Random PC restarts
- Thread starter evilazza
- Start date
ok so ive formatted my drive again and installed windows 7 ultimate 64 on it this is the normal drive not ssd, there is no overclock as far as i am aware its clocked at 3.9 which i dont think is stock but is the automatic setting once bios is reset. so far so good im running some games on it, il keep the games running all afternoon and see what happens. also the temps only hit 48 on cpu and 55 on gpu. il post back here if it restarts or if all is well tommorow, but just a question how do i know what the problem was, was it the overclock or the ssd?
Ok so basically it restarted again this time it gave a message:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=erws3d&s=6
This was the same message before then i got a new power supply, so my conclusion is the power supply is faulty again and the power surge in my house basically killed the new one. so i will contact overclockers and see if they can give me another new one tommorow. is there any way of stopping this happening in the future maybe by using a serge protector lead like a special one for computers? the only thing is i dont understand why this is happening because the electricity has tripped before but like tripped a fuse on the house then you reset it and all is fine but yesterday when it cut out it didnt trip a fuse is just went. but yea anyone know my next steps?
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=erws3d&s=6
This was the same message before then i got a new power supply, so my conclusion is the power supply is faulty again and the power surge in my house basically killed the new one. so i will contact overclockers and see if they can give me another new one tommorow. is there any way of stopping this happening in the future maybe by using a serge protector lead like a special one for computers? the only thing is i dont understand why this is happening because the electricity has tripped before but like tripped a fuse on the house then you reset it and all is fine but yesterday when it cut out it didnt trip a fuse is just went. but yea anyone know my next steps?
well its good you got that error this time, its atleast proof of whats causing it
there is conflicting advice about this error, some say that the asus surge protection feature is flakey and you should just turn it off
some say you should take no chances and rma the psu straight away
id look to see if there is any bios updates, and also post on the motherboards forum after contacting ocuk
YOUR BASKET
1 x Belkin 4-Socket SurgeMaster - 2 Metres (F9H400UK2M) £9.98
Total : £14.98 (includes shipping : £4.16).
there is UPS too, which is surge protection with battery backup but they start about 80 pounds
there is conflicting advice about this error, some say that the asus surge protection feature is flakey and you should just turn it off
some say you should take no chances and rma the psu straight away
id look to see if there is any bios updates, and also post on the motherboards forum after contacting ocuk
YOUR BASKET
1 x Belkin 4-Socket SurgeMaster - 2 Metres (F9H400UK2M) £9.98
Total : £14.98 (includes shipping : £4.16).
there is UPS too, which is surge protection with battery backup but they start about 80 pounds
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Yea thank you so much for all your help ive been on this problem all day now, im just worried overclockers wont replace the power supply unit because it was replaced a week ago, the thing is it wasent my faulkt and i wasent aware of the problem but i will ring them tommorow and see what they say. what do you mean post on the motherboards forum about contacting overclockers? and i take it i just go to the motherboards manufacture website for bios updates ? my board is asus
yeh on here and on the asus website, i wouldnt like to advise either way, doing a search on it you get replies like
"Just try turning off the anti surge protection it generally is BS since most PSUs have surge protection built in anyways, most likely the MB is mistaking the power for startup to be too much and is shutting your CPU. If your computer is still rebooting after POST just try flashing the bios or resetting the CMOS and it should be fine."
i think its worth contacting ocuk for their advice tho
"Just try turning off the anti surge protection it generally is BS since most PSUs have surge protection built in anyways, most likely the MB is mistaking the power for startup to be too much and is shutting your CPU. If your computer is still rebooting after POST just try flashing the bios or resetting the CMOS and it should be fine."
i think its worth contacting ocuk for their advice tho
Yea thx for all your help today, i will contact ocuk and see what they can do for me im pretty sure the system is not getting enough volts as the bios said 3.3=2.9v 5=was ok and 12=11.8, so to rails are under voltage thats why it showed up in red earlier as well as just now. so hopefully ocuk can send me a new power supply and i can buy a surge protector, it does say the power supply has one but i guess it didnt work twice, luckly the motherboard does have one and protected all my components. i just need it to stop happening so if a surge protector on the outside of my computer can do that so be it, but i'll keep you posted
I rung overclockers today and they were like yea we will send you a brand new power supply no problem because they don't actually test power supplies. Only bad thing is i normally get them to collect the item however the guy on the phone was having none of it i was like i had my last one picked up because i have had issues with delivery before but he just wouldn't do it which sucks, so hopefully i can get my money back for the delivery relatively easily/quickly. Also i got that surge error warning again late last night so hopefully a new power supply will fix it because everything else is tested. This time im buying a surge protector before i use it because this is to much hassal to go through. im going to buy this one: http://www.officenerd.co.uk/info/Belkin-7-Socket-SurgeMaster-GOLD-Series-48077 which as far as i know has the highest voltage protection i can find plus its got a £unlimited warranty so if my system is damaged or data loss everything is fully covered. Any thoughts or anything to add>?
The surge protector too close to electronics and too far from earth ground does not protect from harmful surges. And sometimes can earth surges harmfully throught a motherboard. Literally bypasses superior protection found inside the power supply. As for its protection numbers, it is near zero.
Those volt numbers from the motherboard have no validity until first confirmed by a multimeter. A £7 item from Maplin and so many other stores.
Based upon those numbers, your computer should not even boot. With better numbers (three digits) from a multimeter, then better information and the reason for your failures are more likely and immediate.
Normal is for a supply to work for months when fully defective. That could be your case. However, had a supply been confirmed when first purchased, then the defect may have been obvious. Just another reason why the meter is so important especially to system assemblers.
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thank you for your reply i didn't check the power supply because i only replaced it last week so instead i checked everything else. ironically i have a multimeter and a volt pen sitting on my desk right now as i told my dad last night. but like i said earlier it is confirmed the problem is the power supply because i had a surge error warning twice now, unless you might know of a reason why i get random restarts, i have tested memory, graphics,hard drives, cpu and gpu temps are normal, rebooted so no driver issue it literally leaves the power supply to be questioned. but what i mean about the low volts is on my asus board it showed the 3.3 voltage as 2.8 something and it was red im pretty sure that never happened when the system was overclocked and was running fine. also to double check your information about the surge protector, so basically what you are saying is power supply's suck and provide hardly any protection and also that the surge protector im going to buy is pretty good ? (it has life time warranty on my system)
All other items do not cause restarts. Do you know of the power controller? That determines when a PC powers on, when the CPU can execute, when peripherals and memory can be accessed, and when a PC powers off. Did you check it?
You had a power surge? What does that mean? That is no relationship to something completely different on AC mains. Has no relationship to another 'surge' that occurs on USB ports. IOW three completely different anomalies - all only share a common word.
Knowledge cannot be obtained from a word or its definition. Knowledge comes from underlying facts and numbers - how hardware actually works.
So again, what is meant by a 'surge'? Well, without first calibrating hardware with a multimeter, then that hardware is measuring what?
Software makes no measurements despite so many who assume otherwise. Software only reads what hardware measures. We have already seen numbers from hardware that say your computer should not be booting. So you know hardware is measuring correctly?
In short, understand what is actually being reported or measured. Learn what that version of the word 'surge' means.
How to use a multimeter (and ignore some web sites that recommend erroneous techniques). First, with a computer off. Set the meter to 20 VDC. Black lead attached to the chassis. Measure its purple wire where the PSU connects to the motherboard. It should read about 5 volts. But all three digits are significant.
Next read the green wire both before and as the power switch is pressed. Report that number and a resulting behavior when the power switch is pressed. Repeat same for the gray wire.
And finally, boot the system. Multitask to as many peripherals as possible. IOW play complex graphics (ie a movie), while downloading from the internet, while playing audio loudly, while powering some USB devices, while searching the hard drive, etc. Now take measurements on any red, orange, and yellow wires.
Report numbers from all six wires to learn about your supply and about other parts of the power 'system'. Yes, a power 'system' is more than just a PSU.
Only then can anyone say what you actually have without speculation. And if numbers from SpeedFan, et al are valid.
its good tho, lets see if the new one kicks up warnings
look for any bios updates for the motherboard, it might be the motherboard reporting it wrong
if it was my own pc i think i would have disabled that feature but its different when advising someone else with their expensive pc
ocuk didnt offer any advice? just that they will replace it?
Yea basically they said if i checked all the components then they don't really know whats up so, but because its OCZ power supply they don't test it they just replace it instantly which is good so should be here tommorow or the day after, and im not touching it until my beastly surge protector comes which should also be here tommorow or the next day. if it still does it then i will check my bios and go through every single step westom recommended because i checked all the things a average person would do really he clearly thought of EVERYTHING which is good because it litterally leaves nothing unchecked and the better the advice the better my chances of solving this headache of a issue. problems with a clear indication of what it is are so simple but things like this are the worst. but hopefully it was just the power supply again that is what i am hoping for, but will keep you all informed because im pretty sure there's a lot of others with this problem who cant identify the problem because i went through a lot of forums with no definite solution.
Hello guys, a update got my surge protector and new power supply, to my worst fear it was not the power supply as it just restart again after a totally clean format. I really have no idea what this problem is and it seems nobody else does. please can you take me through all stages of what checks i should do to eliminate the problem please. Please can you also show as much detail as possible as I can build computers and no my general way around them but not to some detail i have seen on these forums. Thank you in advance.
And again, one minute of labor with a multimeter. And then one who really does know this stuff can identify suspects.
The paragraph started with "How to use a multimeter".
You only have two options. a) Get the £7 item to obtain numbers. One minute of labor means the few who actually know this stuff can provide help. b) Or shotgun - just keep replacing parts until something works. Those were and still are your only options.
UPDATE: I RMA'ed my bundle (cpu,memory and motherboard) overclockers got back to me and said they ran a intel stress test/idle for 50 hours and nothing crashed so that rules out those 3 components, some suggestions were:
---- Check graphics card with a spare card (which i luckily still have my old one if its compatible)
-----Boot on the ssd and totally remove the Hdd (I removed the ssd completely before and booted on Hdd so i will do the opposite now).
Anyone had any other ideas, after reading around further, people have either said its GPU or PSU and since i have got a brand new PSU 3 times i don't think its that as its in a surge protector this time.
---- Check graphics card with a spare card (which i luckily still have my old one if its compatible)
-----Boot on the ssd and totally remove the Hdd (I removed the ssd completely before and booted on Hdd so i will do the opposite now).
Anyone had any other ideas, after reading around further, people have either said its GPU or PSU and since i have got a brand new PSU 3 times i don't think its that as its in a surge protector this time.
The two choices were get the numbers. Or shotgunning. You have done shotgunning with no success. Why not spend a full minute trying what an engineer recommends?