Power Issues

[phathead]

About a month ago my desktop began randomly shutting off. It didn't appear to be load based or heat based, but I discovered a wire had somehow pulled out of the connectors to one of the fans. The bare wire, I theorized, must have been hitting the frame and causing a short. I nipped the wire, sealed it off and the computer started working normally again.

Then two weeks ago the problem reappeared. In addition one of the lighted portions of the front of the tower was off several times.

Seeing as I do not have that much expertise in this field, I decided to bring it into a local shop. After farting around with it for a few days, they could not determine what the problem is. The PSU was fine, there was no overheating and the wiring looked to be sound.

I decided to call the company who does the IT work for the chain of pharmacies I work for. I know the guy who runs it and asked him if they would be willing to look at it. They are, more or less, the premier IT company in town.

This past Monday I brought the beast in.

And they could not recreate the problem. They ran the machine at full load for almost two solid days with no power interruptions. They could find no problems either hardware or software related. In fact, they said it was one of the best designed and maintained systems they had ever seen.

So I brought the bugger home thinking that it may work now. It ran for 30 minutes then the power cut out. In attempting to reboot it, the power cut off again after about five seconds. I attempted to boot several more times with the same result.

I have thought of all the obvious problems. I have removed it from the common serge protector and put it on its own. I have plugged it directly into the wall. In all cases, it still shuts off.

So I have now hit the interwebs in search of an answer. I plan on bringing it back to the place I picked it up from today and have them damn near tear the thing about. I'm heading out of town to Madison for a few days for a pharmacy school interview, so I will be away from the net for a few days.

The only initial thought they had it is since it was a water cooled system, that there could be bubbles in the line preventing proper cooling. However that was until he learned that it was a closed system and nixed that idea.

I can post specs if need be, but does anyone here have a reasonable idea as to what the problem could be?

 

[Zero82z]

In cases like these, it's generally helpful to provide the make and model of your PSU as well as a full list of specs for your PC. It's impossible to really diagnose the issue without more information.

 

[phathead]

Yea... that's what I thought. Kinda difficult considering the doc that lists all the specs is on the computer that won't boot up. I'll scrounge around and see if I can find them.

 

[phathead]

Here's what I've scrounged together so far

PSU: NZXT PP-800 800w SLI ready
Proc: Intel Core Duo E8500 @ 3.16 ghz
Mobo: ??? Haven't found that yet
Ram: 4 GB DDR2 PC6400 Ram, no other info than that
Vid: evga GeForce 8800GT 1G
HD: WD 500GB 3.0GB/s 16MB Cache

Clean install of Win7 64bit 6 weeks ago

 

[phathead]

I'm almost positive that it is not power issues from the house. I hooked it up to the same outlet that runs my plasma, PS3, etc at the same time with no problems.

I have replaced the HD, RAM, disconnected non-essentials (like DVD-ROM, media reader, etc) and the problem still occurs.

Then I can get the damned thing to run for a few minutes, but I cannot get an image on the monitor. I am now thinking perhaps it is the vid card itself, but do not have a second one to test it with and there is no VGA port on my mobo.

Does this make any sense? I have not seen any clear evidence through various forums that confirms this actually happens. I have read where it can sometimes cause the power flucuations I have been seeing on boot up.

If this does not appear to be the cause, I think its time to test a new mobo but I would really prefer not to go that route.