133 replies to this topic

[jeff matthews]

ok well now i am officially irritated. It seems there was never a problem with my PSU to begin with. My computer is still shutting down. I used all different wires, a whole new PSU and totally rewired it with new cabling. Though i think i will just keep the Corsair because its obviously a better PSU. I took my old PSU and put it in another computer. No shut downs what so ever. So the problem still remains. My computer is still shutting down like every 10-15 min. Do you think you can possibly forward this to some one a little more technical background in this field, see if some one else can help me determine what the issue is. All my hard ware is like 5 months old. There is no possible way it can be a temp problem because after having my computer off for like a good 3 hrs well i was working on it. It didn't have time to get hot. But yet it still shuts down. I have no idea what this could be. Something obviously in the system is causing the shut downs, Its a safety measure when anything is wrong. But at this point i really have no idea what could be causing this. I bought another HD. The only other thing i can try is unplug my current HD and plug the new one in and see if it happens. But i doubt a bad hard drive would cause shut downs like that. I hope to god its not my CPU. I spent so much money on that, only had it for like 5 months. So is there any way i can really diagnose this problem.

[jeff matthews]

Ok i ran a little experiment. I turned on the computer and left it on. I did not log onto windows at all. Sure enough, guess what happen? The dayam computer stayed on for more then 3 hrs. The moment i logged into windows, 5 min, it shut down. Now that tells you right now that isnt a PSU issue. Its a windows or hard drive problem. My questions are now, how will i be able to back up my data on my hard drive. I hope that HD does not fail on me, because it has all of my personal information, everything that i had on my pc. But in any case, knowing this now. What sort of steps would you reccomend to try and access my hard drive with the windows installation on it and back up all my stuff. Once i do that, ill plug in the other hard drive, and im pretty sure that might fix things. My problem now though is backing up my information because i can't log in. once i do it shuts down. If i keep it on idle on the log on screen, or the bios screen. it won't shut down. I tried it for 3 hrs and the computer stayed on.

[jeff matthews]

ok, wow, when i boot into safe mode with networking, there is no shut downs. So i am taking my time backing up my files right now well its not shutting down. When i go out of safe mode and then try to login normally, it shuts down.

[terry1966]

you said it kept shutting down even on the bios screen before you even got into windows so maybe you had more than 1 problem, at least now it doesn't shutdown until you get into windows with the new psu, so now it doesn't shut down in safe mode, i'd suggest stopping all the things that startup automatically on a normal windows boot and see if it still shuts down, there's probably a corrupted driver or program causing the shutdowns so you need to eliminate them one by one to find which one. yes i'll ask someone who knows more about the actually windows os to have a look and see if he can help too.

[jeff matthews]

alright thanks. and yes i probably did have more then one issue, because before it would shut down even in the bios. Now it only shuts down if i log into windows normally. OR if i try to do a "repair installation" in that case it will shut down before it finishes. The only thing i have not tried it deleting the partition, but i won't do that until i back up everything. In any case i have a 160 gb and 80 gb drives in my computer. they are extremly old so it could possibly be an HD failure or corruption, not just with windows. So im installing a 1tb internal drive and taking out those other drives once i back up everything. Then hopefully things work and i don't get any more shut downs. With the installation of this new drives, i have no old components in my pc any longer. So i should not have any future problems. Everything else in my pc with the accept ion of my drives are only like 4-5 months old.

Edited by jeff matthews, 20 April 2011 - 01:12 AM.

[terry1966]

sounds like a good plan, let us know if the new hard drive with clean os install on fixed everything.

[Doug]

Jeff,

Sorry to read the difficulties you have been having.

When problem-solving, it is important to discover and lay out the relevant information in a simple organized manner.
Then with that information, it is important to compose questions that can be tested in a way that narrows down and rules-out various possibilities.
A major mistake in early problem-solving is made when the investigator becomes sure/certain/convinced that the problem "must be" a particular feature, or "cannot possibly be" a particular feature.

Reading from the first post in your Topic here, I notice that you have been sure/certain/convinced that:

• Old Hard Drive is the culprit
• PSU may not be powerful enough, and you want recommendations for a new one
• A reinstallation of Windows 7 could fix the problem
• "no video input" alert is somehow related
• The problem started happening a day ago.
• Booting the machine has been problematic since the machine was first built
• Before the problem started happening, the machine had been really slow for a few months

Reading from your 2nd post, you are sure/certain/convinced that:

• This computer should no way be experiencing heat related problems

Reading from your 6th post, you state that the shut-down occurs even when in BIOS/setup screen, but later in Post #17 you indicate that your machine will remain "turned on" for 3 hours, but then shuts down within 5 minutes if booted into Windows.
And later you find that you can boot successfully into SAFE Mode long enough to backup your important files and folders.
________________

Jeff,

I can imagine that this situation is terribly frustrating.

Take a breath.

In your Post #20 you entertain the idea of Deleting a Partition... Yikes!
And then you propose to remove your older 160gb and 80gb HDs to be replaced by a new 1tb drive.

Again, ... take a breath.
_______________

It seems that you are so frustrated with this problem that you are "jumping to conclusions" and in the process you whiz right past some good suggestions that you've already received.
_________________________

OK. Let's slow down here.

Presently you are able to operate the machine in SAFE Mode.

What we know about SAFE Mode is:

1. The Hard Drive where Windows is installed is working just fine in SAFE Mode. (We can ignore the other HD's for the time-being)
2. Windows (in SAFE Mode) is running with only minimum Basic Drivers (generally the mother-board default devices)
___________________

Please take The Following Steps:

--- 1. Please complete backing up your important Documents and Folders.
--- 2. Please do not purchase any new hardware, nor remove or add hardware, nor reinstall Windows (at least at this time.)

--- 3. Proceed only after you have your important documents and folders backed up.

--- 4. Your first next step after the above will be to have a look in Device Manager, for any error warnings about Drivers
--- 5. Your second next step will be to have a look in Event Viewer - System to discover any "red" Error messages
--------- please jot these down with pencil and paper (if there are just a few) and post the complete information (of the few red errors) into your next reply.
______________


Take small steps.

What do I think the problem is?
--- Well, it could be any number of things you've already mentioned.
--- But we haven't proven that any one or more is the actual problem.
--- Therefore, I suggest we don't try to fix or change things until we have an organized plan.

I'm most suspicious that the problem resides with your 8800GT graphic card or its driver.
I'm second most suspicious that the problem could be in your RAM.
I'm third most suspicious that the CPU heatsink may not be correctly seated and that thermal interface material may not be applied correctly.

We can investigate these issues one at a time.

It is 1:33am here on the Pacific Coast.
I have to go to work in a few hours.
I'll be able to check in with your progress periodically through the day tomorrow.

See you a little later today.

Best Regards

[jeff matthews]

Thanks for the reply doug, you are definitely the most helpful person on this forum. Unfortunately i am a bit ahead of you. I backed up all my files so everything is safe on my external hard drives. I also went into windows, and deleted both partitions of both internal drives that are on my computer actually bout 5 min ago. To bad i didn't see your message before hand. In any case my next step was to install windows again on a completely new partition and see if that fixes the issue. Which i was going to try right after. Doug, you did mention that it could be a CPU problem correct? But answer me this. If it was a CPU problem, wouldn't it shut down on any screen like the bios or the login screen. The fact that it only shuts down when i login into windows kind of makes me suspicious that the problem could be the hard drive. So that is why i took the appropriate steps that i thought was the cause of the issue. Also yes i did install a completely new PSU. Before i installed this PSU, i had constant shut downs even on the bios screen. So this might be a case of a few hardware issues that need to be solved. In any case im installing the new windows OS on the drive again. If i still have shut down issues even after installing the new OS. Then the problem is definitely hardware related still. I remember when i installed the CPU my self, the thermal paste i did not have to apply. It already came on the heat sink when i bought it. So i just had to seat the CPU and then crank the heat sink down over the CPU. Anyways like you said will take this a step at a time. I already spent money on a brand new PSU and a hard drive so i guess ill just keep them anyways. My HD really needed an upgrade anyways. I have not installed the new HD yet though. I still have the old hard drives in my computer so ill try to work and solve the issue a step at a time before i install my new hard drive. Also yes for some reason this machine has been extremely slow. Not just this machine either, but the machine before that i had, prio to this one has always been slow. The last year at least. The only two component's that i transferred from my old machine to my new machine when i built it was my "hard drive" and my video card. Everything else was brand spanking new when i build this new computer bout 4-5 months ago. With your guys help. But yeah honestly with a i5 series computer 2.3 ghz and 8 gb of ram. I would expect a lightening fast machine. This HAS been problematic for a while just like you said. I never really brought it to, to much attention though cause i can still use my computer for what it was. But i remember years ago about 4 years ago, when i build m first computer, the one i had before this one. It was FAST!! The specs were no where near what this computer is either. I could easily open up 20 or so video files and watch them all simultaneously together, i could use high CPU processing software like adobe premiere or after effects and convert files at fast speeds. I have not been able to something like that for a LONG time. The only component that i have had for years is my hard drive, my video card i bought recently about a few months before i build this new computer. So bout 6 months ago i would say, that really makes me think that this entire issue at least with the 'slow downs" maybe not the shut downs but the slow downs has to do with my 4 year old hard drive. Because that is by far the oldest component in this machine. 2nd to my graphics card. It is also 1:30 Am here as well, i guess we have the same time frame. Anyways ill look forward to your next post on what steps i should take at this point. As of now both HDD's are deleted, im sorry i didn't get to this message in time. But i was going to try and install windows on a new partition. That was my next step. In any case, even if i do manage to stop the shut downs, i probably won't be able to fix the slow downs, cause that is something that i have just not been able to get rid of no matter what course of action ive taken. Maybe its the fact that windows 7 is just slower? cause back when my pc was really fast i was on XP. But again, that only lasted for a while, over the course of the 4 years that i had my old machine, it changed and got slower and slower and slower. Eventually when i built this pc, i thought it would fix the problem but it still became pretty slow when i installed windows 7.

Edited by jeff matthews, 20 April 2011 - 03:52 AM.

[jeff matthews]

Well this is crazy. I reinstalled windows completely on a new partition. I log into windows and it still shuts down. So the problem is still there. This rules out the following though -Viruses - windows corruption - driver related issues So this must be a hardware related problem. But whats very strange is it only happens when i log into windows. I will try to just leave the computer all night and not log into windows and see if it shuts down. anyways im stuck at this point.

[terry1966]

4. Your first next step after the above will be to have a look in Device Manager, for any error warnings about Drivers
--- 5. Your second next step will be to have a look in Event Viewer - System to discover any "red" Error messages
--------- please jot these down with pencil and paper (if there are just a few) and post the complete information (of the few red errors) into your next reply.

I'm most suspicious that the problem resides with your 8800GT graphic card or its driver.
I'm second most suspicious that the problem could be in your RAM.
I'm third most suspicious that the CPU heatsink may not be correctly seated and that thermal interface material may not be applied correctly.

i don't think you can rule out driver related issues yet, but why not run a memory test now and see if it finds any bad memory sticks, or try them one at a time. and post the results of the error logs.

Edited by terry1966, 20 April 2011 - 05:08 AM.

[jeff matthews]

I'm most suspicious that the problem resides with your 8800GT graphic card or its driver.
I'm second most suspicious that the problem could be in your RAM.
I'm third most suspicious that the CPU heatsink may not be correctly seated and that thermal interface material may not be applied correctly.

i don't think you can rule out driver related issues yet, but why not run a memory test now and see if it finds any bad memory sticks, or try them one at a time.

This is preposterous, there is no way it can be a ram problem. I just bought new ram like a month ago. I have actually bought ram 3 times over the course that i have had this machine. My ram is the most recent component in the computer. Recently i have had ram issues before and i believe doug can bring up that topic as well. Ive changed ram numerous times cause i thought there was ram problems before also. I can't believe hardware would die this often. This is to much money to keep this thing running if components go out that fast and you hav e to replace them. When i had my other computer. I never had to change hardware so frequently. I built my old computer as well. But it never had repeated issues like this pc has, accept for the fact that its always been unusually slow.

I also wanted to point out during some improper shut downs, my windows ran a disk chk automatically. But it wasn't able to finish, cause it just shut down.

[terry1966]

see edited post.. and nothings preposterous until it's been checked and ruled out. even brand new parts have been known to be faulty, age is no guarantee something works correctly. if you've been having these problems since you built it and changed all the parts then i'd start thinking it's a problem with the things you haven't changed. eg. cpu or motherboard. what are all your full system specs, make/model? is it a sandybridge motherboard? if so i do know the first motherboards issued had chipset problems and they need to be returned to the manufacturer for a replacement.

[jeff matthews]

Well the shut down thing is my main concern, it only happened a few a days ago. I don't quite remember all the specs, i would have to look on my computer but since its not running properly i can't. There is a topic on here, that i can't access but im sure some one can bring it up. During the time in which i built this machine. All the specification, hardware, software, drivers, everything was listed. I was having quote the trouble putting it together but with help on the forum i was able to pull through. To bad the topics get erased, other wise i would bring it up and show you.

[terry1966]

topics don't get erased, is this the one:- http://forums.whatth...h...=109501&hl=



here's a list of all your topics :- http://forums.whatth...ult_type=topics

all you need to do is click on your name and click find members topics.

Edited by terry1966, 20 April 2011 - 05:35 AM.

[jeff matthews]

Wow, yes those all my topics. So it seems you found my specs then. I have a really long discussion some where on the forums where i was building my computer.


Well thanks for that help. Now i can bring up all my old information. It deffinitly helps matters such as this.

I believe my topic when was building my pc was this one.

http://forums.whatth...h...=113008&hl=


This will really help you guys Analise the situation further since you can look at all this information.

Edited by jeff matthews, 20 April 2011 - 05:47 AM.