Home-Built Server Randomly (Suddenly) Shutting Off

T

TechieSooner

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
7,601
I'm sure I can troubleshoot this but just wanted to run it by you folks and make sure I'm not missing something simple.

Basically, for the past few days this server randomly shuts off. Abruptly, suddenly.
There's other devices plugged into the UPS that don't- so I know it's not the source of power (even tried different outlets, so I've been told).
Users even thought it was overheating, so they opened the case up and put a floor fan right next to it to blow air through it- still does it.


I'm thinking Power Supply, however they HAVE said they've replaced it, so my next thought is the Motherboard.

Doubting this is RAM, but to eliminate the issue I'm having them run Memtest overnight.


Anyone else have suggestions other than the Motherboard? I wouldn't think it'd be hard disk controllers, USB controllers, or any kind of other hardware: because I'd expect the system to at least stay powered on. IE: If the HD controller was bad, I'd expect Windows to crash obviously, but at least power to remain on the system fans. But it just shuts itself off dead...

Edit- I did reset BIOS settings as well to make sure those weren't an issue.
 
Power supply would be my first guess, memory would be my second guess. Try booting the server with one stick of memory at a time to see if it boots up
 
It boots up fine. It'll just, at random intervals of runtime, shut itself off.

IE, Windows is fine... Nothing wrong with that. It's just that it's almost like someone unplugs it.
 
any recurring issues when it "randomly" dies? (for example does it seem to die under heavier loading? certain activities? etc)

I agree with jburman, power supply is the first guess, unless you can nail it down to a specific set of actions that will put it into a random power off (which would make me lean more towards software or BIOS settings at fault)

there is also always the possibility that it is just losing power, sounds like a colo'd box, perhaps they just don't want to tell you that they've had power issues (but then again, shouldn't the UPS stop that? ;))
 
i had this problem too. Mine was the power cord was overheating i guess. It was mad hot when i touched the cable so i replaced the cable and it never happened again.
 
Specs- don't know those right off hand.

I do know I PERSONALLY booted it up, never even logged it on, walked out of the room: and not 5 minutes later it was shut off already. So it wasn't running anything more than the server's services at the time, and didn't have the time to do anything. I realllly doubt it's software related- or heat related- because one would expect a heavy load to trigger that. And also, like I said, they turned a floor fan onto the case (took the side off) and it still did it.

I also touched everything (didn't think about the cord), nothing especially hot.

Might be a PS replacement then.
 
phiquach said:
i had this problem too. Mine was the power cord was overheating i guess. It was mad hot when i touched the cable so i replaced the cable and it never happened again.
Click to expand...

don't you just hate it when its spec'd as 12A or 15A and it wimps out at 6? :eek:

TechieSooner said:
Specs- don't know those right off hand.

I do know I PERSONALLY booted it up, never even logged it on, walked out of the room: and not 5 minutes later it was shut off already. So it wasn't running anything more than the server's services at the time, and didn't have the time to do anything. I realllly doubt it's software related- or heat related- because one would expect a heavy load to trigger that. And also, like I said, they turned a floor fan onto the case (took the side off) and it still did it.

I also touched everything (didn't think about the cord), nothing especially hot.

Might be a PS replacement then.
Click to expand...

yes, I would say PSU, also, "floor fan on a case", not a pro idea
 
obobski said:
yes, I would say PSU, also, "floor fan on a case", not a pro idea
Click to expand...
I know, I wasn't the one that did it :D But as strong as that fan was, it would've kept that thing cooled down better than stock fans. So I really doubt it's a heat problem.

I was leaning toward PSU too. It was supposedly replaced but who knows with what- might've been underspec'd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top