Computer shuts off regularly every 30 minutes to 3 hours

SordemaruSai · 23 Mar 2012

I have windows 7, not the beta version, full on windows 7, It's 64 bit as well.
Here's some of my computer specs:

Windows Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (64-bit) (Build 7600)
Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421
Memory (RAM) 8152 MB
CPU Info Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz
CPU Speed 2926.3 MHz
Sound Card Speakers (Realtek High Definiti |
Realtek Digital Output (Realtek |

Display Adapters ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series | ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series | ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series | RDPDD Chained DD | RDP Encoder Mirror Driver | RDP Reflector Display Driver
Monitors 1x; Generic PnP Monitor |
Screen Resolution 1920 X 1080 - 32 bit
Network Network Present
Network Adapters Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet | DW1525 (802.11n) WLAN PCIe Card
CD / DVD Drives 1x (D: | ) D: HL-DT-STDVD+-RW GH50N
Ports COM Ports NOT Present. LPT Port NOT Present.
Mouse 8 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks C: 1386.3GB
Hard Disks - Free C: 1286.0GB
USB Controllers 2 host controllers.
Firewire (1394) Not Detected
Manufacturer * Dell Inc.
Product Make * Studio XPS 8100
AC Power Status OnLine
BIOS Info | |
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Battery Status No Battery
Motherboard * Dell Inc. 0G3HR7
IP Address 192.168.1.5 |
MAC Address 5C-AC-4C-25-41-E8
Host Name ZERA-PC
SM BIOS A05

Any help would be very much appreciated, I'm at the point where I'd like to get my PC actually checked out by the geek squad, but that's a last resort.

If it helps, my computer crashes most often when I'm gaming, when i watch movies or browse text/picture based web-sites, I'm fine.

dsperber · 23 Mar 2012

Sounds like a thermal protection kicks in. Sounds like your machine is overheating under load.

Do you have hardware monitoring software running so that you can see what your CPU/GPU temperatures are, fan speeds, voltages, etc.? This would be invaluable to help you rule in or out thermal issues.

I myself use a non-free product named Aida64 because of its highly regarded capabilities and customizations, which provide both a concise onscreen display using minimal real estate, as well as an optional flyover-help for its System Tray icon that displays whatever you want it to display (I don't use this myself, because I prefer the always-visible OSD updated every 4 seconds).

Golden · 23 Mar 2012

Excellent suggestion from dsperber. A well-regarded free version is HWINFO.

HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools

One option is to test your CPU for stability under load:

CPU - Stress Test Using IntelBurnTest

But....first lets see your temperatures under idle conditions.

Regards,
Golden

dsperber · 24 Mar 2012

Just in passing, can you be more specific about the actual specs on the actual XPS 8100 that you bought?

The Dell site shows that the XPS 8100 comes with only a 350W power supply. You say you have an ATI HD5770 video card (I believe), which according to this tech review article says that under load the card sucks 284W of power all by itself, while taking 181W of power at idle.

Given the rest of the equipment in that PC (which is not extreme, but does certainly require power) I wonder if you are overloading the barely-enough 350W PSU when you game, and the shutdown is a power overload rather than a thermal protection.

I have an ATI HD5770 (Viper-X model from Sapphire) in one of my machines, but I also have a 500W power supply in it. I also don't game. (Actually... it's the machine you see "measured" by that Aida64 screenshot above.) Never had any auto-shutdown like you describe although I have four internal hard drives and four other internal expansion cards (in addition to the HD5770), all of which takes power.

Actually, there used to be a 600W PSU in that box but some recent hardware transplants ended up with the HD5770 assigned to the case with the 500W PSU, which thankfully still seems adequate. I have an APC UPS (battery backup) on the machine and including the two 24" LCD monitors which are also plugged into the battery-backup sockets along with the PC itself and an external USB drive the UPS states about 320W total draw (giving me about 12 minutes of battery backup lifetime, should I need it).

Looking further, your i7-870 CPU also is no slouch on the power consumption angle, with this article stating it uses 134W idle but 233W under load. But this number may be distorted as I think it includes the bare minimum system... 1 HD, 1 GE Force 8800 video card, and memory.

Here's another article which seems more precise. Idle usage for i7-870 is 81W and load usage is 181W.

I suspect research into this story may point to the fact that in the end you actually need a larger power supply in that box... given how you use it. Check with Dell and see what they say.

SordemaruSai · 24 Mar 2012

Hey, thanks a lot for the help you two. I've ran a few tests and it looks like the problem is not the overheating, but the psu. I'll get it looked at and most likely replaced. Thanks again

bbearren · 24 Mar 2012

SordemaruSai said:

Hey, thanks a lot for the help you two. I've ran a few tests and it looks like the problem is not the overheating, but the psu. I'll get it looked at and most likely replaced. Thanks again

It's probably the PSU thermal protection that's knocking you out. Check your total wattage probabilities under heavy load and get a PSU that will supply some overhead above and beyond those loads.

Golden · 24 Mar 2012

Well done - new PSU, pop it in, and job done!

alishathomaz · 26 Mar 2012

Perform the following tasks::

1) First of all disable the auto-restart option from your control panel settings.

2) Remove any recently installed maliciously software/add-on or any other application or toolbar.

3) Update the drivers.

4) Make it sure the error is not caused by the deficient power supply. You may try to change the power supply.

5) Conduct the registry clean up scan for quick fix of the problem.

6) Remove flashy games and/or untrusted antiviruses/antispywares. Conduct the security scan through the most powerful scanners only.

7) Try to cool down your PC as the overheating due to overuse of computer may result in system freezing and sudden restarting.

dsperber · 26 Mar 2012

alishathomaz said:

Perform the following tasks::

...

Kind of boiler-plate COPY/PASTE at this point...

4) Make it sure the error is not caused by the deficient power supply. You may try to change the power supply.

He's already taken previously suggested advice pointing to this as the likely culprit.

And he's already stated that it's now been determined by his testing that it IS an inadequate power supply which is at fault here.

5) Conduct the registry clean up scan for quick fix of the problem.

6) Remove flashy games and/or untrusted antiviruses/antispywares. Conduct the security scan through the most powerful scanners only.

Sounds like items 5 and 6 on the standard Bangalore call-center script.

7) Try to cool down your PC as the overheating due to overuse of computer may result in system freezing and sudden restarting.

Overheating and thermal-protection shutdown (from CPU and BIOS) was the first thing suggested early on. But then his XPS 8100 machine description was investigated, and the 350W power supply revealed which is barely adequate. Fair for idle or normal loads, inadequate for high-load game-playing with the HD5770 video card it has in it.

The problem is not overheating due to inadequate cooling or fans or "overuse of the computer". It's PSU overload (due to an inadequate PSU provided by Dell for this machine), and/or automatic thermal shutoff by the PSU when it overloads, which is at fault.

He's already said he's going to upgrade the PSU.