Problem. PC Shuts Down

[erich]

Hello,

Yesterday I upgraded my CPU and Video Card.

from a Pentium D 2.8Ghz, upgraded that to C2D 2.9Ghz. and from a 8600GT xxx edition 256mb ddr3 I updgraded to a 9800gt 1gb ddr3.

now my PC shuts completely down without errors, warnings, blue screens nothing, just completely shutdowns like if there was a power outage.

As per the manual the vid card requieres a psu of min 400W, I have a 680W PSU unit. Computer starts fine, but I noticed that if I try to use something that uses heavy graphics thats when the shutdown occurs., two examples:

1. I tried refreshing the windows experience index, and it shuts down right in the middle during a direct 3d ALU test, everytime..

2. tried loading BFBC2 and shuts down when trying to enter a multiplaye server.

this leads me to believe it might have something to do with either a faulty PSU unit, or faulty Vid Card (doubts on the latter).

As for Drivers I uninstalled and reinstalled everthing twice now and even resintalled Direct X just in case.

Although it seems I have the possible problem pinned down I would still like to read your comments and suggestions...maybe I missed something ?

PC specs:
-Core2Duo 2.9gz
-Vid: 9800GT 1gb DDR3
-3gb RAM pc 667 (planning on upgrading that soon)
-Motherboard: Asus P5N 650i Sli board
-680PSU unit
-LG 22" Widescreen
-HHD: 320gb 7200rpm
-DVD Writer
-Windows 7 64bit Ultimate (legal)

Tks

Eric

 

[not so gray matter]

Are you sure you made all connections properly and securely?

Shutdowns like that can occur due to short circuits, faulty power supplies and other problems.

 

[Rik55]

Have you thought about checking for a motherboard BIOS update. Some of the newer C2D chips, ie from the E7***/E8*** range need a BIOS update. Newest BIOS seems to be P5N32-E SLI BIOS 1903 (2009/12/28)

You could also turn off the Automatic Restart feature so you can see the BSOD error message. Right Click My Computer - Properties - Advanced System Settings - Advanced - Start Up & Recovery - Settings then untick Automatically Restart.

 

[erich]

Thanks guys.

1. I'll try disconnecting and connecting everything again.
2. I checked Asus's website and for the C2D I have installed I requiered min 1301 version, I have 1404 installed, but will try to install the latest one.

will revert

 

[Zen00]

I would think this is more along the lines of a CPU failure. This kind of attitude occurred when I was trying to overclock my rig. It might be that your voltages are off, either for you CPU, or your RAM.

 

[TVeblen]

Did you restore BIOS defaults before and after installing the new CPU?

I'd like to add that it can be important, particularly when upgrading a BIOS, to restore BIOS defaults before you flash the BIOS, and after the BIOS flash. This redundancy is a simple procedure that can avoid the occasional strange behaviors that can occur when flashing a BIOS.

Also one of my cardinal rules of upgrading hardware or software: never more than one component or change without reboot and test.

 

[erich]

hi guys,

Well tried everything suggested.

1. disconnected and reconnected everything again
2. loaded defaults in bios and cleared cmos
3. updated bios with the latest
4. did a ram test (which shut down the machine about 1/3 of the progress)
5. thought it was ram, so I bought new ram, didnt work either
6. reinstalled direct X
7. reinstalled all hardware drivers
8. resintalled my old vid card just in case

I did get some where, after I reinstalled DX (I downloaded the large +100mb file from MS) it actually almost finished (progress bar was right next to finishing) the windows experience index, right when I though "voila it was fixed" the machine shuts down....

any ideas ? could this be something related between the DX version and the new vid card?

tks

/Eric

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try uninstalling your video card drivers, and reboot.

Then let Windows automatically install the drivers it finds.

 

[loaba]

You've put so much time and money into this thing, why not do a thorough rebuild? Pull everything out of the chassis (shag carpet and socks not recommended) and then carefully reinstall.

Also - what kind of cooling are you running?

 

[WindowsStar]

Try uninstalling your video card drivers, and reboot.

Then let Windows automatically install the drivers it finds.

I agree with JK here.

Just to add a quick trick to try before you uninstall the driver, because I have seen this problem many times and something that does correct it, is to disable all the extra services for the video card. You can keep the driver from the vendor’s web site but you need to disable the extra services it installs. (hot keys, auto update, helper service, etc.) I have found this to fix many video issues as well as unexplained shutdown issues. - WS

 

[neo101]

Isn't the obvious thing to stick your old graphic card back in. Then test for however long. No probs should mean CPU is ok.

Then tackle new card - well known there can be incompatabilities with graphic cards and motherboards prob needs a bios tweek by the manufacturer
You went from 256 card to 1gb could be a memory overlap problem somewhere also.

Stick 1gb card in again.
Drastic - but you could delete "pci bus" driver in Device Manager then reboot and let win 7 rediscover all the drivers keep rebooting then go onto windows online update to find any others it needs and let them settle in. reboot.
See if it sorts it.

 

[erich]

Thanks to all of you guys

anyhow, I found the solution:

I tried everything everyone here suggested (literally), and thanks to all of you I finally narrowed the problem down to the Windows Experience Index (WEI), the solution in my case was to delete all files (except for .etl file) in the Windows/Performance/WinSat/DataFolder folder, it seems these are the files used by the WEI, once I deleted that I went back to WEI and started the whole process and it finally finished, I have not had one shut down thus far.

Im not taking the credit for this one though, I searched google for WEI problems and ended up here:
Windows Experience Index windows 7 crash

whats strange is how this little piece of software can really screw up a computer, or atleast make the computer seem its screwed up and ready for the can.

thank you all for your time and dedication!!

brgds

Eric

 

[Jonathan_King]

Great, glad to hear you got it solved.

Thanks for sharing your solution.

 

[Thorsen]

Can you play games without crashing as well? I hope this resolved the issue. If it did, it is good knowledge to have.

 

[erich]

yes, I played BFBC2 with out any problems, before I couldnt even log into a server without the pc completely shutting down.

 

[Fumz]

What make and model PSU do you have? Wattage means very little these days; it's only the amps that count.

Like has been suggested, do a complete rebuild making sure every connection is tight and all your cards are seated properly.

When booting up, since you have the latest bios, load the default, reboot back into the bios, and load the optimized defaults... then boot to Windows. As this doesn't seem to be a problem for you, I'm sure this all seems like tedious busy work, but it's probably not a bad idea to do it anyway just to rule out certain things.

As far as stress testing, I'd start with memtest. Optimally, you'd like to get in an 8 hour loop to make sure memtest hits all the address ranges and works them.

If you're seeing errors in tests 1-4, they're front side bus/cpu related, which means either you're not running the right voltage on vcore, or perhaps you just got a dud cpu.

If you see errors in tests 5 and up, those are memory related errors, and it either means you're not giving your RAM the proper voltage, or you've got a bad stick or dimm slot. It'll take a bit of tooling around to figure out which one, but it shouldn't be that long.


**edit**

lol, never mind... glad you got it worked out.

 

[neo101]

Thanks to all of you guys

anyhow, I found the solution:

I tried everything everyone here suggested (literally), and thanks to all of you I finally narrowed the problem down to the Windows Experience Index (WEI), the solution in my case was to delete all files (except for .etl file) in the Windows/Performance/WinSat/DataFolder folder, it seems these are the files used by the WEI, once I deleted that I went back to WEI and started the whole process and it finally finished, I have not had one shut down thus far.

Im not taking the credit for this one though, I searched google for WEI problems and ended up here:
Windows Experience Index windows 7 crash

whats strange is how this little piece of software can really screw up a computer, or atleast make the computer seem its screwed up and ready for the can.

thank you all for your time and dedication!!

brgds

Eric

Well WEI often doesn't finish when you have a screwed/old/wrong/missing driver.

If it wasn't refreshing your drivers then we now know swopping out a CPU screws the computer /WEI

Thanks for getting back!

 

[tempest69]

This problem started with my Aero not being enabled on a similar box PentiumD -Nvidia-gt8800 400watt antec that has kept the machine happy for years even with some heave 3D loading..
The problem gets a bit off in that the box powers down, but is more asleep than unplugged, as I need to either -unplug it, or hold the power button 5 seconds-, then re-press it normally for it to power up.

Ok, I have the same problem crash for the WEI.. but I dug deeper I can crash my machine by double clicking a video file. The file didnt work right in VLC for some reason.. might be broken.. Deleting this was a bear, as I had to own the file before deleting it, then re-permission the file.

ok broke the WEI and retried the AERO fix.. boom powerdown

needed to get stuff done, went to the discreet onboard, and it works.

 

[neo101]

Your PSU might be on the way out if you have weird computer sleep/wake problems, use reboot power button to reset etc (which are getting progressively worse)

Try pushing all the wires/cables/cards/ram back into all their sockets cos of heat-creep cycle/vibrations making them work their way loose