Still having black-out turn-off problems...

Okay, a few months ago I made a thread about my computer randomly shutting itself off during high-use game sessions that used lots of power and what have you. It happened in FEAR a lot and sometimes when I played Doom3.

Well, here's what would actually happen. I would be playing the game, then everything would freeze, the monitor would turn itself off, and the sound would start going crazy. The only fix was to hit the reset button and wait for the computer to turn back on again, and THEN hit the total power-off button so that everything would turn off. Just hitting the reset button would reset it but the monitor wouldn't come back on, hence why I have to turn the entire comp off after hitting reset (cause turning it off won't work until I reset it again cause of the lock, I don't know, it's weird).

I discussed it with people as to whether it's a power issue or a temperature issue or whatever. I'm convinced that it's running at a decent temperature (never seen it go above 50C), and I ended up paying upwards of $100 for a 500Watt power supply to replace the 400W one I did have installed. After that it seemed to be relatively fixed and it didn't happen again. But here lately and ever so randomly, it does it. It just now did it after I had played NFS:Most Wanted... I had finished playing, and the second I clicked "quit" to go back to windows, it all went black and the sound started cracking.

Okay, now I'm gonna talk about another problem that may or may not be related (it's a puzzle). Whenever I turn on the computer after it being totaly off, everythign comes on and sounds geat like it works, but the monitor won't turn on. Even when I turn on and off the monitor, nothing shows up like a visual output isn't being sent from the comp. So I have to press the reset button and THEN the monitor turns on and everything works hunky dory. This happens every single time I turn on the computer. Are all of these issues related? I'm beginning to think so, but it's just a hunch.

So what should I do to fix the problem? Does anyone have any ideas as to what is wrong and how I can fix it?

Specs:
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo
AMD 64bit 3800 X2 processor
Geforce 6800GTOC
2gb Kingston Valueram
Sound Blaster Audigy2
Pioneer IDE DVD Burner Model DVR-110DBK
400watt power supply (forgot the name, not stock, cost a pretty penny)
I have two 120mm fans and an 80mm fan goin with the stock CPU heatsink and stock mobo fan.

Any information at ALL will be helpful. Just know that I have no money to spend on any more comp upgrades to try and fix things.

Time to RMA the vid card. Or the mobo.

Time to RMA the vid card. Or the mobo.

I've already replaced the mobo once, and I doubt I can send the GPU back seeing as how I bought it quite a while back.

One other thing to note...
Every so often I get an nvidia message while I'm in windows that says something about the GPU not getting enough power to it. The message continues by saying that it's going to lower the GPUs strength or whatever it is to compensate for the lack of power. This is just a relatively recent update, as of the past month or so. After getting the 500W supply and even before that I wasn't getting this message.

The GPU does have two cords to plug power in, but I'm fairly positive that only 1 of them should be plugged in, and teh other shoudl be plugged in only if I'm running the card in SLI mode.

The popup could be because of three things:

1) Your PSU is faulty. Test the rails with a multimeter.

2) Your mobo is faulty, though you said that it was replaced recently, so that's unlikely.

3) The vid card is faulty. See if it works in another system.

4) You don't have something plugged in. Double check the manual.

3) The vid card is faulty. See if it works in another system.


What's the best way to test to see if the vid card is faulty? This is my only PCIe system, and the only way I know to test stuff now is just to run stuff normally and wait for these stupid errors that I keep getting.

And is there another way to test the PSU? I won't be able to test it until I go back to school in January. I don't have a multimeter at home, pretty sure my roommate does though.

You could also see if your system works with a different vid card.


As for the PSU... you could d/l motherboard monitor or go to the bios, but those readings use the PSU's power, so they aren't really a good way to determine if your PSU is working.

Okay well whatever, thanks for the help now. Lots of good information. Looks like I can't use most of it right now but it's still good to have, I'll probably end up bumping this thread sometime in the next month once I get more stuff figured out. I'll just deal with the crashes now cause I'm not gonna stop playing games, haha. It's just annoying when you can't save in time :)

Btw... are all your drivers up to date?

I'm pretty positive they are. I bought the whole comp back in August, so I got all the drivers that were out then. Upgraded the GPUs just the other day.

i've heard of power supplies causing this problem frequently but you said you replaced yours already.

do me a favor. on the label of your PS, it should have something about the different amps provided by the 3.3V, 5V, 12V, etc. rails.

type in that entire label for me? or take a picture of it. also, what brand is this new 500W one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 7104934

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-104-934-03.JPG

Hrm, your 3.3V and 5V are lower than my 450W PS. I'm not sure how that factors into things. Different rails are used for different things. The 12V rails are important if you have a lot of drives. Your 12V rails (you have 2! nice) look good.

For reference, my own 450W PS:
+3.3V - 35A
+5V - 36A
+12V - 15A
-12V - 1A
-5V - 1A
+5SB - 2A

I've had a similar problem and it happened in any game after a decently long session of gaming. My soundcard had appearantly gone bad (same type of card you have). I removed the soundcard, switched over to OnBoard Audio and haven't had the problem since. Try removing your sound card and use OnBoard, see if it happens. :shrug:

edit- That's about your 1st problem, not your second :p:

ok how many sticks of mem you have, run a memory test

http://www.memtest86.com/

my psu
+3.3vdc 26A, +5vdc 26A -5vdc 0.3A +12vdc 30A -12vdc 0.9A +5vsb 2A
make sure your card is siting well in the slot.

Monitor would turn itself off ie go into stand by, memory or card if its the card then theirs not enough power, have you connected BOTH power cables from the card to the psu check the cable it could be lose.

ok just had another look you have to connect BOTH power cables from the card to the psu connectors, if you ve been running the card on 1 then you may have damaged a capacitor on the card. both problems are related too the card. and i take it your over clocking the card dont over clock these 6800gt cards cause they are badly designed. use the above link to test your mem but iam sure its your card not enough power to your card once you have connected BOTH or your connectors to the card it should go away,after doing this have a look at your temps if they are higher than 70 then you have damaged the card.

+12V - 15A this should be above 18-20A. if your planing to run this card.
+3.3V - 35A +5V - 36A are very good.
use my psu info when buying your next psu.

Hmm, I'm having similiar issues..... I'll be playing a game, and suddenly the comp reboots, it isn't overheating issues because it's random and happens when I start up, or 3 hours into it. The comp will reboot on it's own after a power spike.

I replaced my PSU, and it didn't help. It was happening when Windows XP booted up when my CPU voltage was set to 1.65, whenever I bumped it up to 1.70, it didn't happen, the reboots happen less frequently in games now that I have the voltage at 1.75. This is weird to me..... I'm wondering if the mobo has a short, or possibly if it could be the video card, or maybe even memory?

+12V - 15A this should be above 18-20A. if your planing to run this card.
+3.3V - 35A +5V - 36A are very good.
use my psu info when buying your next psu.
No, it's not. He's got dual 12V rails, and 12V2 (that's the one that's feeding the vid card IIRC) has 16A on it alone. It's plenty enough power on the PSU's part, provided that it's actually giving off that amount of current.


JoMo, I take it you're OC'ing? In that case it's not surprising that a higher voltage helps stabilizing the comp.

No, it's not. He's got dual 12V rails, and 12V2 (that's the one that's feeding the vid card IIRC) has 16A on it alone. It's plenty enough power on the PSU's part, provided that it's actually giving off that amount of current.


JoMo, I take it you're OC'ing? In that case it's not surprising that a higher voltage helps stabilizing the comp.

Nope, no OC'ing at all.. Running it all stock.

i didnt read the whole thread but.. this is kinda funny and might help you out.

I had the exact same mobo. Asus A8N-SLI but mine was the delux.

during game play the system would shut shut off. a friend allowed me to barrow his DFI as i RMAed the Asus A8N-SLI delux... i get it back and it does the SAME thing. I get a neo 550watt power supply and still does the same damn thing.

i tired all sorts of configs. no sli Sli dual channel none dual channel. finally i gave up drove the board back to compusa got a refund and got an A8N32-SLI Deluxe.

If you wish i will report back but i bet money it was that Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo casuing the problem.. i suggest picking up a new board.

Upon further inspection, It is possible that my OEM Barton 2800+ processor is in fact a 266 mhz Barton core instead of a 333. So when I used 166 FSB settings, it was shitting out.... interesting.