New Computer problems

[Jericho2006]

Hey guys, just built a new computer and I'm having some problems with it. Here's what I have in my system:

Asus Crosshair Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
ATI Radeon X1900XTX
2Gb OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme
Maxtor Diamondmax 9 120gb Sata HD
Western Digital 250gb Sata HD

Originally I bought a 600W OCZ Gamestream power supply for this system. I started up the system, it ran for approx. 2 minutes and then shutdown, and wouldn't restart. I chalked that up to a faulty power supply, so I RMA'd it and recieved a new one. I started up my sytem this time, and it ran fine. However after 5 hours it shutdown on it's own and wouldn't power back up... again, much like the first power supply. I RMA'd that power supply, but the place I was RMA'ing it to is across the country, so I asked for a refund and decided to buy a power supply from a local retailer. I purchased an Ultra X-Finity 2G - 600 Watt PSU and installed it into my system. The system would power up for 2 seconds before turning off. I brought the system down to the bare minimums, and still the same thing. I then powered up the system AFTER unplugging the two 4pin 12 power connectons and the fans powered up and stayed on. I noticed that my motherboard manual said I needed a 2.0 compliant power supply and the Ultra only met 1.2 specs. So I brought it back and got an Ultra X-Connect 2 - 550W PSU which meets 12V ATX 2.2,1.3 and 2.3 specifications. The exact same thing occured as with the 600W supply.

Here are the specs of the X-Connect:

Output:

Max Output Current: +5V +3.3V +12V1 +12V2 12V +5VSB
30A 25A 17A 18A .8A 2.5A


What do you think the problem could be? Should I go with a more powerful supply, maybe a 700W? Seems to me that the PSU can't handle the current drawn from the CPU and all the other components.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks a lot

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums Ultra has had a spotty reputation for quality, so you might want to consider something like a Seasonic or upper-end Fortron. Here's an EPS one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151028 That would have the full 8-pin ATX12V plug that your motherboard is designed for (speaking of which, make sure that's plugged in, it's at the upper-rear corner of the board).

I assume you also have your video card's PCI-Express power cable hooked up to the power supply directly.

Also disable QFan in the BIOS if you have it enabled, so your CPU fan runs at full speed all the time.

 

[Jericho2006]

Thanks for the reply mechBgon

I'm going to return the power supply tomorrow. None of the retailers in my area carry SeaSonic power supplies. HEre is a list of the power supplies I can get:

ANTEC TRUEPOWER 550W ATX2.0 POWER SUPPLY
ANTEC TRUEPOWER 550WATT POWER SUPPLY (EPS)
ANTEC TRUEPOWER TRIO 650W POWER SUPPLY
OCZ Gamestream 700W
ENERMAX 535WATT ALL IN ONE SLI READY
ENERMAX NOISETAKER 600W SLI READY


What would you recommend?

Thanks a lot

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Jericho2006
Thanks for the reply mechBgon

I'm going to return the power supply tomorrow. None of the retailers in my area carry SeaSonic power supplies. HEre is a list of the power supplies I can get:

ANTEC TRUEPOWER 550W ATX2.0 POWER SUPPLY
ANTEC TRUEPOWER 550WATT POWER SUPPLY (EPS)
ANTEC TRUEPOWER TRIO 650W POWER SUPPLY
OCZ Gamestream 700W
ENERMAX 535WATT ALL IN ONE SLI READY
ENERMAX NOISETAKER 600W SLI READY


What would you recommend?

Thanks a lot

Out of that list, any of the ones I bolded have the desirable 8-pin ATX12V plug (or a pair of 4-pin ones) and ought to be good for running a single video card. I like "overkill" amounts of wattage, especially if the PSU will have to deal with the heat output of two high-end video cards someday (PSUs put out less power at higher temperatures), so I'd probably lean towards the highest-wattage units.

The other thing you might want to do, is make sure your motherboard's heatsink-retention frame is firmly screwed down to the motherboard. If it's loose, then the heatsink may not be pressing firmly & evenly against the CPU, which causes bad heat transfer and could explain the sudden shutdowns.

Also, I mentioned how PSUs generate less power as the temperature goes up. A good PSU will bail out if it's overheating, cutting off power suddenly. Your computer tower isn't enclosed in a cupboard or next to a heat vent, is it?

 

[Jericho2006]

I will check the heatsink clip just to make sure, but it doesn't seem to be loose. I'll double check nonetheless. And the tower is in a well ventilated area, so I'm ruling that out.

Thanks for the help!

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing What I mean about the heatsink stuff isn't necessarily the clip, but rather the frame around the CPU socket that the clip latches into. That frame is often held down by screws. Check to make sure the screws are tight.

Another thing that can make a PSU flip out and cut off suddenly is a short-circuit, so you might also check to be sure the springy "fingers" on the rear port plate haven't sneaked into the USB or network jacks, and remove the motherboard from the chassis to make sure the case does not have a standoff underneath the board in this location (pic). Some motherboards do have a hole there, so cases will have a standoff hole there, but you don't want to have a standoff under there with your mobo, since the standoff will hit the rear of the mobo and could short it out.

 

[Jericho2006]

By clip I also meant the black frame around the CPU .

I will definately check the motherboard for shortcircuits as I figured that's why my first 2 power supplies went haywire. I know that I do have a standoff at that location on the mobo, so I'll remove it at once. I'll also check the USB and network jacks to see if that did occur.

In your expert opinion, is this just a PSU problem, or could it be something catestrophic like a busted CPU?

Thanks again

 

[mechBgon]

I'm not sure if there's a single explaination that fits all the facts well. You had instant shutdowns, which seem to suggest a short-circuit, it's too fast for it to be overheat. But you also had shutdowns after hours of uptime, which seems to suggest that the PSU or CPU reached an overheated condition.

That was what made me think of the extra, unwanted standoff... thermal expansion and contraction of the case and motherboard could make short-circuits come & go, such as between an extra standoff and the mobo's underside. So that could explain why sometimes it happened right away, and other times it happened after a long time. So I looked to see if your mobo had no hole at the one optional place, and it doesn't. And you confirm that the case does have a standoff there. Maybe we're getting warmer

 

[Jericho2006]

Well, I took out the mobo, and there was a standoff in that extra position, so I'm hoping that that was the original problem and that the Ultra power supplies just didn't have the juice to power up the CPU. I'm goin to return the power supply tomorrow and probably get the OCZ 700W Gamestream. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for all your help and hopefully I won't be coming back tomorrow with more problems .


Thanks alot, your hepl is greatly appreciated

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing, I hope there's a happy ending involving a nice long fragfest

 

[Jericho2006]

So here's the latest...

I returned the Ultra Power Supply and picked up the Antec Trio 650W supply. Put it into my computer, turned it on, and again the system started for 2 seconds and then shutoff. Then I remoed the 8 pin 12V and the system all started except for the CPU (obviously).


What do you think the problem is? Think the CPU is gone???

 

[mechBgon]

Or maybe the motherboard doesn't like the RPM reading (or lack of it) on the CPU_FAN header, that one crops up sometimes. Try a medium-speed RPM-sensing fan on that header as a fact-finding step.

Also, have you tried testing the motherboard outside the case, laying on cardboard, to eliminate the case as a source of short-circuits?

 

[Jericho2006]

If I can't get into the bios (because the computer restarts after 2 seconds) how can I change those fan settings? Should I just plug it into another CPU fan connection?

And I will test outside the case to see what happens

Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Jericho2006
If I can't get into the bios (because the computer restarts after 2 seconds) how can I change those fan settings? Should I just plug it into another CPU fan connection?

And I will test outside the case to see what happens

Thanks

There's one fan header that's dedicated to monitoring the CPU fan, it'll be specially marked that way. Some motherboards want to see a 2000rpm+ reading on that header or they won't let the computer POST. Unplugging the ATX12V power cable is keeping the CPU from getting any power, so the motherboard has no processor and cannot even begin POSTing to where it notices "hey, there's no CPU fan!", which is why it could stay running with that cable unplugged.

 

[Jericho2006]

Hey,
So I took out the motherboard from the case, and there is a metal plate under the CPU that was ground off the case. After some quick case modifications (taking a hammer to the part of the case that was touching that metal part) and now I can get the computer to stay on for more than 2 seconds. However, it still won't turn off by unless I switch off the power from the power supply.

So now the thing is not posting. No beeps and whatnot and nothing is showing up on my monitor.

What do you think?

 

[Jericho2006]

O.K, after a few changes with the CPU fan and whatnot, I have the thing going... I'm gonna leave it running through the night and see if it's still going when I wake up tomorrow morning.

I'll let ya know

 

[mechBgon]

Good luck! :moon:

 

[Jericho2006]

Just a little tidbit for ya...

Everything is running smoothly EXCEPT, when I plug in my floppy drive IDE cable, my system doesn't work. If I have it in, I get a black screen, if I remove it, my system restarts and the video works. If I plug in my floppy IDE while the system is running, the computer shuts down. Ever hear or seen anything like this???

 

[mechBgon]

Aaaaack, do not hot-plug drive cables!!! :Q

 

[Jericho2006]

regardless, this was a problem before I removed the cable while it was running. I plugged the cable in while the system was shut-down, took it out while it was shut-down, originally.

 

[mechBgon]

Note the proper floppy-drive hookup info on this page. The cable has to go into the drive & motherboard oriented the right way, and the drive & mobo have to be on opposite sides of the Mystical Twisted Section Of Cable?. This page shows in more detail how to find Pin 1 on the floppy drive.

 

[Jericho2006]

yup, rhad the IDE going intop the drive upside down... you are the man my friend. I'll let you know tomorrow if my system is stil up and running.


Thanks a lot bud-dy

 

[BruHawk]

Woke up this morning and the system was still running, so I'm hoping that's the end of my problems. I'm at wokr now, so if everything is a-ok when I get home I'll toss on Windows XP and get going with it.

I checked the temperatures this morning, and the CPU was 40 degrees while the Mobo was 38. This was also just have a restart, so they might be lower when idling. Still, neither is high so I'm happy with that.

Thanks mechBgon for all the help. If I ever run into anything again, I'll look to you for support. ;p

 

[mechBgon]

excellent :beer:

 

[Jericho2006]

Alright, let's see if you can help me again:

I'm trying to install Windows XP (Original without any service packs) and when it gets to the part of the windows set that says "Setup is starting windows" The system shuts down on me. I'm assuming it's because windows doesn't recognize a HD since I'm running 2 SATA drives. I'm trying to install windows on a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA HD. I downloaded this driver from the ASUS website:

Silicon Image 3132 Serial ATA Driver Disk V1.0.0.9 for Windows 2000/XP/2003.(WHQL)

I put that on a floppy, and installed it when windows asked for it during the initial XP setup and got the reset. I also tried the setup without installing that driver and the same thing happened. Did I get the wrong driver, or does the problem go deeper than that?

Ever see anthing like this?

Thanks