Is this a power supply issue?

[wazooda]

I'm having an odd problem.

Recently I have had times where my system just shuts off in the middle of use as if it was suddenly unplugged. In addition, if I place the system in Standby mode and leave it alone for an extended period of time, the only way I can bring it back to life is to jiggle the power cord connection into the power supply. Neither hitting the keyboard or even pressing the power button on the front of the case will revive it. If I remove the power cord and then replace it, the system does not wake from standby, but instead reboots as if from scratch.

However, if I place it into standby and then try to revive it without leaving it alone for an extended period of time, just hitting the keyboard spacebar brings it out of standby.

I have replaced the power cord and confirmed that this is not a heat-related shutdown problem (my system is water-cooled and the CPU, an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ shows a temp around 38 deg celcius...)

Running XP SP2 with 2 gig ram.

The power supply is a PC Power & Cooling 510.

Any thoughts?

TIA!

Wazoo

 

[BillParrish]

I thought I was on to it until I hit this.

I have replaced the power cord

Actually a lot of the power cord "movement" results you describe are normal.

Has the computer always acted like this or is this something that started happening during some time that nothing else on the computer was changed ?

I am thinking 2 things. Not enough standby current from the power supply. Or the wake up (in device manager the "allow this device to wake .. ) is screwy , or your usb mouse/keyboard is getting turned off in standby (sometimes a jumper on MB to make MB always power the USB ) and of course if they are turned off the computer can not tell you are standing there banging on KB or moving mouse trying to wake it up.

I am betting more on hardware configuration issue than bad pwr supply.

only a swag.

 

[OCC_Yoda]

Or the wake up (in device manager the "allow this device to wake .. ) is screwy , or your usb mouse/keyboard is getting turned off in standby (sometimes a jumper on MB to make MB always power the USB ) and of course if they are turned off the computer can not tell you are standing there banging on KB or moving mouse trying to wake it up.

I had that same issue about a year ago.....
I also thought power supply but it turned out be a hardware issue.
So I iether leave the comp totally on or turn it totally off!!

Good Luck on your trouble shooting!!

 

[silent-circuit]

...reread the OP's post.

He's making very little sense. Of course removing and then plugging the power cord back in will cause the machine to reboot "as if from scratch" -- it loses power.

 

[wazooda]

I thought I was on to it until I hit this.



Actually a lot of the power cord "movement" results you describe are normal.

Has the computer always acted like this or is this something that started happening during some time that nothing else on the computer was changed ?

I am thinking 2 things. Not enough standby current from the power supply. Or the wake up (in device manager the "allow this device to wake .. ) is screwy , or your usb mouse/keyboard is getting turned off in standby (sometimes a jumper on MB to make MB always power the USB ) and of course if they are turned off the computer can not tell you are standing there banging on KB or moving mouse trying to wake it up.

I am betting more on hardware configuration issue than bad pwr supply.

only a swag.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think that the standby issue might be a bit of a red herring....

I decided recently to mess with standby mode as I have a room with three computers that put out pretty good heat (especially the rig that I am having this trouble with). This wake-up from standby problem I only noticed recently as I've only been messing with standby for a week or so.

However.... I think the sudden power shut-offs have been going on for a bit longer... but I'm not sure how long.

There have been times over the recent past where I wake up in the morning and my computer has rebooted itself. I figured that this was a Windows crash and the system just restarted itself.

Lately though, I've been noticing the sudden cut in power while working on the system. In fact, just about 30 minutes ago while surfing... BOOM! System just instantly shut off.

So I'm just throwing out all this strange behaviour (standby wakeup problem, instant power-offs, mystery reboots) to see if anyone sees a likely common cause.

I'm just beginning to think that they are all connected in some way. The odd thing about the wakeup is the fact that NOTHING will wake it up at times EXCEPT messing with the power cord (either jiggling it a bit which causes the system to wake... or removing it and replacing it which causes the reboot [and yes... I *know* that removing the cord kills standby... but again... just another info point]).

Someone in another thread suggested it might be that my system is under powered.

I'm running the following:

Athlon X2 4800+ CPU
2 gig CORSAIR TWINX1024-3200XLPRO
2 BFG 7800 GTX in SLI
Coolance 750 Watercooled case
3 hard-drives
2 optical drives


However... I'm not sure that an underpowered system would display the symptoms I am experiencing.

This is an odd one....

Thanks!

Wazoo