu
- 60 GB Agility 2 SSD
- Two Seagate HDD (320G, 750G)
- Asus MB (P57E?, can't recall exact specs, about a year old)
- Windows7 OS

 

[Ken g6]

Yeah, PSU is my first guess. But do check your CPU temps with CPU-Z or something, in case the HSF is loose.

 

[zi0n.]

I would say PSU too(enermax :/).

If you did get BSOD I would run memtest overnight.

I had a similar problem recently and it turned I needed more voltage on the cpu&memory, but you weren't oc'd so i doubt thats your case.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I've had similar problems a few times in the past

One time I was able to resolve it by flashing the mobo bios to a newwer revision. It had an "auto reboot once I hit a certain temperature" issue, and the mobo was not reading the right temp since I had upgraded to a phenom 2 CPU from a phenom CPU.... After the flash, the recorded temp was within the range of what it was expected to be, and the box hasn't given me any problems since then....

Also, I've had similar problems to you due to Power Supply starting to go bad ... Assuming the performance is normal ... then boom reboot ... or boom BSOD .... It could be the Power Supply going bad ...

If you get crappy performance combined with the reboots, BSODs, or locking problems ... I'd say it's the hard drive .... but it doesn't sound like the problem here.

 

[Deathhorse]

my neighbor is going through the same exact problem. sometimes right when the computer loads sometimes hours later.

 

[dca221]

thanks for the thoughts. I have a spare PSU I'll try

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yeah. 475 watts is pretty low

and considering its enermax xD

 

[BurnItDwn]

Yeah. 475 watts is pretty low

and considering its enermax xD

475 should be more than enough .... And Enermax was at one time quite reliable/good .... (I think my 10+ year old enermax power supply is still in the PC I gave to my cousin ... )

 

[T_Yamamoto]

well considering that now a day, we all go for ATLEAST 500 watts.

well, enermax has gone down in ranking
like Biostar

 

[BurnItDwn]

well considering that now a day, we all go for ATLEAST 500 watts.

well, enermax has gone down in ranking
like Biostar

I know what you mean ... I just meant that his parts will use MUCH less than 475w of continuous power draw... so a power supply that really puts out 475w would be fine, however, lots of power supplies lie ...

He has great components, they are great because they are powerful, but they also happen to be very power efficient too...

i5 750 95W TDP per Intel
SSD ... 2W each per OCZ
Various Fans for cooling ... maybe another 50 watts peak .. if he has tons of fans..
5750 GPU ... 108W peak per reviews
7200RPM HDDs, about 10W each, maybe 25w each during spin up ... Generous Guess

His PC should not use more than 300w during heavy peak usage ... (probably more like 225W to 250W would be my guess)

But, even using generous power amounts, the highest I could possibly see this thing pushing is about 350W, and that would involve overclocking.

 

[dca221]

I have a spare PC Power and Cooling 610W. I thought the Enermax would be powerful enough for my not-really-demanding system and it's worked fine until recently. I'll try the other PSU and see what happens

 

[mfenn]

well, enermax has gone down in ranking
like Biostar

Uhh what? An Enermax a good brand. His is just old. You don't see Enermax recommended very often here because they are pricy.

I don't think that they are really comparable to Biostar at all. Biostar used to make really dreadful motherboards, but what the make now is competent.

 

[dca221]

Uhh what? An Enermax a good brand. His is just old. You don't see Enermax recommended very often here because they are pricy.

Really? Is four years old for a PSU? I thought PSUs should last 7+ years

 

[mfenn]

Really? Is four years old for a PSU? I thought PSUs should last 7+ years

4-5 years is about as long as I would want to keep one. Reasons are (a) capacitor aging and (b) changing standards mean that the power distribution will not be matched to the computer's draw, and (c) efficiency gains.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Uhh what? An Enermax a good brand. His is just old. You don't see Enermax recommended very often here because they are pricy.

I don't think that they are really comparable to Biostar at all. Biostar used to make really dreadful motherboards, but what the make now is competent.

oh. oops. sorry!

 

[dca221]

thanks!

I finally got to swithching the PSUs, now have the 610W PC Power and Cooling. So far, the random shut-downs are gone, but I still see the BSOD after 3-5 minutes of running the machine. When it boots back up, half the time it can't find the SSD drive (my boot drive).

Does this look like somehow the SSD is going (gone?) bad? My OCZ Agility 2 is just about a year old.

Or somehow the crashes have messed up the OS?

 

[mfenn]

It could be either OS level corruption or the SSD going bad. You can try reinstalling and seeing if that helps. Make a backup image with Macrium Reflect before you do though.

 

[dca221]

Thanks for the suggestions and the help. In case this helps someone else later, here is how I resolved my problem.

I replaced the Enermax 485W PSU with the PC P&C 610W (Enermax was 485, not 475). It didn't help the problem, still kept getting Windows freezing and BSOD after a few minutes

I reinstalled Windows 7 on my OCZ Agility 2 SSD. The SSD would not take reinstall. So, i now have a formatted blank SSD sitting in the case, disconnected from the rest of the system

I bought a 1TB HDD from the local Best Buy and reinstalled Windows 7 on the HDD. The system is now back on, working perfectly fine.

It is clear my OCZ Agility 2 SSD got corrupted at some point. I can't say whether that was due to some power issue or the SSD just going bad. I did, however, do some more research on the SSD over the weekend. It looks like a ton of other people are having similar problems with their OCZ SSDs.

I may try and RMA my SSD and see what happens, and at some point decide to use it as an extra drive for some applications.

By the way, Windows boots up still pretty fast on my system, so I may not go back to SSD as my boot drive until my next build

thanks again for the help!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Windows 7 is fast booting up compared to XP.
Mine takes about 2 minutes or so, my brothers Win 7 laptop takes 15 seconds...max

 

[mfenn]

Yep, I bet the SSD is toast. I would not trust an OCZ drive at this point after hearing all the bad press. Go ahead and RMA it, but don't put it into a critical system.