Sudden shutdown on A7V8X

[Dave Weaver]

Last week I had a problem with my PSU - all power went, except for some
LEDs which stayed on (I guess I lost the 12V feed, but the 5V fees was
OK - dunno, I'm no electrician...)

Anyway, I replaced the PSU with a brand new QTEC 400W PSU. However now,
when I'm playing a fairly intensive (both graphically and cpu-wise) game
the machine will just shut off after a couple of minutes.

No warning, nothing gradual, just a black screen and silence, although
the power LED remains on. If I hold down the power button for 4-odd
seconds to power down, then power up again, the machine seems fine.

I didn't have this problem before the original PSU gave up, so I suspect
it's the new PSU, but can anyone provide any insight into what's
happening?

I've searched through the BIOS, and the only auto-shutdown option I
could see was to do with CPU temperature, but I couldn't see what the
trigger temperature was (is it configurable? couldn't find it). My CPU
appears to be running at around 49C - is this OK?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Tim Draper]

is that 49c temp idle, or loaded?

also, have you got auto restart on failure disabled? (start > CP > system >
advanced tab > startup&recovery settings > untick auto restart)

does it happen in just that game, or all games? and is it always, for
example, ~5mins into the game or totally random

tim

 

[Dave Weaver]

is that 49c temp idle, or loaded?

Once the machine had 'hung', I immediately rebooted, entered the BIOS
and read the temperature reading there. Seeing as I was playing a game
at the time, I guess it would be loaded.

also, have you got auto restart on failure disabled? (start > CP > system >
advanced tab > startup&recovery settings > untick auto restart)

Yes it is disabled. I like to see the BSOD when I get problems.

does it happen in just that game, or all games? and is it always, for
example, ~5mins into the game or totally random

So far it's happened 3 times, twice in one game (Raven Shield) once in
another (UT2004 demo). Each time it was ~3 mins into the game. Sitting
at the desktop for ages caused no problem.

Possibly relevant information: on Saturday I upgraded my graphics card to
a Radeon 9800XT. It ran fine all of Sunday and Monday though.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Dave Weaver]

The story so far:
Replaced power supply (and graphics card).
Machine shutdown after ~3 mins of playing a game - this happend
multiple times with different games.

Just a quick followup for anyone who's interested;

I replaced the new 400W QTEC PSU with a 300W PSU from another PC. Now
I get none of the problems I had before.
It remains to be seen if the other PC, now with the QTEC PSU, behaves
itself. It's not used for games though, just media (MP3, video etc).

Don't know if this means the QTEC PSU is faulty, or if it's just
due to a certain combination of hardware ...

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Peter Wilkes]

Could the load and heat produced by a heavily loaded mobo, CPU, GPU etc
generate enough heat to cause the PSU to get too hot and shut off? Th extra
load on the PSU will also cause it to warm up.

Check the temp of the air coming out of the PSU and if it is warm that *may*
be causing the problem.

PW

 

[Tim Draper]

how about running SETI or prime95 or something to load JUST the cpu?

if it goes away, then try swapping ur radeon back to ur previous/another
known working GPU and then playing some games. alternatively, try ur 9800XT
on some1 else's pc (like mine ) and see if the problem is still occuring.

and unless ur running alot of aditional components, or the PSU is faulty,
i`d say your 400w PSU is enough. maybe try mobo monitoring software and see
if a low voltage rail is to blame.

tim