Mysterious computer problem, any ideas?

J

Jaanpunjab

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 6, 2007
Messages
144
Alright guys, my computer has been having some major problems recently, and I am really at a loss for what the problem could be so I'm coming to ya'll for some assistance. It's the same PC as in my sig with a PCP&C 750W PSU and a trio of HDDs.

Here is the situation (sorry if it is a bit long):

I left my computer on while at work one day, and come home to find it powered off. I start it back up and it runs for bout 10min and then off. Everything just turns off immediately. I hit the power button, the lights blink, fans come on and then immediately back off. According to the little digital numbers on my mobo, it kept getting to enbale ATX power supply, pauses for a few seconds, then off. So my immediate thought is my PSU has gone and bit the dust, but i tinker with my mobo, clear the CMOS, and try again, it gets a little further in the boot-up process and then dies, so then I begin to wonder if it's the mobo. So I unplug it and decide to wait for my friend to come take a look at it.

After a week we plug it in, power up and it seems to be working fine again for about 5 min and then once again it powers off. We run the diagnostic software he has from working on geeksquad and everything passes except for one HDD failing the smart tests. We run the diagnostics twice more, to the same result. During this time the PC is on and running for bout 1.5days without any random poweroffs. Last night I load into windows to see if I can run some other HDD diagnostic software and it has been up and running windows since.

So my question to you guys is: what exactly do you think the source of the problem is; mobo, PSU, or HDD?
 
My vote is the PSU, and now possibly the HDD.

test your rails for consistency, boot/load/idle... my guess is your PSU is sending variable volts, and it's damaged your HDD (if it's smart values are bad enough to fail a diagnostic then it's probably a dead/dying drive)

if your volts come back clean, then it *could* just be the motherboard dying. I'm betting your HDD is collateral damage in this situation though, I've never known a disk drive to cause a reboot at post... it could cause the reboots in windows, but at boot I don't see how a drive can cause a shutdown.

good luck!
 
My guesses:

1- PSU, some overheating/power related problem.
2- May be a HD problem (somewhat unlikely).
 
Temps are fine right now, and there were plenty of times where I would experience the same problem after it had been sitting powered off for about half a day. So I don't think that it is overheating.

That sounds like a pretty plausible scenario IdiotCow, I'll have to pick up a multimeter from work on monday to test out the PSU.
 
You can go into the bios and read the voltage output under system health or use a utility like Sisoft Sandra or Everest in windows to monitor the voltage.
 
uhh, yeah... but I've NEVER had a motherboard that correctly passed those values.

they are notoriously unreliable. a multimeter reading post/idle/load is what you want to actually test your voltage...
 
It will give you an idea if the voltages are low or fluctuating a lot. If the battery is low on my multimeter it reads high. You need the voltages onboard, not at the connectors. A bad cap on the board will cause fluctuations that your DMM won't read. You need an ocilloscope. Pick and choose.
 
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