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Replaced Heatsink. Now random shutdowns...

J

johnnq1

Senior member
i replaced my heatsink and slapped on a scythe ninja. temps are way lower (i didn't use enough paste last time) and the heatsink is cool to the touch. i had to take the motherboard which meant taking EVERY cable off...and reattaching everything.


now, whenever playing games, i get random shutdowns. sometimes the game just ends, other times it just turns off...and scares me. what the hell should i do? i checked every connection twice...and yes, i'm using the extra power connector for my 7800gt (which has a vf700 on it).

asus a8n-sli
opteron 170
mushkin 2x1gb sp3200 (value)
 
If you're sure it's not a heat issue, then yank the board out and lay it on a non-conductive surface (like a wood table or sheet of cardboard), connect it up, and see if the problem persists. You might have created a short when you put the board back. But in this case I would usually suspect heat. How much thermal compound did you put on there?
 
about a grain of rice. omg i do NOT want to take the board out...i just put EVERYTHING back in and it took like 3 hours in my p180. i'd rather reinstall windows than take the board out.


i can leave the computer on for hours, as long as i'm not playing games. i just realized i haven't checked gpu temps (even though i have only increased airflow).
 
Originally posted by: johnnq1
about a grain of rice. omg i do NOT want to take the board out...i just put EVERYTHING back in and it took like 3 hours in my p180. i'd rather reinstall windows than take the board out.


i can leave the computer on for hours, as long as i'm not playing games. i just realized i haven't checked gpu temps (even though i have only increased airflow).
Click to expand...

I doubt reinstalling Windows will help this one 🙂. Yeah, it could be GPU temps.

Try this, take the GPU out of it. Run Prime95 and max out the proc, heat things up and see what happens.
 
been running both cores for 9 minutes now...hmmm. i wonder if it's the power supply. i made sure that 1 molex connector from each rail fed power into the card (seasonic 430). temps reach up to 46C! which is crazy high compared to 40C in games.
 
shutdown before 25 minutes. WHAT THE HELL!?!?! temps are LOWER! i would cry if i shorted something out...i made sure i was in contact with a ground every 10 seconds.
 
I'm not sure what the next step should be at this point. If it shuts down running Prime95 then I think you're going to have to pull the board out as we discussed earlier. Also take out any peripherals not needed to boot, and stress it out that way. If it fails then something has gone wrong with the processor, chipset, ram, or the board itself.

Bear in mind there are all sorts of physical things that could have happened in the replacement of the heatsink, that would cause a problem at lower temps, at any warmed up temp actually. Suppose you fractured a pin on the CPU, or cracked a solder joint on the socket? The faces might mate when cold, but cause an open when warm. The whole substrate of the board reacts to temperature.
 
new update. computer has been running a few hours of oblibion and css without a hitch. about 30 minutes ago, it crashed when i was web-browsing. a few minutes ago, the computer started the same problem... black screen for 5 seconds with small black/purple lines (monitor not quite turned off) but everything returned...as if it never happened!


i don't know what's going on. should i triple check connections? what could be causing this? i doubt a short in the motherboard could cause something like this...stranger things would be happening.
 
ok now the system no longer shuts down, it "hangs." if the system doesn't "come back" it hangs. i can press the power button and i can hear the windows logoff music...WHAT THE HELL??? could my power supply be a problem? too much voltage? too little? everything looks fine..
 
i opened my case and forced just about every connection back into the motherboard/molex connector. i left the case open and turned on the computer. i noticed that there is a very quiet high pitched sound coming from either the motherboard or video card...i turned the monitor off and i still heard it. then i put the cover back on, and tipped the case right side up. upon doing this, BLACK screen. fans stay on but i must push the power button to turn the computer completely off....i'm so frustrated. i just quadrouple checked all of my connections. could a loose capacitor cause this? could bad contact with my heatsink cause this (temps shooting past 67C within a split second)? i'm feeling jaded....
 
AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! my dvi to vga adaptor is falling apart! THAT'S WHY the monitor goes screwey....still doesn't explain the not as frequent random shutdowns, alt tabs, and closing programs. shit i don't have another adaptor. gonna have to google for a fix.
 
well i opened the case for what felt like the 100th time (after the 100th shutdown). i touched every heatsink and noticed that my northbridge was the only part that wasn't lukewarm, it was hot. i have a nexus 92 blowing right over it, but i had it hooked up with another antec tricool 120 on the same channel of my fan controller. even at the 12v setting on the controller, could the 92mm fan be at a lower voltage? i connected the nexus to a molex connector...please oh please work, i've been trying to fix this for hours.

my mobo doesn't have a northbridge temp sensor, only a "motherboard chip sensor." somewhere on the mobo there is a sensor...wherever it is, it's not near the heatsink.




that did NOTHING. another shutdown 2 seconds after the post. what...the...ffffffffffffffffffff


one more thing i keep forgetting to say. ever since this crap started, my post screen flashes in front of me for a split second. instead of seeing 5 seconds of the post screen, i see 4.5 seconds of the asus screen, then .5 seconds of the post. in the 1.5 years of owning my system, my monitor has never turned on fast enough to actually see the asus screen.
 
My first guess would be that the motherboard is on its way out & what you are experiencing is increasing random errors caused by this. Just in case you should try replacing your DVI to VGA adapter on the off chance that some kind of video card related wierdness is causing your problems.
 
Try running some temp/volt/fan speed logging programs (like MBM) and see if anything funny's happening before you crash.
 
yea i just stepped on it for about 15 seconds and that did the trick...i should really buy a new one. so with my motherboard being "one its way out," does that mean something is fried? running too hot?
 
Was there a back plate installed with the new hs? If so was it plastic or metal? Could be in contact with something or crushed a component. Are you overclocking anything? If so go back to stock settings.
 
Originally posted by: johnnq1
yea i just stepped on it for about 15 seconds and that did the trick...i should really buy a new one. so with my motherboard being "one its way out," does that mean something is fried? running too hot?
Click to expand...



A DVI to VGA adapter is somthing thats useful to have around & you should be able to get one for +/- $5 shipped on FS/FT or by posting a WTB thread and letting somone come to you.

As for the motherboard being fried, thats just an educated guess based on the description of your symptoms .. no way to tell exactly why its happening right now, but unfortunately the most likely cause is that you damaged it while swapping out the HS.
 
alright....i think i've found the problem. a REALLY REALLY RIDICULOUS setting in fucking asus pc probe. mobo threshold was set to 45C. i raised it to 50C and it hasn't crashed since. at least nothing is fried :\ isn't 50C still really low? (i'm pretty sure this is a random sensor on the mobo, not the northbridge...but my mobo temps have consistently been between 29 and 36.)

nope...another shutdown. it just goes off randomly, impossible to identify WHAT could be faulty. only thing i can still think of is: A hot northbridge, B other parts getting too hot (used to have a flower heatsink, now the ninja)

the ninja DID have a sticky backplate, but i don't think it was conductive...i'll go look that up now.
thermaltake_golden_orb2_gorb2-4.jpg

looks like this guy didn't have a problem. the backplate is exactly the same (with sticky stuff too)

voltages:
12v: usually 11.84. fluctuates to 11.904, but usually stays at 11.84
5v: stays at 4.972. rarely fluctuates to 5.05
3.3v: shakiest rail 3.216 to 3.232 to 3.248

vcore: always 1.36 or 1.376 (set to 1.35) sometimes jumps to 3.92...rarely

voltages seem ok...there are no spikes right before the computer shuts down. i guess only thing left is mobo? when i leave the case open, there are no shutdowns...which makes me think TEMPERATURES. but i have such great cooling. zalmans, scythe, yate loons on highest, northbridge with a heatsink AND fan...p180...what the hell.
 
I thought you said it still did shut down under heavy load even with the side removed! 😕

If its running fine with the side off & shutting down with it on but it wasn't before you swapped CPU heatsinks & you are absolutely sure you mounted all your heatsinks properly, then I'd say you can be almost certain you have an airflow problem related to the fan direction on the new HS/fan you installed, especially if the old one used to blow down onto the motherboard & the new one blows from front to back instead.

The most obvious thing to do (if not the easiest!) would be to swap back to the old HS & see if you still have the problem, or you could try custom-mounting a medium sized fan so that it blows down onto the motherboard in the area which used to receive airflow from the CPU HS/fan.

If this doesn't fix the problem, then I'll have to assume I was correct in my earlier post in saying you damaged your motherboard.

 
yes it shutdown with the side removed, but i thought it was stable and i was overclocking. that was the only time it shutdown with side open.

yea i'm pretty sure something is overheating...but i can't figure out what. the flower heatsink blew air across the mobo, and the ninja doesn't allow for that. maybe that's why? all other fans are the same. i even replaced my front fan with a higher flowing yate loon (had tricool on lowest)! i touched some of the heatsinks after doing some stress tests. northbridge was hot, ninja was lukewarm, vf700 was warm, and some of the heatsinks on the mobo were lukewarm.
 
installed a 40mm fan on northbridge and a second 120mm intake. that's 7 total fans and no shutdowns yet.




1 shutdown after an hour of css...sigh. is it possible a mofset is getting too hot? they all seem cool to the touch when under load.
 
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