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Computer randomly shuts down?

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Kado

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Location
Menomonie, WI
I have an XFX 850 watt power supply which is more than enough which im running. But every once and awhile (usually a couple weeks apart) my computer just randomly shuts down. Is my power supply bad? i have run stress tests on the machine and it runs for hours with no issues. Then i try gaming and it will just shut off.
 
What stress tests? I just ask cause I think the 6870 will throttle itself if you're running furmark, and it won't draw as much power as an actual game.

Is gaming the only time it happens?
 
Do you run your computer 24/7?

I would like to know this as well. If the computer shuts off it could just be an unstable overclock (if you are oc'd that is). My EVGA motherboard and an old gigabyte both would shut off when the oc wasn't stable. Try it without the OC and see if it still happens.
 
My 890fxa-gd65 requires overclocking to get ram to run at 1600 mhz with 9-9-9-24 timings. but when i overclocked it and bumped the voltage to 1.65. the ram timings were well above 9-9-9-24. so i brought them down figuring it would handle the rams default timings. so i set the ram back to 1333 and put the timings at 9-9-9-24 and its been running stable ever since.
 
Since my little issue came up, i have been doing alot of reading on how AMD performs with ram. From what i can come up with a lower frequency (since most AMD chips max at 1333) its better to run at 1333 Mhz and go for tight timings. What would you guys recommend. i have done light CPU overclocking but dont want to go in to heavy until i know alot more about ram and how over clocking it will affect my machine.
 
A shutoff is ->not<- typical with an unstable OC.

A shutoff is 99 percent a thermal issue. Please check the PSU fan!

I have a PSU here that disabled itself. PC unexpectedly shut off when just running a utility and
I decided to check the PSU and found the PSU blazing! :eek:
-> Likely thermally protected with a thermistor.
And the fan was turning too slow!

The fan circuit, on that one, appeared to be bad and has been working fine after connecting the PSU fan to the motherboard fan connector.
 
I will see how much i can get out of the ram i currently have later today. As for my PSU, it could very well be overheating. It is not on 24/7 and i notice that the shut off's were kind of random. Also i can turn the machine right back on and it will run fine like nothing ever happened.
 
generally unstable oc will lead to BSOD not shutdown. Sounds thermal whats your core temps at idle? also, as you said it was when gaming, your gfx card could be dying or faulty. If you have a spare psu, test it, if you have a spare gfx card, test it.
 
i had this issue awhile back with my old PSU it was a coolermaster 650 watt. So after doing some digging finally decided to get an XFX 850 watt as its replacement. My idle temps are about 32c and when gaming around 44c for my CPU. I am running duel video cards. a HIS 6870 x IcyQ x and a stock HIS 6870 both idle around 42c and gaming around 60c. I did put the tower on some coasters to give the PSU a bit more breathing room from the bottom vent. My temp1(which after calling MSI discovered was my northbridge chip) has been running pretty hot, around 44c idle and 51c while gaming. i have been fighting with different fan set ups to get this temp down but with little success with 2 video cards dumping a ton of heat into the case.
 
I thought i solved this problem, guess i was wrong since it did another random shutdown while i was using it. I have modified the case a bit so that i could mount another fan inside near the motherboard to add airflow across my northbridge. This brought the temp down extremely. But i think its time i break down the entire machine and check it out, clean it up (even thought i do clean it on a regular basis), and see if that helps. Really have no way of testing the power supply but i dont think thats it from how infrequent this happens.
 
To check if it's heat related you need to run bench mark or testing programs for the CPU and GPU.

like FurMark and prime95
 
I ran Prime95, Burn-in-Test(which really does suck at getting my computer hot), and Memtest86+.
 
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