PC shuts itself OFF for no reason!

[anandbob42]

I've had this problem for a long while now and it's just getting worse and worse.

Problem:
PC turning itself off for no reason. Note that the hardware actually stays on (all the fans, etc. continue to move) but the monitor gets cut off and everything goes blank (a music file playing while this happens will stop doing so).

What I've tried:
-virus, spyware scanners
-a new power supply
-new graphics card and monitor drivers (Radeon 9700 and Samsung Syncmaster 900NF)

Originally, this only happened when I started my PC (it would always do this at the exact same place on the Windows XP screen) but now occurs randomly when the PC is on also.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Having to reinstall Windows XP completely and getting a new motherboard are a pain unless I know for sure they are to blame.

 

[XRaider]

Make sure that your power management is turned off or adjusted accordingly.
Control Panel\ Power Options - ---> Make sure that Standby and Hibernate is turned off.
Try that for starters.

 

[anandbob42]

Standby etc. are turned off.

 

[gsaldivar]

control panel->system, click on the advanced tab, then click on the settings button under Startup and Recovery Options. Untick the box next to 'automatically restart'.

 

[mechBgon]

Complete specs of the system would help, details included. Maybe hit Quote and fill this in with your info in place of the stuff I made up. The :evil:'s in the details sometimes...

• CORE HARDWARE
  • Power supply Antec TruePower 430
  • Motherboard Asus K8N-E Deluxe
    • Revision 1.03
    • BIOS 1005
  • CPU Athlon64 3000+
    • Core 130nm Clawhammer
  • Memory (2) 512MB Corsair XMS 3200C2 modules
    • Voltage Manually set to 2.7 volts
    • Timings AUTO, results in 2-3-2-6 @ 200MHz
• CARDS
  • Primary video card ATI Radeon 9800Pro AGP 8x
  • PCI slot #1 (top) empty
  • PCI slot #2 empty
  • PCI slot #3 LeadTek Winfast TV/FM tuner card
  • PCI slot #4 Creative Audigy 2 ZS
  • PCI slot #5 LSI Logic Ultra160 SCSI
  • PCI slot #6 (board only has five PCI slots)
• DRIVES
  • Boot drive 160GB Seagate 7200.7
    • Interface Serial ATA
    • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 SATA controller
    • Jumper setting not applicable (SATA)
  • Additional hard drive 40GB Seagate 7200.7
    • Interface Parallel ATA
    • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, primary channel
    • Jumper setting Master
  • Additional hard drive 18GB Seagate Cheetah 15k.3
    • Interface SCSI
    • Controller hosting this drive LSI Logic U160 card
    • Jumper setting SCSI ID 01
  • Optical drive #1 NEC 3500A DVD burner
    • Interface Parallel ATA
    • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, secondary channel
    • Jumper setting Master
  • Optical drive #2 Lite-On combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW
    • Interface Parallel ATA
    • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, secondary channel
    • Jumper setting Slave
• OS AND SECURITY
  • Operating System WindowsXP Professional
  • Service Pack SP2
  • Internet connection Cable
  • Hardware firewall Netgear RP614 router
  • Software firewall WindowsXP firewall
  • Antivirus Norton Antivirus 2004

 

[crazydrummer4562]

Maybe you have a faulty AGP slot.

 

[anandbob42]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
[*]CORE HARDWARE

• Power supply Purepower 420 Watt (NEW)
• Motherboard Asus A7V333
  • Revision ???
  • BIOS ???
• CPU AthlonXP 1800
  • Core ???
• Memory (2) 512MB Corsair
  • Voltage ???
  • Timings ???

[*]CARDS

• Primary video card ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
• PCI slot #1 (top) Linksys network card 10/100
• PCI slot #2 Santa Cruz Soundcard
• PCI slot #3
• PCI slot #4
• PCI slot #5
• PCI slot #6

[*]DRIVES

• Boot drive 80GB Western Digital
  • Interface ???
  • Controller hosting this drive ???
  • Jumper setting ???
• Additional hard drive None 7200.7
  • Interface ???
  • Controller hosting this drive ???
  • Jumper setting ???
• Additional hard drive ????
  • Interface ???
  • Controller hosting this drive ???
  • Jumper setting ???
• Optical drive #1 Pioneer DVD Drive
  • Interface ???
  • Controller hosting this drive ???
  • Jumper setting ???
• Optical drive #2 ???
  • Interface ???
  • Controller hosting this drive ???
  • Jumper setting ????

[*]OS AND SECURITY

• Operating System WindowsXP Professional
• Service Pack SP1
• Internet connection Cable
• Hardware firewall Linksys BEFSR41 Router
• Software firewall None
• Antivirus Panda Antivirus

[/list]

 

[nanaki333]

hummm.. i was having a similar problem. twice actually. turned out one of my HDDs was bad. after it'd just set for awhile and do it's screen saver then power off the monitor, it'd eventually just freeze while everything stayed on. i took out my storage drive and haven't had a problem since. wasn't even the main OS drive that was causing it.

 

[joejccva]

I just had this problem and I had no where NEAR the amount of hard drives and optical drives you have. All I did was overclock my system and my pc kept turning off.

I noticed you have an Antec 430W. THATS EXACTLY WHAT I HAD. GET RID OF THAT PSU! Get a 500W or more and make sure it's a SINGLE rail with atleast 25A on the 12v rail. Trust me. I replaced my Antec 430W with a Rosewill 550W single rail with 35A on the 12v rail and everything is fine now.


Get rid of the Antec...it's the problem.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm not much on the ThermalScum PSUs either. Antec, Fortron and Enermax have better reputations generally, if you need some suggested brands.

Since this is an A7V333, I have some specialty firsthand knowledge. If you're not willing to cut that piece of junk in half with a hacksaw and get a nice A7N8X-E Deluxe, then...

1) disable Q-Fan in the BIOS if it was enabled

2) your heatsink clip, does it attach to all three lugs on each end of the socket, or just one lug on each end? If it has a wide 3-lug clip, you may have knocked a tiny surface-mounted device off the surface of the mobo when clipping down your heatsink. Guess how I know THAT :evil:

3) disable the onboard USB 2.0 controller and the onboard Promise controller using the jumpers (if you have the A7V333-RAID which features them). Disable the onboard audio, gameport and MIDI in the motherboard's BIOS. See pages 21 and 24 of your manual for the jumper locations.

4) put the sound card in PCI slot #3 and the network card in PCI slot #4. The way you have it right now, your NIC is sharing its chipset IRQ with the AGP card and your sound card is sharing with two USB controllers, the Firewire controller, the Promise RAID chip AND anything you plug into PCI slot #5 :Q Holy clashing IRQ's, Batman!

5) ensure that your RAM is running the same speed as your CPU's frontside bus, not out-of-sync. Your CPU uses a 133MHz base bus speed, so your RAM should be running 133MHz (1:1 ratio) even if it has a higher rating.

6) if you can be more specific about what type of RAM you have, then I can take a more educated guess as to whether you should use the (undocumented) DDR-voltage jumpers to change what voltage you're giving the memory. Please be detailed about what precise brand and model of modules you've got


Really, think about getting a different mobo? This one is Asus's entry in the Hall Of Shame, IMHO. Just an idea.

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm not much on the ThermalScum PSUs either. Antec, Fortron and Enermax have better reputations generally, if you need some suggested brands.

Since this is an A7V333, I have some specialty firsthand knowledge. If you're not willing to cut that piece of junk in half with a hacksaw and get a nice A7N8X-E Deluxe, then...

1) disable Q-Fan in the BIOS if it was enabled

2) your heatsink clip, does it attach to all three lugs on each end of the socket, or just one lug on each end? If it has a wide 3-lug clip, you may have knocked a tiny surface-mounted device off the surface of the mobo when clipping down your heatsink. Guess how I know THAT :evil:

3) disable the onboard USB 2.0 controller and the onboard Promise controller using the jumpers (if you have the A7V333-RAID which features them). Disable the onboard audio, gameport and MIDI in the motherboard's BIOS. See pages 21 and 24 of your manual for the jumper locations.

4) put the sound card in PCI slot #3 and the network card in PCI slot #4. The way you have it right now, your NIC is sharing its chipset IRQ with the AGP card and your sound card is sharing with two USB controllers, the Firewire controller, the Promise RAID chip AND anything you plug into PCI slot #5 :Q Holy clashing IRQ's, Batman!

5) ensure that your RAM is running the same speed as your CPU's frontside bus, not out-of-sync. Your CPU uses a 133MHz base bus speed, so your RAM should be running 133MHz (1:1 ratio) even if it has a higher rating.

6) if you can be more specific about what type of RAM you have, then I can take a more educated guess as to whether you should use the (undocumented) DDR-voltage jumpers to change what voltage you're giving the memory. Please be detailed about what precise brand and model of modules you've got


Really, think about getting a different mobo? This one is Asus's entry in the Hall Of Shame, IMHO. Just an idea.

Excellent post mechman! :thumbsup:

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: BadThad

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm not much on the ThermalScum PSUs either. Antec, Fortron and Enermax have better reputations generally, if you need some suggested brands.

Since this is an A7V333, I have some specialty firsthand knowledge. If you're not willing to cut that piece of junk in half with a hacksaw and get a nice A7N8X-E Deluxe, then...

1) disable Q-Fan in the BIOS if it was enabled

2) your heatsink clip, does it attach to all three lugs on each end of the socket, or just one lug on each end? If it has a wide 3-lug clip, you may have knocked a tiny surface-mounted device off the surface of the mobo when clipping down your heatsink. Guess how I know THAT :evil:

3) disable the onboard USB 2.0 controller and the onboard Promise controller using the jumpers (if you have the A7V333-RAID which features them). Disable the onboard audio, gameport and MIDI in the motherboard's BIOS. See pages 21 and 24 of your manual for the jumper locations.

4) put the sound card in PCI slot #3 and the network card in PCI slot #4. The way you have it right now, your NIC is sharing its chipset IRQ with the AGP card and your sound card is sharing with two USB controllers, the Firewire controller, the Promise RAID chip AND anything you plug into PCI slot #5 :Q Holy clashing IRQ's, Batman!

5) ensure that your RAM is running the same speed as your CPU's frontside bus, not out-of-sync. Your CPU uses a 133MHz base bus speed, so your RAM should be running 133MHz (1:1 ratio) even if it has a higher rating.

6) if you can be more specific about what type of RAM you have, then I can take a more educated guess as to whether you should use the (undocumented) DDR-voltage jumpers to change what voltage you're giving the memory. Please be detailed about what precise brand and model of modules you've got


Really, think about getting a different mobo? This one is Asus's entry in the Hall Of Shame, IMHO. Just an idea.

Excellent post mechman! :thumbsup:

Hehe, thx That mobo is full of gotcha's and quirks, I shed no tears when I threw mine away.

 

[anandbob42]

It seems to be fixed now, thanks. BTW, the ASUS A7V333 has served me well for almost 3 years though. Didn't it win quite a bit of awards?

 

[anandbob42]

Arwgh...the problem is not fixed apparently btw, I probably should have been more clear on this, but this system is not new. I didn't recently build this system or add any new hardware - I didn't have this prblem for 3 years and it just came outta nowhere recently.

My power supply may be crap, but it's the 2nd one I've used and I still have the problem.

The thing is: I want this PC to go on just a while longer, and if I'm gonna spend 90 bucks on a new mobo, it better fix the problem.

EDIT: btw, is anyone sure that a CPU and RAM that work in the A7V333 will work fine in a A7N8X-E Deluxe too without much hassle?