Just built a new machine. Worked fine for 20mins then I loaded up with media players browsers apps etc...and it shut off with no warning within 5 mins. Re-Boot..ran 15mins or so then shut off again. Next day (no system changes) ran for 4 hours just idling...then I ran Prime95 torture test. All tests...for 20mins each and then Max heat/stress for 2hrs with no errors. Ran fine for 4hrs this evening then shut off just opening a browser.

The only things I used from my old PC are the TV card (was shutting down prior to even installing that so its not that)....and the 2 IDE drives. I did not have to re-install windows on this new machine. I got it to boot
(after 2hrs effort and googling) and then installed the new mobo and video drivers.

*** My old PC would shut off too without warning every so often at random. Sudden shut downs act like a hardware issue to me...but since its happening on this new PC too with the old drives...can a windows problem cause this since its the same HDD and OS from the old PC???***

The only hardware issue I might suspect on this new pc is the memory as I purchased 1.8v stick and this mobo only goes down to 1.95v but I don't think thats enough to make it unstable. More stable I would think if anything. I havent changed timings and don't plan to as its inexpensive basic memory for the moment. The PC definitely wont take an overclock in this condition since it doesnt appear to be stable at default settings.

So...am I looking at a hardware issue....or can an OS problem cause a sudden shutdown at random??

(one more issue with realtek audio mixer but too much for one post. will address that seperately.)

BTW - I did enable dual core in W2K device mgr.

System as follows:
Antec Sonata II case w/ SP450 450watt PSU
Biostar Tforce 550Se mobo vers.5
AMD X2 5600+ CPU 2.8ghz 1mbx2 cache
Crucial 1gb stick ddr2 PC667 1.8v 5-5-5-13
Gigabyte Nvidia 7200GS PCIE vid card 256ddr2 onboard memory.
Boot HDD-100Ata Western dig 80gb 7200rpm 8mb cache
Storage HDD -100Ata Seagate 250gb 7200rpm 8mb cache
DVD drive - Asus lightscribe SATA rw 18x
Hauppage wintvgo Plus 1033 tv tuner/capture card (pc was shutting down prior to install)
*** CPU cooler is Coolermaster with 3 heatpipes, copper base, large alum fins and large fan.Its HUGE! Arctic Silver Ceramique HS compound. CPU Temp avg 30C - max so far 39C per bios on reset after prime session - speedfan showed 56C, biostar windows monitoring app shows 25C and MBM shows 30C. None of these apps agrees with bios INCLUDING the bundled hardware monitor from Biostar. 39C in bios is fine tho and the heatpipes are cool to the touch.

All suggestions greatly appreciated....
Thanks in advance....Dave

i would change the main power supply for starters

You mentioned that the same thing has happened to the new and old PC. You're using the same hard drives from the old PC so it's very likely that the problem is a bad Windows install or OS related problem(s) on the old hard drive or problems with the hard drive itself.

Try running scandisk on the drive with Windows and see if that comes up with anything. If that yields no results then try removing that hard drive and installing windows on the second hard drive. If that works then you'll know the culprit was with the other hard drive.

Good luck,

Internalrage

Mountain - Brand new 450w Antec PSU (although I know even knew ones can be bad). All voltages are nominal in bios and in speedfan. Other PC was running a fairly new Seasonic PSU with Active PFC but was acting similar.

I agree Internalrage that maybe since same issue both PCs might be a HDD or OS thing. In addition to shutting off....the Old PC would bluescreen and memdump occassionally also but not often. I was thinkin maybe I've got a trojan or virus that AVG did not detect. I've run Kaspersky and Housecall in the past and have picked up a thing or 2 AVG missed but AVG is usually pretty good. I used Avast for a while but it went south when I tried to update DAT files. Didn't like the GUI either.

I ran Microsoft memory tester from a bootable floppy and got no errors after 40mins so the memory seems ok. That doesn't leave much but the graphics card (doubtful on 2 different PCs and 2 different video cards)or the HDD or OS.

I'm going to try various virus scans and do a scandisk on the drive.

Thanks to both.

Anyone else with ideas...I'd appreciate em.
I'll post follow up if I find out what's up.

Quick update.

Ran virus scans. AVG locally and Bit defender online tests clean (altho bit defender deleted 2 of my screensavers thinking they were viruses). Trend Micro housecall started running then PC powered off suddently 5 mins in. Tried to run it again and almost finished then the scan stopped at 3/4 and wouldn't complete.

I left the PC on after that and it was up for over 12 hrs after that with no shutdowns. I experimented with OC. Stock clock is 2.8ghz. Got it to 3.01ghz stable with prime95 max stress for 1hr solid...no errors. Temp monitoring apps are not accurate but quick reset in bios and look at cpu temp showed 39c so it was probably 43-45c max under load.

Quick manual shutdown to return to normal clock settings and it was up for another 11 hrs. Then out of nowhere it powered down when I opened Firefox.

It's acting like a hardware shutdown but the sudden power off event usually occurs when I'm doing something simple like opening a browser...or not even touching the computer. Never occurs under load or intensive apps. It's never occured while running prime95 which I've done 3x so far since build a few days ago.

Scandisk shows 0 errors in all sectors.

Microsoft memory tester via bootable floppy shows memory ok.

No errors or shutdown events recorded in event log. Just a few minor svc errors on boot up (non-related).

Think I'm going to end up re-installing windows. I just hope it's not related to a microsoft update otherwise....it's going to happen all over again when I re-install and patch windows.

Still open to any suggestions.....

"The only hardware issue I might suspect on this new pc is the memory as I purchased 1.8v stick and this mobo only goes down to 1.95v but I don't think thats enough to make it unstable".

I don't understand why your settings won't correspond to standard voltage settings but that is a fair amount of overvoltage IMO.

Is it possible you have fluctuating AC from the wall outlet. If another high usage appliance is on the same circuit the voltage may mementarily drop. That could cause the computer to shutdown.

I don't have answer but I am a little curious about your hardware config? Why DDR2-667 instead of DDR2-800? And why only one stick?

Why such a weak video card? Apparently this isn't a gaming system?

Why are you running SO many hardware monitoring softwares?

Did you manually configure the BIOS or are you running defaults?

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to address in order here.

OTH - RE: memory voltage. Lowest DIMM setting on this board is 1.95 in BIOS. Max is 2.1. There is a 2.4 jumper for max OC.
Currently reads 1.90 in bios even tho its set for 1.95.

According to the Crucial website, thier 1.8v pc800 ram is recommeded for the biostar tf550se mobo and I'm sure they know the lowest on that board is 1.95v. Even tho mine is PC667 its the same ram at 1.8v CL5 so there shouldn't be a problem and ram tests memory free so far.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...

CPU voltage varies...but might be the way AMD handles it. When I OC to test I set CPU volts from 1.35 to 1.4 to make it stable. CPU-Z showed 1.44v with a max of 1.51 then it backed off to 1.35 again, BELOW where I set it in bios and stayed at 1.35 for an hr running just over 3ghz with prime.

Jam -

Why 1 stick pc667? Cuz I was considering building a new system and couldn't pass up $18 after rebate and free ship for a gig of crucial ddr2. First thing I bought...then got the bug to buy it all. I plan to use the 667 for testing or a backup system. I have already ordered 2x1gb dual ch. kit of ADATA PC800 CL4.

No it's not a gaming system. I use it to edit mpg videos and photos from my camera, watch/ rec some tv, edit audio and process astrophotography. My sktA XP3000 system had a Gf4 MXX440SE 64ddr so this 265mb ddr2 with 512mb via memory share is a HUGE upgrade and more than adequate for my uses.

Monitoring softwares are not set to activate on boot. I run the apps manually during testing. I'm trying to nail down why its shutting down and want to monitor CPU and mobo temps. That's kinda hard cuz NONE of them is accurate! MBM5, Speedfan, Biostar hardware monitor....Speedfan shows 56C CPU temp, MBM shows 30C and Biostar shows 35C and when I reset and go into bios...temp is around 35 (max 40c so far with prime). Support for MBM5 is done so I understand that it doesnt support my board. Speedfan is supposed to support tforce boards and Biostar bundled monitor SHOULD be the most accurate but is avg. 10C off. That leaves no real accurate way to monitor temps from windows. CPU-Z doesn't monitor temps...but does monitor CPU speed and voltage fairly accurately.

I manually configured a few things in BIOS. Boot order, Fans set to Manual on, No restart after power failure, 4sec soft off, few other minor things. System speed is currently set to normal but I did manually OC to 3.01 Ghz with Prime95 stable for over an hr.

Went in to Memory timings just to see what they are set at...5-5-5-13 is correct. I switched back to auto.

Prolly going to end up re-installing windows and see what happens. I already have everything backed up to another drive but it still takes a while to get it all back to normal. I dread re-installs....all those patches....
(up 3hrs now...no shutdowns...gotta love intermittent problems)

Sorry typos...Biostar monitor 25C not 35c. (10degrees off) and Memory tests free meant to say error free.

Another update...

No random shutdowns today. PC was up for hours.

I installed a new monitor app which has temps close to that of speedfan so I guess speedfan is more accurate than I thought...and apparently my CPU was running hotter than I thought under load. I guess the cpu was cooling down very fast since load is gone during reset and the fan is still running, so looking at bios temp that way isn't too accurate.

The Biostar app temp is defnitely off. Approx 10C low in reading and only shows core1 temp.

The coolermaster hs/fan I have takes air from right in front of the case exhaust fan and I think the exhaust fan was pulling air away from the cpu fan. Under Prime95 temps maxed out at 61c.
I reversed the exhaust fan to pull air in from outside and blow into the cpu fan and temps dropped by 11C!! I'm going to keep it that way and install a seperate exhaust fan. My bios cpu shutdown temp was 65 but I the pc was shutting off even at idle so I don't think that was it.

I downloaded windows security updates to try to make a slipstream CD to re-install windows. We'll see what happens.

Your problem sounds exactly like what I was getting with a WinXP pro box. Since XP and Win2k are nearly the same, perhaps your problem is similar to mine. Turned out that even changing to another box and a different HDD didn't fix it.

What did fix it? REMOVING REAL PLAYER software. It's been 3 months now and no more random shutdowns or BSOD at all! It happened with older versions over a 3 year period and with every new version. Very annoying when you're listening to an NFL game and it hangs on you.

Boo Real Player.

Good luck!

Jim@HiTek

Thanks for the suggestion Jim. No realplayer. I'm not a fan of Realplayer. Every time I've installed it...it has taken over all my media apps even when I told it not to associate file types. Don't like the layout of the player either. WMP9, VLC and Winamp for me.

Thought I'd update for anyone following this thread. I seem to have resolved the issue with a fresh install of windows.

****EDITED****

Ok....problem NOT solved. Ahhhh.....
Ran prime95 3x today with no shutdowns. Overclocked twice to test and ran prime for 2hrs with no shutdowns. Just web surfing ...no system load and all of a sudden click....power is off again. Guess it's not OS related. Least the new system runs faster with a fresh OS install.

2 new sticks of memory installed tonight so it's not that. Since the sudden shutdowns occured on the old PC also and several components were re-used from the old system...it remains possible that its something in common with the old PC and new one.

Only things left that the I re-used from the old PC and that may be shorting and causing the power supplies (3 new PSUs between 2 PCs) to shutdown protect are:

1. one of the drives hard drives shorting or drawing too much power momentarily?

2. The optical mouse physically? (not driver or software related because I didn't install the mouse software. running on windows default usb mouse drivers)

3. The Monitor somehow causing a short or spike in the power supply, causing it to protect and shut down?

5. The 40 in 1 removable card reader shorting?

6. The floppy drive shorting?

That's it...no other commonalities.

I don't think the card reader was attached the first time the new PC shut down...so I'm going to remove the floppy drive and see if that helps.

Intermittent problems are the worst....
Will post as I find out more....

RESOLVED....I think.

Been over a week now with no sudden shutdowns.
NOT Power supply, peripherals or OS related it seems.

Appears to have been related to CPU stepping issues or to use of CPUz (or both).

Have been using RMClock for CPU stepping instead of AMD Cool n Quiet. Was still getting shutdowns with RMClock but after tweaking my idle multi and FID (Vcore voltage) it seems ok now. May be this CPU doesn't like low multi or low vcore.

OTHER Change made was to NOT leave CPUz running. Since building the system I had CPUZ and speedfan up to monitor things. After reading of problems on other forums with shutdowns and freezes related to Coretemp (which I don't use) I researched and found some instances that CPUz may be causing similar problems for some. Now I just open CPUz ...look for a few mins then close it.

May attempt to find the shutdown problem definitively at a later time but at least I'm down to 2 possible causes and with the changes I've made seem to have resolved the issue for now.

**NOTE to anyone following this thread. If you use CPU stepping programs (Cool n Quiet, RMClock CPUID etc)... return CPU clock to FULL speed BEFORE attempting to capture video with a tv tuner/capture card. With RMClock set to Performance on Demand I was dropping frames with wintv go (software based 878 chip capture card) due to my CPU operating below 2ghz at idle.

Hi, I had a similar problem. My PC was randomly shutting down itself.

I suspected RMClock of this behaviour. I used RMClock to undervolt my processor (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz). (Linear stepping between 1.1V @ 1000MHz and 1.35V @ 2000MHz.)

I also noticed it became worse (happened more often) with the latest version of RMClock v2.3. But also Cool'n'Quiet sometimes gave me problems, although I didn't get a shutdown but a 'freeze' with a black screen. I suspect something going wrong with the stepping: I have never seen a shutdown leaving it on with a low workload for a whole day or so (1.1V @ 1000MHz). It seems to happen when the workload varies. For instance, I had it a lot when cold starting my pc or starting a web browser.

I'm using a Asus M2A-VM-HDMI motherboard with a 350W PSU (AOpen QF50D), which for this configuration (onboard video) should be enough I think. And no, I don't have overheating problems. Under full load, the CPU temperature never gets above 53°C. Maximum power drawn by the pc is about 120W.
I decided to disable RMClock/Cool'n'Quiet and since then the problem hasn't occurred.

I have major problem with cool n quiet too. My system is an Abit KV-85 with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 1 gig ram, 160 sata hdd, etc. Everything runs fine when cool n' quiet is off in the BIOS however when turned on, the computer cuts out in Windows only. The speed by CPU-z is 800mhz always (even under high load) when cnq is AND off!!! I have the lates 1.3.2 AMD drivers as well and the updated (1.6) bios. I have spent ton of time on this, can't figure it out!! Seems like a Windows compatibility problem cause it runs fine using boot discs, Does anyone have any ideas??

Thanks so much!
Orion