Intermittent Booting Issue

[Duresthar]

Evening!

I have a bit of an issue with my machine that has been happening since I bought it (the entire system is from scan), but it doesn't seem to happen particularly often so i'm not TOO worried about it, but thought it was worth mentioning in case it could cause problems at some point.

Sometimes when I boot my machine up when getting up in the morning/home from work/whatever it will boot up, the fans will start going at full whack as they do and then...Just keep whirring...And then my PC will turn off after about 5-7 seconds or so. It doesn't seem to do this very often though, but when I turn my machine on I'm using it for a good number of hours and I've had absolutely no problems with it other than some faulty memory which Scan kindly replaced. Once it turns off, it'l turn itself back on again, but this time it'l work fine and after a few seconds the fans will calm down and it'l boot. Most of the time it seems to be fine on it's own. When the machine is booted up I've not had any problems.

I spoke to one of my colleagues at work (he has a hardware background) and he suspects that it could be because the CPU is overclocked. Could it be something to do with the voltage when its in POST? and some kind of failsafe to prevent my hardware from being damaged? Is this correct?

If it's quite a normal thing to happen and/or it's not doing any damage to my hardware i'm quite happy as I am, but thought it was worth checking.

The only other problem before getting into the OS that I've had is it saying the overclock failed, and it'l just sit there. This has only happened perhaps 3-4 times since i've had the hardware (about 2 1/2 months?), and hasn't done it recently. I believe some of those times is when I've reseated RAM. I'm hoping it's not really an issue, because I find changing motherboards/processors a pain!

Thanks!

[drharvey12]

Hi Duresthar.

That doesn't sound normal to me. It could be some kind of failsafe as you said.

It might be worth taking a note of your overclock settings and try setting everything to default settings and see if the problem still occurs. I've got a SCAN system and mine was setup with a stock clock and an overclocked profile in my BIOS so I can change between them if necessary. Yours might be similarly set up. At least this will eliminate an overclocking issue and allow you to play games or do whatever without any problems unitl you are able to properly diagnose and fix the problem.

Was this a system you put together yourself or was it a 3XS system built by SCAN? I'm assuming it's a 3XS system as you have posted it in this forum in which case if you've only had it 2½ months I would seriously think about ringing the SCAN hardware helpline and asking them to go through some troubleshooting over the phone with you. If you have an onsite warranty with them they'll send someone out to fix it for you if they believe it to be a hardware issue.

They've been pretty decent to me when I've had to speak to them. Whilst they do get quite busy at times I've found that leaving my name and number with them will get a phonecall back without fail within 24hours or so.

Hope you get it sorted anyway

[Duresthar]

Hi Duresthar.

That doesn't sound normal to me. It could be some kind of failsafe as you said.

It might be worth taking a note of your overclock settings and try setting everything to default settings and see if the problem still occurs. I've got a SCAN system and mine was setup with a stock clock and an overclocked profile in my BIOS so I can change between them if necessary. Yours might be similarly set up. At least this will eliminate an overclocking issue and allow you to play games or do whatever without any problems unitl you are able to properly diagnose and fix the problem.

Was this a system you put together yourself or was it a 3XS system built by SCAN? I'm assuming it's a 3XS system as you have posted it in this forum in which case if you've only had it 2½ months I would seriously think about ringing the SCAN hardware helpline and asking them to go through some troubleshooting over the phone with you. If you have an onsite warranty with them they'll send someone out to fix it for you if they believe it to be a hardware issue.

They've been pretty decent to me when I've had to speak to them. Whilst they do get quite busy at times I've found that leaving my name and number with them will get a phonecall back without fail within 24hours or so.

Hope you get it sorted anyway

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for the response! I guess i'll give them a ring when I get a chance. Hopefully it's just a configuration issue but I spose i'd better sort it out before something happens 1 day after my warranty expires.

[Philipp]

Hello Duresthar;

Ben and Sanjay are your best port of call you can either contact them on 0871-472-4747, or drop me a mail (philipp@scan.co.uk) with your number and a suitable time and ill have them call you.

Best Regards

[Duresthar]

Hi Phillip,

Great stuff, thanks! I'm a bit restricted on my availability, so that sounds like the best plan.

[Duresthar]

Had a productive conversation with Mick, just thought i'd update the thread with the outcome for anyone elses sake as well. It turns out the type of motherboard I have and I think a similar Gigabyte motherboard seem to experience this issue and it's been reported by other customers as well, but it appears to be more of a feature of the board likely to do with the voltage on the processor due to the overclock. I was advised it was nothing to worry about, unless it gets worse then to get in contact again. A considerable relief, thanks a lot guys, I appreciate the support!