Hi, I found my way to the forum via a link from another forum thread about bad capacitors.
I have a system based around an ASUS A8N-SLI which was bought last November. In April this year the mothebroard was replaced as the PCI slots had failed.
In late June I powered up as normal one morning but within a few minutes there was a power shutdown. I tried this three times before eventually getting the system to run. I left the system running during the day and at first all seemed OK but during the afternoon the system shut down again without warning. At first I thought this might have been due to mains power problems as a couple of items, such as my bedside alarm clock, needed the time reset but others such as the electric cooker were OK. I ran the system again for a couple of hours and it seemed OK so assumed I had found the problem. I do incidentally have a mains surge protection device
The following morning I powered up as normal and for about six hours the system ran as normal but then the shutdown again without warning (just like a power cut). I tried again and for 20 minutes it ran but then the same problem happened. On the next start up XP reported various files as corrupt and recommended I run CHKDSK. I tried this twice but each time the system got so far with CHKDSK and then shut down.
I contacted the supplier who said "If this is a hardware issue, it is most likley to be one of three things. Either the PSU unit, the memory or the hard drive.
Try running a memory test using the link below. Let the memory test run for a good few hours over and over again.
If there is faulty memory it will show the errors, if it a faulty PSU it's likley to restart as it has been doing. If it is a hard drive issue this shouldn't in theory show up.
Your drive is probably a maxtor in which case you can go to maxtors website and download testing tools".
I did as they suggested but no fault was reported.
The random shutdowns continued over the next few weeks as I attempted to try and identify the problem. Sometimes it would run for hours, other times only a few minues. At one stage it failed three times during POST.
On 12 July I emailed the supplier and told them I had tested, with a meter, all the connectors/leads from the PSU. Initially with no load and then progressively adding devices until a full load. All the readings show the PSU working within it's stated parameters.
I had also run the system with ALL DRIVES except the floppy removed (used Windows ME boot floppy) and still suffered power shutdowns. In addition, I installed Windows on an old IDE drive and run the system with just this and the floppy connected and still had shutdowns thus proving it was not drive related. I had also checked within Windows and confirmed that the CPU is not spiking and confirmed the BIOS settings are correct.
Finaly on 18 July they agreed to rma the system back. On 24 July I received the following email from tech support.
With regards to your PC, I attached a maxtor IDE hard drive and loaded windows XP and have been running various tests over the last 4-5days since i recieved the PC. I've been running sisoft sandra and windows memory tester and our own burn-in-tester. It has not failed any of these tests so i can only assume the faults you have been having are down to some other device/software that you are using.
At this point we would be looking to charge given the amount of time that has been spent on your PC.
To cover Labour and the postage costs we will have to charge £50(GBP).
Given all the info I had supllied to them about what I had tried I was amazed that they only seemed to have done a superficial check (don't even know if they ran the system 24/7)and had not tested any of the components or swapped bits around to see if something failed. I emailed them to say I didn't agree with their finding however, they refused to budge and in the end I agreed, under duress, to pay the cost and get the system back rather than run up daily charges. I had also told them I'd built three systems of my own, carried out several upgrads etc. so I had some experience of fault tracing.
On it's return I gradually rebuilt the system and software and initially it seemed OK and I wondered if the transport had moved something. Finally I decided to give it a real go and run it 24/7 whilst file downloading. For just under eight days it was OK and then shutdown. Since then it has randomly shutdown three times with the gap varying from a couple of hours to over 36 hours. At the moment it has been running for just over 54 hours and I'm going to leave it until it fails. I'm also running my wife's PC in parallel to see if that is affected when it shutsdown, just in case it's a mains power issue although I think this is highly unlikely.
The interesting thing is that at the moment when I restart after a shutdown Windows starts as normal so it looks as if it isn't seeing it as a false shutdown or questionning the free space data written during normal shutdown.
I've even begun to wonder if the power button of the case is somehow forcing a shutdown.
If I am to have any chance of sending the system back again I will have to identify exactly what is causing the shutdowns and be able to prove my theory.
I could try another PSU, which would be the most obvious thing, but as I haven't got a suitable spare I would have to buy one and I'm loathe to do that just on a whim.
I don't think my mobo suffers from bad capacitors although I haven't gone over it with a fine toothcomb.
It is very much a longshot as I think I've covered virtually all of the obvious things but if anyone can offer any help on how I can identify the problem I would be most grateful.
I have a system based around an ASUS A8N-SLI which was bought last November. In April this year the mothebroard was replaced as the PCI slots had failed.
In late June I powered up as normal one morning but within a few minutes there was a power shutdown. I tried this three times before eventually getting the system to run. I left the system running during the day and at first all seemed OK but during the afternoon the system shut down again without warning. At first I thought this might have been due to mains power problems as a couple of items, such as my bedside alarm clock, needed the time reset but others such as the electric cooker were OK. I ran the system again for a couple of hours and it seemed OK so assumed I had found the problem. I do incidentally have a mains surge protection device
The following morning I powered up as normal and for about six hours the system ran as normal but then the shutdown again without warning (just like a power cut). I tried again and for 20 minutes it ran but then the same problem happened. On the next start up XP reported various files as corrupt and recommended I run CHKDSK. I tried this twice but each time the system got so far with CHKDSK and then shut down.
I contacted the supplier who said "If this is a hardware issue, it is most likley to be one of three things. Either the PSU unit, the memory or the hard drive.
Try running a memory test using the link below. Let the memory test run for a good few hours over and over again.
If there is faulty memory it will show the errors, if it a faulty PSU it's likley to restart as it has been doing. If it is a hard drive issue this shouldn't in theory show up.
Your drive is probably a maxtor in which case you can go to maxtors website and download testing tools".
I did as they suggested but no fault was reported.
The random shutdowns continued over the next few weeks as I attempted to try and identify the problem. Sometimes it would run for hours, other times only a few minues. At one stage it failed three times during POST.
On 12 July I emailed the supplier and told them I had tested, with a meter, all the connectors/leads from the PSU. Initially with no load and then progressively adding devices until a full load. All the readings show the PSU working within it's stated parameters.
I had also run the system with ALL DRIVES except the floppy removed (used Windows ME boot floppy) and still suffered power shutdowns. In addition, I installed Windows on an old IDE drive and run the system with just this and the floppy connected and still had shutdowns thus proving it was not drive related. I had also checked within Windows and confirmed that the CPU is not spiking and confirmed the BIOS settings are correct.
Finaly on 18 July they agreed to rma the system back. On 24 July I received the following email from tech support.
With regards to your PC, I attached a maxtor IDE hard drive and loaded windows XP and have been running various tests over the last 4-5days since i recieved the PC. I've been running sisoft sandra and windows memory tester and our own burn-in-tester. It has not failed any of these tests so i can only assume the faults you have been having are down to some other device/software that you are using.
At this point we would be looking to charge given the amount of time that has been spent on your PC.
To cover Labour and the postage costs we will have to charge £50(GBP).
Given all the info I had supllied to them about what I had tried I was amazed that they only seemed to have done a superficial check (don't even know if they ran the system 24/7)and had not tested any of the components or swapped bits around to see if something failed. I emailed them to say I didn't agree with their finding however, they refused to budge and in the end I agreed, under duress, to pay the cost and get the system back rather than run up daily charges. I had also told them I'd built three systems of my own, carried out several upgrads etc. so I had some experience of fault tracing.
On it's return I gradually rebuilt the system and software and initially it seemed OK and I wondered if the transport had moved something. Finally I decided to give it a real go and run it 24/7 whilst file downloading. For just under eight days it was OK and then shutdown. Since then it has randomly shutdown three times with the gap varying from a couple of hours to over 36 hours. At the moment it has been running for just over 54 hours and I'm going to leave it until it fails. I'm also running my wife's PC in parallel to see if that is affected when it shutsdown, just in case it's a mains power issue although I think this is highly unlikely.
The interesting thing is that at the moment when I restart after a shutdown Windows starts as normal so it looks as if it isn't seeing it as a false shutdown or questionning the free space data written during normal shutdown.
I've even begun to wonder if the power button of the case is somehow forcing a shutdown.
If I am to have any chance of sending the system back again I will have to identify exactly what is causing the shutdowns and be able to prove my theory.
I could try another PSU, which would be the most obvious thing, but as I haven't got a suitable spare I would have to buy one and I'm loathe to do that just on a whim.
I don't think my mobo suffers from bad capacitors although I haven't gone over it with a fine toothcomb.
It is very much a longshot as I think I've covered virtually all of the obvious things but if anyone can offer any help on how I can identify the problem I would be most grateful.
<----Computer says I need more beer.
).
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