Hey guys, could really use some help with this as the machine in question is my primary development system, and I can't afford to wait and mull over a solution. Some quick decisions will have to be made.
System in question is: MSI K8N Neo4, 4 gigabytes ram, AMD X2 4400+ (939), BFG GTS250 video card, WD Raptor 74 (sys) and 400 gig secondary drive. Running Vista Ultimate fully patched.
Starting about 9:00 last night the system shuts itself off. There is a distinct sound of a relay or other device tripping in the power supply, and everything is dead. To get it back up I need to turn off the rear switch on PS, unplug it, plug it back in, turn the switch back on, and press the button. It seemed like a power supply issue to me, and as I was running a 4 year-old Antec 480 that was on the borderline capacity-wise, I went out today and picked up an Antec 750w at Staples (the only place around that had a PS on a Sunday, and the only brand they carry).
However, after taking everything out, modding the case to fit the new PS, cleaning everything out very well and reassembling, the problem recurred. I then started disconnecting peripherals and removing cards until I was down to the mb, proc, ram, raptor, video card, keyboard, mouse monitor. Same problem. The machine will boot into Vista, and then whether I bother to log in or not within 5 minutes or so, *click*, it shuts down.
Another interesting aspect is that it seems I can boot into the BIOS setting screen and run it all night. At least it has been sitting on the menu for the last 30 mins or so. I was pretty much heading for Newegg to see what deal I could get on a 775 mobo and a C2D/RAM when I realized that it ran fine without booting windows. That kind of points me in the direction of a memory error rather than a mobo problem. Any thoughts or opinions? I'm going to try removing two of the four sticks of ram to see if that makes a difference.
System in question is: MSI K8N Neo4, 4 gigabytes ram, AMD X2 4400+ (939), BFG GTS250 video card, WD Raptor 74 (sys) and 400 gig secondary drive. Running Vista Ultimate fully patched.
Starting about 9:00 last night the system shuts itself off. There is a distinct sound of a relay or other device tripping in the power supply, and everything is dead. To get it back up I need to turn off the rear switch on PS, unplug it, plug it back in, turn the switch back on, and press the button. It seemed like a power supply issue to me, and as I was running a 4 year-old Antec 480 that was on the borderline capacity-wise, I went out today and picked up an Antec 750w at Staples (the only place around that had a PS on a Sunday, and the only brand they carry).
However, after taking everything out, modding the case to fit the new PS, cleaning everything out very well and reassembling, the problem recurred. I then started disconnecting peripherals and removing cards until I was down to the mb, proc, ram, raptor, video card, keyboard, mouse monitor. Same problem. The machine will boot into Vista, and then whether I bother to log in or not within 5 minutes or so, *click*, it shuts down.
Another interesting aspect is that it seems I can boot into the BIOS setting screen and run it all night. At least it has been sitting on the menu for the last 30 mins or so. I was pretty much heading for Newegg to see what deal I could get on a 775 mobo and a C2D/RAM when I realized that it ran fine without booting windows. That kind of points me in the direction of a memory error rather than a mobo problem. Any thoughts or opinions? I'm going to try removing two of the four sticks of ram to see if that makes a difference.
