unexpected shutdown on A8N-E

[jzdenton]

Where to start? Well, I recently bought a new system and I went through hell to get it up and running. I won't bother you with that story but if you wanna see the spesifics you can take a look here

Anyway, I was just playing GTA: San Andreas when I noticed reverse laggin for lack of a better word. Things would at random interval speed up unctrollably before going back to normal. It got annoying so I restarted the machine and everything worked fine for about 10 minutes then it satrted again. I had just cleared a mission and saved when "wham" the machine just turned off cold without any warning. I don't know why or even if I'm posting in the right section but I figured that perhaps it was a result of a protective feature of the MB. I haven't turned the machine back on yet for fear off destroying something. Help would be grately appriciated as I don't know if my new system is in perril. BTW, the memory in the thread linked to above is wrong because I had to RMA it. I'm currently running with the old TwinMos from my previous system, 2 DIMM's of 256 mb running in dual channel mode (or whatever that is called).

 

[mechBgon]

When asking for help, post your specs in your thread Here is what you posted in the other thread:

CM Stacker case
ASUS A8N-E mobo
XFX 7800 GT gpu
AMD X2 3800+ cpu
Corsair TWIN2X-1024 ram
Hiper type-r 580w psu
Audigy 2 sound
older but still going strong 80 Gb maxtor pATA drive.



1) what voltage is the RAM at. Also, what speed is it rated for?

2) never heard of that PSU = suspicion that it is junk, especially if it has lighted ricer fans or something :evil:

3) which PCI slot is the Audigy2 plugged into

4) your southbridge fan still working?

5) you have the ATX12V square 4-pin plug hooked up, as well as (duh) your video card's auxiliary power cable, right?

6) longer shot: what antivirus and firewall provisions do you have, including both software and hardware firewalls

 

[jzdenton]

1) Voltage? No idea. What is the default? I have done no OC'ing at all so whatever default is should be my voltage on the ram. It is rated for 400 mhz but according to nVidia monitor it was running at 404 at it's own accord. Don't kow why. I never changed anything.

2)PSU, true it's not the best but hardly unknown. Tom tested it and you can read more about that here.

3) the audigy 2 card is in the middle PCI slot, one thing to notice thought is that when I try to installed the drivers for it the installer did not recognize the card but I know of other people with that problem so I don't think it's related. I'd love to hear a solution to it though.

4) yup, south bridge fan still going strong, after all it's rev 2 of the MB so that fan is practically silent compared to the cpu fan.

5)definitely have those power connectors plugged in, checked plenty of times.

6)Firewall is Outpost v2.7 and Antivirus is Symantec AntiVirus v1.00.1.1000. Of hardware firewall I have not installed the nvidia firewall drivers so that should not be going but there are firewalls on my 3 Com Router and probably my Netopia Broadband modem

Hope that about answers your questions. If not I'll be happy to elaborate.

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: jzdenton
Where to start? Well, I recently bought a new system and I went through hell to get it up and running. I won't bother you with that story but if you wanna see the spesifics you can take a look here

Anyway, I was just playing GTA: San Andreas when I noticed reverse laggin for lack of a better word. Things would at random interval speed up unctrollably before going back to normal. It got annoying so I restarted the machine and everything worked fine for about 10 minutes then it satrted again. I had just cleared a mission and saved when "wham" the machine just turned off cold without any warning. I don't know why or even if I'm posting in the right section but I figured that perhaps it was a result of a protective feature of the MB. I haven't turned the machine back on yet for fear off destroying something. Help would be grately appriciated as I don't know if my new system is in perril. BTW, the memory in the thread linked to above is wrong because I had to RMA it. I'm currently running with the old TwinMos from my previous system, 2 DIMM's of 256 mb running in dual channel mode (or whatever that is called).

It sounds like your system is reaching the ACPI CPU shutdown temp. This is exactly the sort of behavior I would expect if it was doing so. There will be no warning--only a shut down. Do you have this enabled in the BIOS? What are your idle and load CPU temps?

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
When asking for help, post your specs in your thread Here is what you posted in the other thread:

CM Stacker case
ASUS A8N-E mobo
XFX 7800 GT gpu
AMD X2 3800+ cpu
Corsair TWIN2X-1024 ram
Hiper type-r 580w psu
Audigy 2 sound
older but still going strong 80 Gb maxtor pATA drive.



1) what voltage is the RAM at. Also, what speed is it rated for?

2) never heard of that PSU = suspicion that it is junk, especially if it has lighted ricer fans or something :evil:

3) which PCI slot is the Audigy2 plugged into

4) your southbridge fan still working?

5) you have the ATX12V square 4-pin plug hooked up, as well as (duh) your video card's auxiliary power cable, right?

6) longer shot: what antivirus and firewall provisions do you have, including both software and hardware firewalls

If the video card aux cable was not hooked up, his system would not have booted in the first place.

The PSU *might* have something to do with this, but I don't think so from hearing the symptoms.

BTW--Norton Anti Virus is a serious POS. Can cause unexplained weirdness like lockups, high CPU usage, and could turn your dog's hair blue/green. Use the better and totally free AVG from www.grisoft.com. You will be glad you did. Better AND free has got to be good!

 

[mechBgon]

1) I doubt the memory voltage is the issue in your case, but there are times when the mobo's default 2.6 volts is not appropriate (too low), so it could still be worth looking at. Do you have a link to your exact modules?

2) If by Tom you mean Tom's Hardware Guide, then I really don't care what he thought of the Hiper. I see from your other thread that I'm not the only person with doubts about it. If you can't find anything else amiss, consider a change of power supplies.

3) That is interesting. This sounds like a repeatable problem, so try removing the Audigy 2 from the system and playing your games again. Any change?

4) Good to hear that.

5) & 6) good enough, it's not running naked through the Internet with its firewall down, anyway


Also, do you have AMD's processor driver installed? AMD's processor driver for 32-bit WinXP. And what is your CPU cooling, is it retail-boxed or something else?

 

[Aenslead]

Feel your HSF when on; how warm does it feel?

It shouldn't be too hot not be touchable. Check if the heatsink is correctly placed on the motherboard; tight and all.

I would like you to try with another power supply.

 

[Aenslead]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
1) I doubt the memory voltage is the issue in your case, but there are times when the mobo's default 2.6 volts is not appropriate (too low), so it could still be worth looking at. Do you have a link to your exact modules?

2) If by Tom you mean Tom's Hardware Guide, then I really don't care what he thought of the Hiper. I see from your other thread that I'm not the only person with doubts about it. If you can't find anything else amiss, consider a change of power supplies.

3) That is interesting. This sounds like a repeatable problem, so try removing the Audigy 2 from the system and playing your games again. Any change?

4) Good to hear that.

5) & 6) good enough, it's not running naked through the Internet with its firewall down, anyway


Also, do you have AMD's processor driver installed? AMD's processor driver for 32-bit WinXP. And what is your CPU cooling, is it retail-boxed or something else?

Hey Mech... what do you like better? AVG or NAV?

 

[jzdenton]

Well, my idle and load temps go from about 33-49C on both cpu and gpu. I think the auto shut down thing is enabled by default but my gpu should max out around 115C according to the manual and the cpu should be able to handle 80C and I am nowhere near that so I don't really think that's the problem. And no, I'm not using Norton AntiVirus, had way too many bad experiences with that. Nope, Symantec AntiVirus. There is a difference. Anyway, I borrowed some Geil dual 512 mb DIMM's from my uncle running at 266 mhz and now the machine seems to be running fine. I have noticed some slight tendencies to reverse lagging but they seem to happen only shortly after I load. I don't know. What happened was really wierd but it appears to be fixed with the new ram. Memory apperently plays a big role in modern systems. thx for the advice guys, I hope my machine stays trouble free from now on.

BTW - I'd like to hear some moe about those lighted ricer fans. My fans are lighted but I don't know about ricer. Is my PSU gonna die or kill the machine?

 

[mechBgon]

Hey Mech... what do you like better? AVG or NAV?

Tough question there I'll PM my answer to that so as not to clog up jz's thread

BTW - I'd like to hear some moe about those lighted ricer fans. My fans are lighted but I don't know about ricer. Is my PSU gonna die or kill the machine?

My philosophy is that, price being equal, more rice means less meat, if you see what I'm saying If they're spending your money to make a power supply look fancy, then what did they cut out?

 

[jzdenton]

OMG - Reverse lagging is back and it's much worse then before. Have you ever seen an old junker drive faster then a ferrari? It's crazy. I immidiately quit the game. But of course this could have been an issue with the game. Only thing is I've been playing it for a couple of days on this machine now and this is only just happening now. I also noticed that in FarCry the colors on the textures were alle messed up. I did make sure to install the AMD driver the first thing after windows so I have that. Also the nVidia drivers are the latest. This is really wierd. I don't have another psu at hand that is powrfull enough but could that really be it?

 

[Aenslead]

Get a priest and get him to bless your computer. Nothing that lags on reverse can be good or holy.

 

[jzdenton]

hehe, well the reverse laging could be a game issue. I don't know, but the unexpected shutdowns are of concern. I thought the problem had been fixed with the new ram but just a couple of minutes ago while I was surfing the web and the machine was practiacally idling the machine shut itself off again. This rules out overheating cause nothing is over 40C while idle, in fact most of the components are around 30C. I too am starting to suspect the psu because after the machine had shut down I took a look at the back off the case and the blue light in the fans were flickering slightly which it should not do while off. But some people keep telling me that the psu is ok and that I should look somewhere else for the problem. I don't wanna rule anything out so I'm hoping somebody might have another suggestion. If not I guess I'm gonna have to RMA the psu for something else, but I don't like the company's RMA policies so I'm hoping to avoid that.