Resolved PC shutting itself down

Hi guys,

I built myself a PC sometime last year and everything has been running fine other than one little thing; it shut itself down. It seems to only happen when running high-load games.

I had a look online, and it all pointed towards it being the asus anti-surge protection, which made sense as it restarted and said a surge was detected. Apparently this feature isn't entirely reliable and can be switched off without any worries, so I switched it off.

However, it still happens. I think it may be the PSU, I'm not entirely sure and unfortunately I don't have another one on hand that I'm able to test it with. Has anyone got any ideas as to what else it could possibly be? I do plan to order a new PSU after Easter, but would like to rule out any other possibilities.

The system is as follows:
ASUS M5A78L-M USB3 Motherboard
FX-4100 Quad Core 3.6GHz AMD Processor
DDR3 4GB 1333Mhz RAM x 2 (unsure of brand)
GTX 550ti Graphics Card
Alpine 650w PSU
4 x Arctic F12 120mm fans
64gb Verbatim SSD
1tb Seagate HDD
250gb Western Digital HDD

Any help on the matter would be appreciated
Chris

 

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4260/speccyo.png

Couldn't see anything for posting an actual image, so link is there.

Temperatures seem perfectly normal to me, apart from the CPU. I'm not sure why it's that low, it's always seemed to sit at that sort of temperature.

 

The CPU temperature in the BIOS is showing as 42c, which seems around about normal to me.

 

42°C for your CPU is great. 12°C = 53.6°F so unless you have your computer inside your refrigerator, it would seem Speccy has a problem reading that. However, viewing the BIOS Setup Menu is about the least demanding task we can ask of our computers so keep in mind that 42°C is likely to go no where but up during normal use. Still, I don't think about worrying about CPU temps until they hit and sit above 60°C.

That said, there are many heat sensitive devices on or attached to the motherboard besides those monitored by sensors. So you need to ensure the interior is clean of heat trapping dust.

Did this shutdown problem just begin, or has that been a problem since it was first put together?

When troubleshooting potential hardware problems, I always want to ensure I am providing good, clean power - especially before considering replacing any other hardware.

 

Voltages:
CPU CORE 1.440 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.500 V
+3.3V 1.908 V
+5V 3.468 V
+12V 8.112 V
-12V (7.440) V
-5V (3.120) V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 2.863 V
CMOS BATTERY 1.668 V

Are these normal?

As for when it started, I can't tell you for sure. I had a previous PSU that completely died which was 750w, I don't believe it happened when I had that other than when it completely died.

The PC is completely dust free. I tend to check it once a fortnight and make sure to dust out any that I come across.

 

Well, the required tolerances are not quite that tight (.1) but they are pretty tight and clearly, your voltages are off.

You can disregard the -5 and -12VDC. And there is a known bug affecting the readings for +12V on "some" systems running 64-bit Windows 7 where the +12VDC reading is abnormally low (mine, for example shows 4.096V for my +12V reading but since my computer works great, that is obviously not right). Your 3.3 and +5 should be right, however. And CMOS batteries are typically CR2032 wafer-type batteries, which are 3 volt batteries. So yours showing only 1.6 is odd too.

Note the ATX12V Form Factor PSU Design Guide, Ver 2.2, Page 13, Table 2 shows required voltage tolerances for all ATX compliant PSUs:

 

Voltages in BIOS are:

VCORE: 1.440v
3.3V: 3.344V
5V: 5.160V
12V: 12.259V

The PSU was unfortunately, at the time, the only one I was able to afford to replace it with. Looks like I may need to save a bit from working over Easter and get a better one.

 

As far as budget PSUs and the trash - keep one. You can then connect it to a PSU Tester to test fans and drive motors.

 

I'll put it down to being the PSU not giving out enough power. Much appreciated guys. Cheers.