Is my corsair vx550 dying?

[Sandan]

I have been experiencing random shut downs (not reboots) happens average of 2 times a day for the past 3 weeks. There is no consistent thing I am doing when shut down occurs. I have to switch the PSU off then back on before I can power the system back up (which seems odd to me). Event log shows Kernel Power event ID 41 Task category (63).

Checked for virus and malware couldn't find any..Don't think virus would require switching PSU off then on again to work. Also, ran diagnostics on Hard drive and Memory came out OK. Used a free registry check program, found some issues, fixed them but system continues to shut down

Auto restart is unchecked. Haven't added any new components in a while.

My setup is...Asrock A780gxe Motherboard, AMD Athlon triple core cpu, 2 sticks of ram 2 gigs each, 2 hard drives, 2 dvd roms, Ati Radeon 4870 pcie video, and of course the Corsair VX550 PSU....Been running this setup for about a year...And the problem has been 3-4 weeks..

Any help would be really appreciated...Also, I don't have any tools to check the volts on psu..Is there a cheap easy to use one I could get?

 

[Anubis]

it could be over heating, have you dusted your comp lately?

 

[Sandan]

Yes I dusted it 2 days ago...Forgot to mention it doesn't seem to be getting hot..Touched the HD's, video card, cpu fan, ram, etc after shutdown..didn't seem hot. Started it back up and in bios cpu temp seemed OK..cpu usually runs high 30's f and it was 40 f...Thanks

 

[Yellowbeard]

Are you OCing at all or running at stock settings? Google seems to suggest your problem is power related but I could not find a singular "smoking gun".

Are you using cool n quiet or whatever the current iteration is?

 

[Sandan]

Nope..not overclocking. It is basically a vanilla system havent souped it up or changed bios settings. I am wondering if the cpu needs more voltage. It is set to 1.36v...I am reading the manual and looking at AMD's site to see suggested voltage for amd athlonII Rana 435 haven't figured it out yet...

Also I turned cool & Quiet off..But didn't help system shut down again.

 

[lsv]

It does sound like power... Do you have another PSU to test for a bit with?

 

[Sandan]

I do have another PSU that I plan on trying tonight. It is a 450W and I hope it is powerful enough..Also, in addition to random shutdowns, a new issue started whenever I turn the system on. When I push the power button I have to push it 3-4 times before it fully boots up. Each time before a full boot...the dvd rom lights come on as if a full boot will happen..but then I loose power requiring I push the button again..

 

[lsv]

I do have another PSU that I plan on trying tonight. It is a 450W and I hope it is powerful enough..Also, in addition to random shutdowns, a new issue started whenever I turn the system on. When I push the power button I have to push it 3-4 times before it fully boots up. Each time before a full boot...the dvd rom lights come on as if a full boot will happen..but then I loose power requiring I push the button again..

Sounds like power somewhere in the mix, can you check for bulging capacitors and that all power connections are nice and snug?

 

[Yellowbeard]

I do have another PSU that I plan on trying tonight. It is a 450W and I hope it is powerful enough..Also, in addition to random shutdowns, a new issue started whenever I turn the system on. When I push the power button I have to push it 3-4 times before it fully boots up. Each time before a full boot...the dvd rom lights come on as if a full boot will happen..but then I loose power requiring I push the button again..

Let us know how the testing goes. If you need an RMA, here is the link.

CORSAIR RMA LINK

 

[Sandan]

Well I have been running a backup PSU and it is working better..Still several blue screens. I think these problems are a little different. Before everything went black and I had to switch the PSU off then on again before reboot. With the blue screen I can just hit the reset button and it reboots and I get much more information (using WinDbg) which shows files which were the culprit fltmgr.sys which is a filter manager driver (not clear on this, Another blue screen said probably caused by a driver attempting to access an invalid address... Most of the older crashes, with the other psu, said probably caused by ntkrnlmp.exe Anyway, Corsair approved an RMA..Do you think they test the psu before replacing it. I plan on shipping it to them regardless. If they test and find it is fine I guess they will just send it back to me.

 

[jonnyGURU]

If you have to switch the PSU off and then back on again to get the PC to boot up again, the PSU is definitely tripping.

As for why.... Could be heat... could be an intermittent short either in your PC or in your PSU itself...

 

[Yellowbeard]

We will be sure to send you back a tested and working PSU.

 

[Sandan]

Wow...Yellowbeard, Thank You. I plan on shipping it out tomorrow Tuesday.
JohnnyGuru, Inside the box wasn't hot when this happened...Touched video card, psu, ram, heatsink..nothing hot to the touch. The intermittent short in the pc doesn't seem to be the problem since no complete shutdowns requiring switching off and on after switched out the psu...Thanks for your thoughts...I thought psu as well because of the need to switch off and on before reboot..

 

[Rifter]

If the other PSU is also having instability issues which you mentioned it was(blue screens) i would think the PSU is not the problem. I would look into the mobo/ram being the problem.

 

[Sandan]

I think the blue screens with the replaced PSU was a separate problem and not PSU related..but was a virus that got into the registry..at least security essentials found such and removed. As a result no blue screen for several days. Also, I connected the corsair after virus removal and complete shut downs happened again..replaced psu and no shut downs...so, I RMA'd the Corsair. Also, did RAM check several times and no problems found. Thanks to everyone for suggestions and help.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Sounds like you're all sorted.