Overload Shutdown/Power off - Over heat!??

[Salazar]

Hey guys,

I built my pc about 2 years ago now, with a bit help from some of you guys on here

Spec

Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.80GHz
THERMALTAKE CL-P0257-01 775/K8/AM2 BLUE ORB II CPU Cooler
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive
500W PSU - Jeantech - JNP-500AP (from previous system).
ThermalTake M9 VI1000BWS midtower case (from previous system).
Scythe Kaze-Master 5.25" Fan Controller - Black
ThermalTake A2018 120mm PerfectLight Blue-Eye LED Fan x3
ACER P243Wd 24" wide format TFT Screen (2 ms)
Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV

It has always suffered from a problem of just powering off. I think its when it gets over heated and just konks out. It's very frustrating but doesn't do it all the time so I've just lived with it.

Unfortunately the other day the fan on my THERMALTAKE BLUE ORB II CPU Cooler broke and I've had to swap back to the OEM one (which was never used and just kept in the box). Took the PC apart and replaced the cpu cooler and then when putting it back together I managed to blow the power supply and its now fried! So I had to put in an old 300W (max) PSU.

Now the PC can't take even the slightest load or it will just power of instantly! Like running more than one program at a time is too much for it! I am wondering if someone can point me in the right direction of where to start please guys. Is it likely to be the OEM cpu cooler not doing it's job and allowing the cpu to overheat? Or is it more likely to be the low power PSU that I need to upgrade?

Also, was there something I needed to do to the AMD dual core cpu when I was installing it? something to do with it being dual core and getting both cores working with windows rings a distant bell?

I usually run the three case fans at around 800-1000rpm to keep the noise down and that still allows for a lot of air flow, with the 2 at the front sucking in and the one at the rear blowing out.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Ulti]

Tbh, your system should hardly draw over 75w at idle and just under 150w at load (as in something like running a benchmark for hours or running stability tests) or something like that. It's pretty to safe that your system will never draw over 150w therefore.

Now I can't see why your system would power off, most power supplies (even cheap no brand ones) should be capable of handling 150W, you could try taking everything out of the case and cleaning off some dust carefully and reconnecting every cable and every piece of hardware.

I find it REALLY odd that your pc just randomly shuts down though. Does it randomly turn off completely or does it shut down windows first?

[Salazar]

Hey bud, thanks for the reply. How do you know my PC wont draw more than 150W? Nah it's not a problem with dust or connections, I always keep it clean and it's all hooked up correctly. I had it all apart yesterday anyway and it still has the same fault. It doesn't shut down windows it literally just turns off completely like I snapped my fingers and made it happen. It's most annoying. It's always done it.

It's got to be something to do with either the CPU/CPU fan or the PSU, as those are the 2 parts I changed yesterday and now the PC can take even less load than before and still has the same fault where it just shuts down without warning.

When I bring up task manager with one or two programs running it show the cpu at pretty much full wack, that's why I'm thinking maybe the CPU needs to be configured correctly or something??? Like it's not running efficiently or something

Thanks for you input mate, any other thoughts? I don't really want to go and spend £50 on a PSU to find out its not the issue but I'm not sure what else to try at the moment.

[Ulti]

Well I just looked at some benchmarks really, a HD4650 paired with a E8400 showed it drew 100W at peak load and a 5600+ seemed to draw about 50W more than a E8400 at load so I'm guessing at load/peak it'll draw 150W.

If it's not a problem with connectors then I'm not sure, does the OS say anything about recovering when you boot up again?

Usually if it's a memory related problem then it'll blue screen, probably the same with the CPU too. It could be the HD failing but the system would then to freeze then reboot if that was the case. A complete shutdown usually only happens when one of the components overheats too much. Most motherboards have an autoshutdown mechanism for the CPU if it gets too hot.

It could also be the motherboard itself, but that's hard to test.

Here's some ways to test each piece of hardware though:

Firstly, only use 1 stick of RAM (apart from running memtest the first time) and use the integrated graphics, this should rule out some memory errors and definitely rule out the graphics card. Taking out the graphics card should reduce power consumption by about 50W at load too.

To test memory, run memtest for a few hours, if it shows tons of errors quickly then it's a memory related problem - do this with both sticks at first and then test each one individually.

To test your CPU, try something like Prime95 with small FTT's, try to ensure airflow is max (e.g. open case etc) to ensure the CPU isn't overheating. Use CoreTemp to monitor your temperature. It says on the AMD site that the max temp is 55-70 degrees so if it's going above 55 without any overclocking then there's definitely a mounting problem.

Not sure how to test a hard drive, but you could try HDTune and running a benchmark and checking the health section, when my data was corrupted (i.e. the HD was fine but the data stored was corrupted due to my unstable RAM) the program still display the HD as fine under every section so I'm not sure how accurate this is.

I doubt the problem is due to graphics card overheating but you could check this by running Furmark.

You could also just stick your hand on the motherboard heatsinks to make sure they're not blistering hot.

I have no idea how to test a PSU though other than swap it out with one that you know that works.

[paulktreg]

Replace the power supply anyway because if that's a cheap 300W generic that's a few years old I doubt very much it can still deliver 300W and the DC quality is probably terrible! Good quality 400~450W power supplies cost very little these days.

Cheers

Paul

[Salazar]

Right guys, unfortunately I'm now getting a much quicker overheat/shut down since I had to change the cpu cooler back to stock and the power supply to 350W. When it over heats and shuts down, I am unable to restart it for ages, this can happen from simply copying files to a memory stick whilst surfing the web at the same time and that's enough to over load it. If I don't leave the system alone for an hour or so, I can't even get Windows to load up, as soon as the Windows logo appears on the screen for the first time (with the loading bar beneath it) the system just powers off instantly. Like the system can't even handle loading up Windows!

Also, I tried doing CPU and memory load tests but they both get about 3-4mins in (sometimes less) and then the system just shuts off instanlty!

Does that lead us to anymore possibilities for the shutdown/overheat? The CPU, when checked in the BIOS seems to be running at around 55 degrees.

I reapplied the thermal paste to the CPU heatsink today. There was a scratch on one small area of the CPU, could this cause a hot spot of some sort? When the shut down happens the CPU heatsink doesn't really feel that hot but the northbridge chipset (780G) heatsink is very, very hot. What could cause that?

I have updated the mobo BIOS today but no difference. I will do the Chipset drivers as soon as I'm actually able to turn the thing on again!

[Salazar]

nightmare!