Computer Shutting Itself Off... PSU Problem?

[Ghost43299]

Hi all! About a year or two ago, I built a computer that I've been using for gaming purposes and it has been working wonderfully. A little over a month ago (around Thanksgiving), I was shutting down some unnecessary background tasks to improve game performance when the computer froze and shut itself off without any warning. I attempted to start the computer again but it repeatedly shut itself off immediately after I hit the power button and the fans spun up. Strangely enough, it seems the longer I let the system sit turned off, the longer it can run (almost like a low battery would behave in a battery-powered utility). Once or twice, on the limited occasions that I managed to get the system logged in and showing the desktop, it showed a blue screen just before it shut off displaying a message in very poor English, along the lines of "Please resetting BIOS options," etc. I have not made any hardware changes recently and the computer wasn't sluggish or anything prior to the first lockup and shutdown.

My current setup is:
-Pentium D 3.0 GHz Dual Core Processor
-NVIDIA GeForce 8500 512 MB Graphics Card
-Soundblaster Audigy Audio Card
-ASUS P5NSLI Motherboard
-500 Watt PSU
-2GB DDR
-Windows XP SP3


I haven't been able to find any sources that describe what's happening with my PC let alone any resolutions for the problem. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[eyeCpc]

It could well be a weak battery or the board itself may now have a problem like a bad cap if the supply isn't failing. Have you tried a fresh battery or different supply at all?

 

[Ghost43299]

Today the computer seems to be holding its power all right, but I can't tell because it doesn't output any video. I went to Best Buy tonight and picked up a new power supply, installed it, and there doesn't seem to be any improvement. It was also just brought to my attention that the initiation beep for the computer's startup isn't sounding which means that something is definitely not right. I'm assuming you're referring to the backup battery for the BIOS, so we just switched that out to see if it does any better; nothing improved. It also seems that the USB ports are not functioning or providing power. At this point I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard. Started looking at TigerDirect for new options... Think I might upgrade and make the best of this :sigh:

 

[eyeCpc]

Sounds a bit like the board is seeing a bad cap or two. If you get in there close with a magnifying glass look for any discoloration on the board itself or any bulged out caps. One article on how to spot bulged out or leaky caps is seen at Blown, Burst and Leaking Motherboard Capacitors - A Serious Problem? - PCSTATS.com

With a fresh battery and new supply on and no default post beep the news certainly isn't good. But save the battery anyways for a spare since those go on occasion plus you have a spare supply onhand hopefully an upgrade as well.

 

[Hampton]

I had same problem a few weeks back went and bought a new power supply and that wasn't it then went and bought a new motherboard and that wasn't it.. so I suggest you do what I did after that, take out all your cards.. mem,PCI and PCI-e then see if you hear the beep.. if so then replace each card starting with memory until you find the bad card. remember to ground yourself each time and discharge your power

 

[eyeCpc]

Once you pull the memory and video card out you will hear the board sound off right away since those are required items. Usually when a video card goes or is bad you often hear the one long two short beeps. With multiple dimms you leave each one in by itself and run memtest to see if any errors are reported.

 

[Ghost43299]

I've tinkered around with the system for hours on end... None of the cards are causing a problem; I've removed all of them and still no boot tone. Can't seem to find any discolored spots on the motherboard either. Wait a minute... just got an idea... Yep, disconnected hard drive and booted it... beeped at me once long 3 short... going to play around with the idea for a bit. Wish me luck!

Yeah... I was pretty much desperate to get some results... slapped the video card in, got a loud buzzing noise on start-up, shut down and started again, no boot tones again. Even after I pulled the card back out and booted it again, the system didn't repeat the series of beeps from earlier or anything. Not sure what to think of it.

 

[eyeCpc]

1long, 3short = No video card or bad video RAM Reseat or replace the video card. That was seen at Bioscentral for Award. BiosCentral - Award BIOS Beep Codes

The next step would be trying a different video card to see if that's what got stuffed on you there.

 

[darkender]

I would first recommend formatting before you spend anymore money.. It seems odd that it would be a hardware problem since it was working fine until you started trying to get rid of background programs. hmm cuz i think hardware needs software to work.. but i'm not expert though but it would be worth a try.

 

[eyeCpc]

Audio alerts are not any software problem but the bios pointing to a hardware problem at post time. Once the battery was replaced did you leave everything at the factory defaults or see the settings changed to the way you had them before like OS2 support enabled, PnP yes, and so forth?

If you originally had to enter dram timings manually were those re-entered? When arriving at the Asus specifications and seeing that the board there sees an AMI not Award bios the beep code points at: "1 long, 3 short Memory test failure A fault has been detected in memory above 64KB" according to bioscentral.com.

If memtest reported no errors with the dimms tried all on one slot try one by itself on another to see any of the other dimm slots are bad. Specifications are seen at ASUSTeK Computer Inc.