# Asus M2N32-SLI / X2 6000+ shuts down on its own.



## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

My recently built computer shuts down on its own. It doesn't restart, It actually shuts off, I have to get it going by pushing the power button again. When it starts back up, it doesn't tell me anything was wrong or any errors occured, its just as though nothing was wrong.

I did disable the option in windows that restarts windows if there is a critical error. I figure even if this were the case, it would restart anyways, right?

Typically when a system actually shuts down, is it because of a power shortage? The power supply is a Corsair modular 520W. I checked the power consumption and with everything going it would have rated me at around 360-375. 

Is it possible my 8800GTS could get to hot and shut everything down? Is this just an unstable motherboard and I should be RMAing it away?

couple of system specs---- I'll be happy to tell you anything else I can, I'm just not where to start tracking this problem down.

Asus M2N32-SLI
AMD 64 X2 6000+ Windsor
Corsair XMS DHX 2GB DDR2 800mhz timed 4-4-4-12
8800GTS 320MB
2 WD Sata 80GB drives in RAID 0, using Nvidia drivers.

CPU temps range from idle 29-33 
Normal usage - 32-36
Gaming/Load - 38-41
The absolute highest I've seen it get was running benchmarks at 46.
EDIT: (temps are per core temp.)

I've had it shut off once during online gameplay. The other times It wasn't being subjected to any stress at all really. 

Any help appreciated.
Regards,
Dan


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## dmayer22 (Oct 30, 2007)

Did you use thermal grease on the CPU? Could be overheating.


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

arctic silver 5 and a zalman 9500 are on the task. Thanks for the reply.

EDIT: spelled arctic without a C!


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## dmayer22 (Oct 30, 2007)

How about the latest Video Driver?


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

163.71

main driver nv4_disp.dll
version: 6.14.0011.6371 

pretty damned new I reckon.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

all though the Corsair 520 watt is an awesome power supply; your rig is too much for such a small output unit

your cpu runs very hot while heavy gaming; you should never see 46C

talk to us about case fans & air flow

how many case fans ????? where are they located, which direction does each fan move air ?????

try this: remove the side cover off the "box" blow a house fan into the box and then give it some heavy gaming, see if it still shuts down ?????


now its big brother; the HX-620 thats a diff story :wink:


or antec 650 trio

or coolermaster REAL power 650 watt

thermaltake toughpower 650 or better yet 750


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

Its an antec super lanboy. It has a 120mm fan on the front blowing in(intake) at 65cfm. It has a panaflo 120mmfan on the exhaust (at the rear blowing out) rated at 114 cfm. The motherboard temps are around 38.

The thing is, I have played games for 1.5-2hrs and it gets nice and warm, and doesn't shut down. Then it'll cool off in a minute, and I'll be browsing or whatever, and an hour later it'll just shut off. It has only happened once during gaming, and it was when I just started.

Also my cpu was only at 46 once, that was during pcmark. During the games I play the hottest I've seen is 41. 

On a side note, do know that the cpu is rated at like 125W or something:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/20/does-amds-athlon-64-x2-6000-have-any-kick-left/

I'm sure it doesn't use that all the time, but still....that would draw up some heat, no?

Also, the zalman 9500 blows out towards the rear like its supposed to as well.


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## billypnats (Oct 13, 2007)

the video card and the CPU it self takes about 60% of the power at peak, so yeah get a 600W or something


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

Is this seriously everyones opinion then? It makes sense to me, half assed. I wouldn't see why it would run the system just fine for 12 hours plus, and then all of a sudden decide it couldn't handle my system. 

On another side note, why would it say its rated for SLI. I've seen guys run as much stuff as I've got on those cheap 'case' quality 420W cheap psus. 

I can try another power supply, but it doesn't add up to me. 
I entered in my stuff here, and added extra crap, just to overload it, and got 370W. 
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

isn't very accurate or something?
I guess I'd just like a couple other opinions before I dish out 170 bucks on ANOTHER power supply, that 'might' be the problem.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I can appreciate where you are coming from; and wanting to be sure


first off SLI approved really means NOTHING (its not an official standard) other than has two connectors for pci express cards

the corsair is a great unit; without doubt

however; if you go to sli zone.com and then look under SLI approved components you will see its the HX620 that is approved for running TWO 7950's in sli / not the 520

two 7950's will give about the same draw as one 8800 GTS

the 520 watt will SLI two 7600 cards ????????



but dont throw in the towel yet


try this 

at cold boot up / with the machine totally rested for hours! fire it up and run orthos (not prime95) for one hour >>>> watch temps ???? if it quits or shutsdown you will know you have a problem / also monitor the voltages for fluctuations with sensorsview pro all the time orthos is running
watch the 12volt rail carefully

if it shutsdown then 

cool off the computer totally for hours again

then boot up and do the same test / but this time remove the side cover to the "box" and blow a house fan into the computer. see if it will run the test longer ?????

dont forget/ the psu is getting its fresh/ cooling air from "inside" the box >>>>>> if its ingesting warm or worse yet hot air, then its ability to make 500 watts is going down the tubes; this is true of ALL electrical devices, as they get hot their performance suffers

while testing the system, feel the air coming from the PSU better yet is even to check it with a regular outdoor thermometer / if the exaust is more than 35C then chances are you have a suffering


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

thanks.

orthos is a power supply stress test? or a benchmark that shows my power supply temps?

ok, sensorviewpro is the monitoring program.

One thought was that possible the psu might get a bit warm, just because they've got that big slow fan on it. It hardly moves, to keep quiet. Truth betold I don't care much about dba, so if its a bit loud no biggie.
I'll run the tests and report back. The system did make it overnight two times without shutting off.

Just for curiosity sake here, IF it were say a graphics card overheating, what typically would happen? Or the cpu, wouldn't it beep at me alot and restart, rather than shut off? Just curious.

thanks very much for the help-
Regards, 
Dan


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

which version of orthos would be best?
anything as long as its not prime95 ?


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

I ran the test and the voltages all stayed put except for +5vsb went from 4.73 to 4.76 twice.

VcoreA: 1.38
VcoreB: 0
+3.3V : 3.30
+5V : 4.81
+12V : 11.90
+5Vsb : 4.73 (went to 4.76 a couple of times through 1hr)
+VBat : 3.06

The Cpu temp stayed at 46-47 till the last 5 minutes and went up to 48.
System temp was a tick lower 45-46 till the last 5 minutes or so.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

your PSU and CPU are no longer suspects they are free to go as they wish ray::wink:



your temps are great and the voltage is very good


now its time for memtest86.com >>>> run it overnite


and then run 3dmark to see if its your video card


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

will do.

if its videocard, will it just crash me right away? or how will I know if its good sometimes bad others?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

run the 3dmark06 bench mark test; it that crashes the machine then i will be pointing the finger at your video card


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

ok.

I ran the memtest86 tonight. Its a version I had on a floppy from who knows when---version 3.2a, the current is 3.3. Good enough right????

It ran for 2hours 10minutes and passed 5 times with 0 errors. I will run the 3Dmark06 either tonight or tomorrow night and let you know what goes down.

Just a FYI, I have been letting the machine idle overnights and throughout the day and it hasn't shutdown yet. Actually hasn't happened since I've started running checks on hardware, go figure.

thanks for the help thusfar,

Dan


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

you have scared your FUBAR bug ! keep up the good work ray:


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

ok mang,

Just finished up 3dmark06. Sadly it was flawless. LOL. I actually wish I found a genuine problem, this kind of conerns me more, NOT finding a problem.

now it'll always be in the back of my head......

any other suggetions? tweaks? anything else to check?

I'll be on tomorrow, thanks again.

Dan


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

hmmmmmm 



maybe it just needed a good old fashioned "hot supper" :laugh:



video card driver update maybeeeeeee ?


gotta grasp at straws now, usually if there is a hardware flaw, these kinds of tests bring it out to the front & center of attention every time ????


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

updated the drivers for the videocard, they're pretty damned new.

heres something I didn't tell you, because I thought it had no bearing.....heheh, we'll see eh?

mind you, It hasn't had the problem since I started checking hardware....however...

After post, since I run a raid 0, mediashield says detecting array, and it shows the arrary i'm running stripe healthy blah blah....

SOMTIMES it will just sit at 'detecting array' and will never see it, I have to restart the system once or twice and it'll see it. Once it sees the array we're giddy up.....but I figured maybe this is just because of a quirky bios (is that even a bios thing?) or quirky mediashield.....

Is there anyway to check my HDDs for errors, I ran HDTune, it shows all sectors or blocks are green, but it can't tell me anything more because it doesn't see each drive individually. Or is this not a HDD problem by any means?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

ROFL thats a whole new world :4-thatsba


the array could be getting degraded ????


you could go to your hard drive manufacturers website and download their free diagnostic software utility to verify the mechanical health of both drives


keep us posted


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

I didn't understand which one to get. Will my running raid affect which utility to run?

sorry for leaving that out, I figured if they work they work if they don't they just stop all together


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

tried to run a diagnostic for my hdd type, upon opening the file windows had an error.

BAD_POOL_HEADER ? I think thats what it was. I don't even know if it would have worked with the raid or not.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

For Western Digital drives, get Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD or Floppy which ever you prefer). Create the bootable media in Windows then Boot to the floppy/CD to run the diagnostic. 

The RAID shouldn't come into play when dealing with the DOS version of the diagnostic utility.


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

ok, I take it windows version typically has problems then?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

what_stanger? said:


> ok, I take it windows version typically has problems then?


There may be an issue with the diagnostic and the RAID setup:4-dontkno

I feel it's better to test the drive in DOS because the program is running independently of the hard drive itself.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I always test my drives with the dos bootable diagnostics version too ray:


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

makes sense.

I ran the Dos version. It let me check each drive seperatley. Right off the bat the 1st drive tested had an error 8 seconds into quick test. It had the code 0007. Second drive quicktest was perfect, no errors.

I ran the extended test/fixer test. It found an error on the 'bad' drive code 0223. It claimed the drive was indeed repaired. I ran another quicktest to see if it actually had been fixed. Low and behold error free. I suppose my HDD checks out for now too.

Computer hasn't shut down yet either. Possibly fixed the problem without actually doing anything. We could always pin it to the one bad hard drive and say its fixed??? How bad could the drive have been though, if the diagnostic 'fixed' it? Should I trust the HDD?


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

real quick. the code:

Errors found, but have been repaired successfully. There were media errors that were within the repair capabilities of diagnostic utility. The drive should now be defect free.


media errors. Twice when it shutdown I had mediaplayer open. Thats got nothing to do with it right? What the hell is a media error?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I never trust drives anymore


thats why I am a clone fanatic ! always keep your data redundantly backed up!


drives now days are *big and cheap */ but dependability is not as high a priority to consumers


I dont think anything serious has happened to your drive, crashing shutdown will make cluster errors or bad sectors >>>>. 

run the diag again in a couple of days


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

the hard drive internal disks are referred to as "media" by the manufacturers


nothing to do with windows media player


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

what_stanger? said:


> makes sense.
> 
> I ran the Dos version. It let me check each drive seperatley. Right off the bat the 1st drive tested had an error 8 seconds into quick test. It had the code 0007. Second drive quicktest was perfect, no errors.
> 
> ...


It's highly likely that this was the source your problems. This is why HD Diag. is one of the troubleshooting steps for hardware issues, along with Memtest86. 

AKAIK, when running a RAID array the system is more sensitive to such errors. If you were not running a RAID you may not have been affected as much by the error. You may have only received a random lockup or BSOD. (This is only speculation however)

Keep us posted on your system state, and let us know if the issue is resolved.:wave:


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## what_stanger? (Dec 24, 2005)

assuming this is the fix, how well would you trust the drive that was 'bad' ? I wouldn't mind some raptors, but damn they're still expensive!


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

Well, as Linderman said, just be sure to have a good backup and continue using it. I've had drives in worst shape than the one you are describing that I used Spinrite on to repair and they are still holding up fine.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I own a couple of raptors; IMHO they are not worth the money


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