Sudden-no-explanation system shutdown???

[miloshs]

Hey guys...


Been having this problem since yesterday, and frankly i don't know what to do...
Since yesterday i've been having these weird system shutdowns that happen randomly, and there is not one thing that will "set off" the shutdown.

It all started happening yesterday while i was out in town, and when i came back home my monitor was shut down (it had 15min power off state), when i tried to move the mouse to power on the monitor nothing happened (after some tought i figured out that PC froze, and was not responing to my mouse movement). I hard reset the PC, boots up normally, everithing works fine, and then all of a sudden (could be 1-2h after boot up)... BAM, PC shuts down... I'm then thinking, WTH is wrong with this thing i bought it less than two months ago...

Now the freaking thing happens at random, sometimes my PC shuts down when i click any icon, sometimes at IDLE (downloading something from the net).
The system just shuts down with no BSOD, no error log (system recovered from a serious crash thingy), when i press the power button everything works fine until the PC freezes or shutsdown at random...

Since i have a 700W PSU,and its brand new, and more than sufficient for my rig i ruled its failure (for now), and went straight to my RAM... Two slots of 1GB OCZ Platinum can't be the problem, i tought... then after i tried to push the memmory a little harder on the mobo, PC dies... hmmm... i take the RAM and put both of my dimms to different slots... works fine, and dies again after some 2h

After that failure i started thinking what if it was software related (triying to rule that out before i admit to myself the rig is broken )... After i while thinking i remmembered that the thing started happening after i installed ATI SM Bus drivers for my SB600 southbridge... My SM Bus was actually not installed (dunno why cuz i know i installed the drivers upon installing WinXP), so i installed the SM bus, and thats when the things started to suck. I also (in the time between SM bus install and first system shutdown) installed Everest 4.50, AMD cpu driver, 1-2 games...

Funny thing when i play games there's no shutdowns.... Also my PC temps are in good margins from the PC being shutdown due to overheating:

IDLE:
CPU
core0 19c
core1 30c
Chipset 43c
VGA 38c
HDD 30c

LOAD:
CPU
core0 45c
core1 54c
Chipset 47c
VGA 55c
HDD 35c

All voltages are in acceptable margins on all rails, and nothing seems wrong there...
I uninstalled Everest 4.50, and the PC is running solid for and hour or two with no shutdowns..


Hmmm lets get to the point... (just read what i wrote and seems awfully confusingly written with no actuall question )
Anyone out there had some SB600 issues?I read that the drivers for it are amazingly retarded...
So a recap:

(you can see my PC conf under my avatar)
Windows XP Service Pack 3 last updated 15 mins ago
ATI Catalyst 8.7
SB600 7.9 drivers
Temperatures all good
Voltages all good


Anyone have any suggestions? Oh yes, and i still have not run memtest since i have no floppy or USB drives right now, but will try to burn it do CD and try to run the tests...

Hope this is not too confusing for any of you...

any help is appreciated

and also i have no backup hardware so you can rule out swapping the stuff out of my case to determine the problem...

If anyone has any questions ill be glad to answer...

 

[cplpro]

Hi,

I have exactly the same Problem, since I overclocked the CPU

But I expect the GPU to be damaged through too high temperatures. It makes moste sense, so I will send it back to my retailer....

 

[miloshs]

My CPU is at stock speeds 200x16=3,2ghz... everything is stock no overclocks of any kind on any of the components

2x 80mm fans (front, back)
1x 120mm fan side

 

[cplpro]

I would try to re-install Windows, than you know if it is an hardware problem or not :shadedshu
From now on, you can just guess, like me.....

 

[miloshs]

So far it's running smooth without the Everest 4.50 thingy running in the background...
*keeping fingers crossed*

 

[cplpro]

One thing I forgot: my shutdown only appears, if the GPU is loaded, e.g. Crysis or stuff, so my problem seems to be obvious.....so far

Are you sure of your correct voltages ?

 

[miloshs]

Hmmm i'm almost sure they are...

Funny thing just happened, when trying to run speedfan 3.43 my PC froze when it got to "Scanning ISA BUS at $0228"

Think the HDD has something to do with the $0228 BUS...
Maybe the HDD is going retarded on me?!


It never happened before i installed the drivers for the SM Bus, used to run speedfan all the time with no freezes...

 

[cplpro]

Your problem sounds like a fatal software error.
I would re-install windows.

 

[miloshs]

Your problem sounds like a fatal software error.
I would re-install windows.

Damnit i hope you're right

U think its possible that a hardware is malfunctioning so the PC freezes when monitoring software tries to access the sensors?

 

[boogah]

I had that problem earlier this week I just reformat the hard drive put fresh windows on it and problems gone ^___~
Apparently windows randomly dies every few months ticking timebomb.

 

[cplpro]

Hehe
Like I said.....if you re-install Winsuxx, ehm Windows, you can definitively exclude and software error
If the problem still appears, it is an hardware error

Does your PC reboot or freeze ?

 

[miloshs]

Apparently windows randomly dies every few months ticking timebomb.

Hehe we all know that

Can't stop to wonder how some people use their PC's if they don't reformat the drive at least every 6 mnths?!
A few days ago i had this friend telling me she has the same system since she bought the computer 3 years ago!!!!
IMAGINE THAT!!!

 

[cplpro]

I`m also going to format again....I hope it works after

 

[miloshs]

I`m also going to format again....I hope it works after

Will have to do that too in the next couple of days...

My PC seems to run with no shutdowns when i don't use temp monitoring software... will update on that later on, to see if it will run error-free for a few hours

 

[cplpro]

I`m sure you have just a software problem !

 

[miloshs]

I`m sure you have just a software problem !

 

[cplpro]

 

[miloshs]

update...

Here's a little update...
Since 3 hour back i haven't had any problems with my PC regarding sudden shutdowns, so i can almost positively say that it had something to do with the monitoring software and its accessing the sensors...

 

[dj_dn]

Did you install AMDs duel core optimizer software in the last couple of days. Because i had random shutdowns because of it.

Check out my post a couple of weeks ago : http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=60863

 

[WhiteLotus]

Looking at your problems I would have said cruddy PSU, however this seems like it shouldn't be the case. What with a OCZ 700W and all.

 

[miloshs]

Did you install AMDs duel core optimizer software in the last couple of days. Because i had random shutdowns because of it.

Actually youre somewhat right, i uninstalled AMD CPU Driver, but the dual-core optimizer is still installed.

My PC seems to be running fine now, will leave it overnight to see if it will freeze or shutdown... but since the shutdowns started happening the top runtime i could get withou one was an hour or a bit more... so i could say the problem is solved... except for one thing, now i cna't run monitoring software
Will try to uninstall the d-c optimizer and see if that helps in any way... at the moment i'm not really eager to reinstall windows, so i'll do that as the last resort...

Looking at your problems I would have said cruddy PSU, however this seems like it shouldn't be the case. What with a OCZ 700W and all

What about the PSU exactly? I've checked it out doesn't seem to get hot in any way even under heavy load... can't really test the PSU since i don't have the necessary tools. All i know is that my current rig should draw something around 400W of power so 700W should be plenty even if i add one more GPU later on

 

[Katanai]

Hm... weird. I had the exact same problem a few days ago. It only happened once, the comp went dead like it was a blackout, my amp didn't go out so it wasn't that, then it restarted with the cooler at full speed. And if I remember correctly I was running DxDiag. I wonder what exact sensor is causing this? Or maybe it's because it's summer and the CPU gets too hot? My cooler is pretty good tho...

 

[WhiteLotus]

What about the PSU exactly? I've checked it out doesn't seem to get hot in any way even under heavy load... can't really test the PSU since i don't have the necessary tools. All i know is that my current rig should draw something around 400W of power so 700W should be plenty even if i add one more GPU later on

I had a problem with a cruddy cheap PSU that just tripped out from time to time. no reason - just seemed like half the time it couldn't be bothered to work.

 

[miloshs]

Or maybe it's because it's summer and the CPU gets too hot? My cooler is pretty good tho...

My rig doesn't get that hot really....

Max temps i had this summer @38c Outside was CPU at 56-57c, GPU at 57c, Chipset at 48c, HDD at 35c, so i don't see how that's too hot... not even close to shutting down.

I think the fault lies with the ATI SB600... drivers are crappy, and it's likely that if the drivers are corrupted, the PC freezes or shuts down when it gets to detecting sensors that have something to do with the SB600.
Actually all of my problems started AFTER i istalled the drivers fro SM BUS on SB600... while my PC had no drivers installed (it had that little question mark in the device manager) everything worked just fine..

GO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT....

All i can say, ATI sucks when it comes to drivers... end of discussion

 

[phanbuey]

My rig doesn't get that hot really....

GO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT....

All i can say, ATI sucks when it comes to drivers... end of discussion

HMMM.... thats funny because i have a GTX 260 and have the same problem... random shutdowns (mostly after 1~2hrs oblivion, and right after i quit bioshock ~but not always)... no error report just boom... shutdown... I also noticed cold booting is a hit/miss sometimes (I lose my overclock... and have to re-set it), sometimes its fine but then shuts down later.

Ironically, we have the same PSU..... - I looked at the caps the other day, and they look suspiciously puffy.

Im gonna swap it out for a Corsair 750W (66amp single rail FTW) this weekend... Ill post back as to whether or not it fixed my problem.