PC Randomly Stops Responding/Shuts Down

[Slaymate]

Check the Power / Hibernation settings within Windows, it's a long shot but you never know.

 

[yzmxer608]

Ok, I'll try that, everything is worth a go at this point. Ran memtest for 7 hours and 34 minutes and it had 0 errors. At least we know it's not the ram. I'll mess around with the power saving options in Windows and go from there before I tear apart the case. It only happened 2 or 3 times yesterday with probably close to 4 hours of up time, both did happen while I was playing DiRT2 though. But, it has happened while first getting to the desktop at log on before too.

Maybe the HD's? DiRT2 and the OS are on separate drives, but it's worth a try (both are WD Caviar Blacks). What do you guys suggest for HD test tools?

 

[Slaymate]

Download CrystalDiscInfo, it's a hard-disk health monitoring utility
CrystalDiskInfo - Download

You could also run HDTach thru it's paces a few times.
HdTach

 

[yzmxer608]

Happened a few more times today. After it happened I set Windows power mode to High Performance. Ran HD tach on the OS drive (WD Caviar Black).

If it happens anymore I'll rip apart the PC .

 

[yzmxer608]

I think it's finally fixed. In the BIOS I disabled the G.P.U Phase Control. Not sure if it actually does anything with the GPU or the board itself. It didn't happen at all yesterday, hopefully it won't anymore.

 

[Slaymate]

I've never heard of that setting before.

 

[yzmxer608]

Found out what it actually is:

BIOSTAR G.P.U (Green Power Utility) is a new function, it will enhance energy efficiency by disabling extra phases while CPU on light loading. It integrated a friendly GUI to monitor what's your CPU resourcing, response and optimized the power saving on your system. Such as Heavy 3D Gaming, Internet or MSN charting, G.P.U will always arrange the best power efficiency in your system.

 

[Slaymate]

All I needed to see is "optimized the power saving" and "best power efficiency" to know I would of disabled it right from the start

 

[yzmxer608]

I think I'm going to do that from now on too, seems like it does more harm than good.

 

[sjwoo]

I think it's finally fixed. In the BIOS I disabled the G.P.U Phase Control. Not sure if it actually does anything with the GPU or the board itself. It didn't happen at all yesterday, hopefully it won't anymore.

Man, am I ever glad I found your post (and all your great troubleshooting) -- I just bought a similar setup (Phenom II 955 + Biostar TA790GXE), and although I haven't had these issues as frequently as you, I've had them a few times, exactly the way you describe it -- everything goes blank, HD light stays on, computer is pretty much dead. Even using the reset switch wouldn't bring it back; I had to power cycle completely via PSU. I'm going to turn off this GPU "feature" right now. Since there hasn't been any more messages from you regarding this issue, can I hope it has been resolved? Thanks...

- Sung