Box just turns off

[beatle]

My A64 box has been acting up like crazy lately. It started with hard locks at all times - under load playing a game, at the Windows desktop browsing the web, and while I was not at the computer at all. Then a few days later it started going from hard lockups to just flat turning off and not wanting to turn back on. The situations were the same as the locks, but it was as if someone just yanked the power out of the back of the box. The power button did nothing. If I did pull the plug from the wall and wait a few seconds before plugging it back in, it would come back on.

I've since clocked everything back to stock, taken inventory of my temps, and voltages. The only detail I found to be problematic was that MBM was reading my +12v rail as over 16v! BIOS has it (and all my other rails) pegged within a few hundreths. Before I call OCZ and get them to do an advance RMA, is there anything else this could be?

See the A64 rig in my sig for detailed specs.

 

[thorin]

Have you tested your RAM?

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Edit:

The only detail I found to be problematic was that MBM was reading my +12v rail as over 16v! BIOS has it (and all my other rails) pegged within a few hundreths.

Get a third opinion, maybe SpeedFan.

 

[daveshel]

I've seen a lot of power supply problems and would have said this is likely your problem, but I see that you have a 270W OCZ, which should be up to the task. Unless it is old/worn out.

 

[jkresh]

could have been a heat issue due to overcloking (or your chip might need more voltage to be stable at your overclock), since you stopped overclocking has the problem gone away?

 

[beatle]

Nope, I'm back at stock clocks (even on my video card) and if anything, it's worse. I'm praying that OCZ gets my PSU to me in time for the weekend when all my other parts arrive.

 

[beatle]

I am still waiting for my RMA. OCZ has made multiple mistakes in getting this processed.

10/18: I call and request an advance RMA due to supposed PSU issues. They agree, but the person who processes these is not in, so I'll have to wait until next Monday.
10/22: I call and ask for the RMA again. They instruct me to fax a few forms over. I do this.
10/24: I call and ask for the UPS number. They have not processed my RMA as they say there were network issues with their fax. I give my cc over the phone. They say it will go out tonight or tomorrow overnight, so I should have it Thursday or Friday.
10/26: Still no PSU. I call and ask about the status and they say it went to someone's desk who was out for 2 days. It was then packaged and overnighted Friday. Hopefully it comes on Monday.

Though I doubted it's a memory issue, I still ran memtest earlier this morning as I had nothing better to do. It ran for about 10-15 minutes before shutting off completely. There were no errors up to this point.

 

[beatle]

I did not get the PSU today as it was not shipped on Friday as promised. Apparently the folks in OCZ's shipping department are a bunch of f-useless tossers. I spoke to Walt today and he apologized about the ordeal. He said a 600w GameXStream is shipping today. While it seems like an improvement over my 470w Powerstream, I know nothing about it other than the fact that it has 4 12v rails and no longer uses the fans in a push-pull fashion which is a bit disappointing since it's going in my P180.

 

[thorin]

Keep us posted beatle I'm curious how this turns out.

 

[beatle]

We'll see. According to Fedex, OCZ's package was just delivered. I'll build my rig tonight and cross my fingers.

 

[beatle]

I'm not sure how much of a resolution this will be, but my new system is working fine. I've swapped the mb, cpu, ram, video, both of my 250gb hds, and of course the psu. Things were fine last night, though this morning I woke up to a black screen (I did start to overclock, however ). If I have any more problems with this rig, I'll post them here. Most of my old rig's hardware will be going into my server, with the exception of my video card which will end up in my htpc.

 

[thorin]

Oh I didn't realize you were doing a full rebuild, I thought U were just getting a replacement PSU.

 

[beatle]

If my server and HTPC remain stable after their upgrades, I'll chalk it up to the PSU.

 

[beatle]

Well, my new quad, HTPC, and server are all still humming along just fine. I'd say this was a clear case of a failed PSU.

 

[thorin]

Thanks for following up beatle.