CPU/Mobo System weirdness - Part II

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Boot_Comp

Contributor
Hi,

My rig weirdness is back again now.

I had earlier reported an issue with my rig about 2 weeks back, which started working after a BIOS reset.

And yesterday this problem started again in the morning.
When I switched on my comp and was using Windows, after about 15 mins the comp hung (nothing was responding). It did not restart and the screen and etc. were 'stuck'.
I then restarted the comp and after this the system started restarting continuously (couldn't get in BIOS itself).

In the evening was also facing the same problem and so disconneted the power from UPS and directly plugged in to the wall socket. After this I was using the comp for about an hour and then left it on and came back after another hour. At this time the screen was blank with only a blinking cursor in it (beats me how this got there in the first place unless the comp restarted and was somehow stuck there).
After this point I was facing the restart problem all over and again.

So took the whole thing out (breadboxing it) and added the bare essential components (1 RAM stick, GPU and HDD) and after this see the comp powering on i.e. the CPU fan starts up and keeps up without restarting but the display is blank (although the GPU fan is working).

Am quite frustrated with this by now.
Plan to remove the battery and reset BIOS and try. Any other ideas folks?
 
Might be faulty ram...Even i faced the same problem earlier , it turned out that RAM was faulty.

If u have an extra RAM replace the original one n see if the issue still exists..
 
Boot_Comp said:
Shouldnt RAM problems give some beep indication.

Also I had run Memtest on it for around 6+ hours and did not see any problems.
Click to expand...
Sometimes even RAM's incompatibilty wid the motherboard can cause this problem...
 
Well... I just cleaned out everything, motherboard, CPU and whole cabinet. There was lots of dust everywhere.
Anyway now, everything seems to be working fine. Lets hope it stays this way. :hap2:
 
Boot_Comp said:
Well... I just cleaned out everything, motherboard, CPU and whole cabinet. There was lots of dust everywhere.

Anyway now, everything seems to be working fine. Lets hope it stays this way. :hap2:
Click to expand...
OMG I am facing the same problem but only wierder. It seems windows doesnt wanna work. Typing from uBuntu Live boot. I cleaned the internals and then got it to boot, else even the beep mobo sound wasn't coming..

Help would be appreciated, the thread is at CPU/MOBO corner
 
Ok, this problem is back now so it clearly isn't anything to do with heat or dust now.

However I've now observed that this happens only during the night mainly (that is also the time when I'm home). So I am beginning to think it is related to power supply from the mains / UPS.

My APC UPS did give me a few problems in the last 2 months of its warranty and was replaced thrice so I think they have given me some kind of dud UPS's. Anyway I think I would need to check the voltages (need to figure out how to use a multimeter first though) to help confirm this.

Does anyone know if in low voltage situations a PSU (Corsair VX450 in this case) will try to adjust the power delivered (i.e. any kind of correction) or does it just use the given supply? (or does this question make no sense :))

Also does a UPS provide voltage stabilization also or do we need to get a stabilizer for this?
 
Some UPS have AVR mentioned on it, if it is then it supports voltage regulation. Now VX450 requires a really good UPS usually >= APC 1000VA .

First try lowering the net wattage of your system.Try the following stuff :

1. Use a basic GFX if you can find one. Do not connect any cabinet fans. Keep your cabby open while testing.

2. Put only one stick at a time and give it a try.

3. Perform 4 passes of Memtest with one stick at a time using a boot-able CD.

4. Run without an HDD and see what happens,i.e, keep your computer switched on with just the bios for ~ 2hrs or so.

5. If none of this helps get your PSU tested. IF YOUR PSU WAS DAMAGED -> Since you're not able to put load on the PC currently your PSU is not destroying stuff but only restarts after some time.

6. Corsair VX450 had issues with some APC UPSs, it needs a pure sine wave supply. There was an old case in TE where the dude had to replace his UPS 6 times because of this issue. I think it can work in both ways ,i.e, either destroy your psu if your really unlucky or destroy you UPS.

Since you mentioned that you replaced your UPS => it becomes mandatory to check each and every component properly for stability(any problem related to supply can have dire effects on a system so please check everything properly[stability check] even if it is working fine).

7. If none of this helps get hold of an Ubuntu boot-able CD and run OCCT CPU, GPU and Power Supply benchmark test. Preferably before 12:00PM when you can run it without UPS and power fluctuations are minimum.

LAST STEP if nothing helps - remove the South-Bridge and North-Bridge HS and replace thermal paste with fresh one.

Post the results after you've tried all the stuff mentioned here. PM me if you need more help.
 
Ok. I'm on a mission now. Thanks aman.
Will try these out on this weekend and post back.
All this is making we want to actually learn hardware debugging now :), but first things first.

BTW my UPS is a APC 1100 VA BRI one.
 
I had replaced the HDD about 2 months back as my earlier one was not being detected (this happened around the time the UPS issue was going on).
Anyway by HDD check did you mean the Chkdsk?
 
Well, I was facing the similar kind of issue. PC will work for 20 Mins then will stop responding, HDD's were as if they never wanted to work. Failing to boot sometimes. Then PC stopped booting into windows, HDD's stopped getting detected. I thought i am doomed..!! Started to use Ubuntu live. After a day or so on Ubuntu, God Just opened my eyes, Just tried HDD's on friends comp and they were fine.

Culprit, El Cheapo Mercury PSU...!! First thing to do was send Friend to SP Road and get a Corsair power supply...!!

Then everything started working properly...!! So what PSU you are Using??

Edit: I faced this problem whenever my PC was running for more than 1 Day... ;)
 
Just remove the hdd and check everything else as the problem you're getting does not seem to be HDD related.

HDD check can be done by using Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics or with SeaTools[seagate] to check for bad sectors. S.M.A.R.T data that you can read using Everest/SpeedFan etc. tools can also be helpful.

Now this particular model APC 1100 VA has trouble with Active PFC psu's and VX450 is an Active PFC psu. It's better to go with 1000VA(white one) as many members here on TE are using it successfully with active PFC PSU's.
 
aman.pitbull said:
7. If none of this helps get hold of an Ubuntu boot-able CD and run OCCT CPU, GPU and Power Supply benchmark test. Preferably before 12:00PM when you can run it without UPS and power fluctuations are minimum.
Click to expand...

Is OCCT CPU available for Ubuntu? I was only able to find a windows exe for this.
 
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