Rig shuts down intermittently ..... HELP !

[WT]

I just completed the last upgrade to my main rig, and after about two weeks of quality gaming, I had it shut
off on me right in the middle of a game. Trying to restart it failed so I had guessed that my underpowered
300 watt PS had finally given up. Add to this the fact that the last upgrade was a 5900 vid card requiring a
separate molex to power it, and I found my conclusion to be vaild. So after upgrading to an Enlight 420 watt
PS, I thought my problems were behind me.

After starting it up, I went outside to do yard work, and after less than an hour came back in to find the PC
off again. I started it back up and made sure my temps were OK, then pulled off the case. What I found was
my HSF was not spinning !! ACKKK !!! So knowing my problem, I took the rig to my friends and we tested the
board fan poinout for power. It was not getting a consistent voltage so I moved the HSF molex to another
nearby board pinout and put the fan sensor molex into the one previously used for the HSF molex. We booted
it up and let it run, no problems and no heat buildup.

This was last weekend and it ran for 8 days straight with no hiccups. I came home from work on Monday only
to find it dead yet again !!

I'm stumped .... my guess is to point a finger of blame at the board pinouts for either the HSF or the fan rpm
momitor (a separate molex connector). I have not done anything to the rig to disturb the CPU mounting and
my temps are 40 @ idle and 50 running full tilt. I run United Devices which maxes my cpu but even turning this
off to test the rig at idle all day has failed to help me.
System specs:

Barton 2500@default
AOpen AK79D-400VN Bios 1.10
512 Geil DDR3200
MSI 5900FX 128
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ (set to 70% rpm speed)
SB Audigy ES
Enlight 420watt PS
50x LiteOn CDRW
40x AOpen CD
120mm exhaust fan

This is usually the sign of an overheated CPU, with the thermal protection kicking in. I seem to have done
what I could to eliminate that as a possiblity, altho I have not ruled out subpar voltage from the board
pinouts causing the fans to fail. Other than using a molex adapter and plugging it into a standard size molex,
I can think of nothing else to diagnose or check. This will keep me from adjusting the HSF rpm but at this
point I just need to get it running stably. Any helpful suggestions are appreciated.

 

[BadThad]

Win XP? Did you check the event logs for any clues? What's running at startup? Did you virus/malware scan the system? Have you disabled unneeded services?

 

[WT]

Win2k
Nothing in the event logs at all, as each shutdown is totally without event .. just .. BOOM .. dead.
No spyware/malware at all. I run Spybot 1.2 updated defs. at least once a week. I also use Stinger as a secondary scanner on top of an updated AVG.
All spammy services disabled, including Messenger.

I'm going to check the board fan pinouts tonight to see if my line is fluctuating. This is stuff I do every day and night too, so its not something simple.
I run a clean rig and know what to load and what to beware of, but I'm stumped on this one. Usually in these cases, its flaky hardware but I'm not sure
where to even start to look.

Edit: damn I hat ethe new forum formatting layout. It acts like the quick reply and goofs my returns :-(

 

[BadThad]

Did you try reseating EVERYTHING on the mobo? Might want to also try resetting the BIOS to default, reboot, then go back into the BIOS and set it up again.

 

[amdskip]

IMHO, not sure how great of a power supply that really is. Some motherboards are a lot more fussy with things like this. I would definately try the molex connector. Is your computer going into sleep mode which then is stopping the fan and then the heat overload shuts er down or what?

Edit: What has been upgraded on this machine? If its the moterhboard, did you do a fresh installe of windows?

 

[WT]

Everything but cpu reseated.
BIOS already tried on defaults ....
This PS replaced an HEC 300 watt that did he same thing ...
No sleep mode ... that doesn't help me crunch #s ...
No fresh install .. its been running since, err ,.... January, .. with same basic components. I added the FX5900 and two weeks later everything started acting up. I would not lay the blame on the card tho, its simply inopportune timing.

 

[WT]

.

 

[WT]

Update:

I used a molex adapter to plug the HSF into a molex directly from the PS, not using any onboard fan pinout, and its been running overnight no problemo.

Now, if only I could regulate the fan speed in this way like I did plugged into the board. I ran it at 70% and it kept the cpu cool and didn't wake everyone up.
At 100%, I can't throttle it back and it screams like a banshee !! If it runs for over a week with no shutdowns, I will just buy a rheostat and splice it in
somewhere to allow me to modulate the rpm speed back to a more ear-pleasing setting.

 

[mechBgon]

WT, you shouldn't be trying to run that fan from a motherboard header. It draws too much power to be safe for a motherboard header on most boards, and now you have two dead headers to prove it.

 

[WT]

Mech, I wouldn't say they are 'dead' just yet. Both test OK for voltage, and simply switching the rpm fan sensor pinout and the HSF pinout provided a suitable workaround for well over one week. I would not have used it in this way but my 3 speed fan selector switch burned out on me months ago, so I had no choice but to plug it directly into the board and hope for the best.

Now I would like to find a rheostat and splice it into the line so that I can adjust the speed. At 100% rpm, my temps are 10c lower than they were at 70%, but it absolutely wails, drowning out my speakers unless I crank them.

 

[WT]

Its been a week now and no problems, so I am filing this one under 'Case Closed".
I am picking up another Thermaltake Volcano 7+ just for the 3 speed fan switch (old one is dead and non-repairable).
I saw a nice Thermaltake 12 that looks very nice, but at $35 I'd rather stick to my budget and an $18 7+ fits in there nicely.