Random shut-down?

[smorris]

I just put together a system using a Soyo SY-K7ada motherboard, with an AMD Duron 1.1mhz, and 256md ddr 2100 ram. Initially, the power supply (300w ATX) they supplied was dead. I bought a new one (300w ATX)...and off she went...great...for about an hour. Then the whole system shut down. I waited a few minutes, and up she started again, for about ten minutes, and shut down. Its almost acting like its overheating, but I can touch the processor...and its not hot. At least not nearly as hot as my Pentiums have been in the past. It wont let me disable the high temp shutdown, but I dont think its that anyway, because I am not feeling any significant heat. The whole case is still open too, so airflow is not going to be an issue...baffled.

The cpu fan and heat sink is a whopper, and it whirs away like its supposed to.

I called Soyo tech support, and they werent much help. Not sure what to do. They say they want to charge me 15.00 to exchange my motherboard, plus shipping. Sounds like extortion to me.

Anyone have any answers?

[mike breck]

First things first.

Go into the BIOS and monitor the CPU and mobo temps for 10 mins (or until the shuts down), then post them here.

What temp is your "High Temp" shutdown set to?

If you can't disable it, you may be able to raise it's threshhold before it does shutdown the PC. 55-60c is a reasonably safe range.

But don't do that until we have a look at your CPU and mobo temps.

[Cricket]

Hi smorris,

When you said you touched the processor, did you mean the heatsink? I don't think you could touch the CPU core as the heatsink would be in the way. And I don't think you could touch a AMD Duron core after it's been on awhile and not get burned.

If your heatsink is cool to the touch, it's not making good contact with the CPU core. The heatsink has to sit flat and level on the CPU core in order to get good thermal transfer happening.

Take the motherboard out of the case and visually inspect the way the heatsink sits over the CPU. The gap should be the same all the way around the socket.

Make sure the heatsink is oriented properly...the recessed portion goes over the raised section of the socket.

The metal clip has to make contact with the heatsink directly over the CPU core.

Make sure the heatsink isn't being interferred with. Look all the way around the CPU socket and make sure the heatsink is not sitting on a capacitor or regulator heatsink. If the heatsink is a "whopper", it could be too big for your motherboard. Check carefully.

Are you using some kind of thermal material? You have to use either a thermal pad (if your heatsink came with one) or thermal compound (like Artic Silver).

The AMD Tech Docs webpage has good instructions on how to install a heatsink on a AMD CPU. Scroll down the page and look for Tech Doc 23986 .

Artic Silver Instructions

Cricket

[smorris]

I am checking the things you mentioned. I followed the dirfections in the AMD packaging to a "T". When I said I touched the processor, I meant that I stuck my finger under the rim of the heat sink, and could not feel any heat eminating from the processor chip. I did not actually touch it, but got close enough with the very tip of my finger to tell.

My machine right now, has been running for 5 hours straight with no problems. Who knows...

[smorris]

Yeah...I am looking at the CPU temp right now...its 46C/114F which is nice and cool...and I have been running photoshop too...so the CPU has been working, not just sitting idle.

Like I said...very perplexing.

[smorris]

The shut down temp is 75C/167F...so like I thought, I dont think that is the culprit. Damn....it just cutoff. Uhhhhhhhg! Could there be some kind of breaker in the power supply or something?

[Cricket]

Hi smorris,

When you say it cuts off...do you mean it reboots automatically or does the PC just shut off abruptly (no shutdown screen)?

What kind of power supply do you have? What's the brand name?

Try running your system without any peripherals attached to it. You might want to run it with just the primary master hard drive attached to. Remove any soundcards and modems/NIC's, controller cards, etc... Basically, try to run it with only the motherboard, CPU, heatsink, video card, 1 stick of RAM and the hard drive and see if the problem remains.

Could you list your complete system specs...name of manufacturer and model number if you know it for each part. Also list the programs you normally run. Anything running in background?

Could be the motherboard. Have you visually inspected it for any signs of cracks or broken circuit traces?

Cricket

[smorris]

Thanks for all your help folks!

It just powers off instantly...everything stops moving, monitor shuts off...its like it dies....no windows shutdown screen or warnings of any kind.

It shut off briefly earlier today...but has since been just fine. Current temp is 47C.

I stripped everything down, and nothing happened, but then there is no load on the unit at all, and I odnt expect it to happen anyway. I plug everything in one by one, and no difference. I cant seem to isolate it this way.

I am trying to avoid paying 15.00 to exchange the mobo. I cant believe that legal. Sell you something thats defective (if it is) ,and charge you a fee plus shipping to replace it. That gives them an incentive to send out defective merchandise!

Mobo Soyo sy-k7ada v1.0 Award Bios
PwrSupp Comp USA 300w ATX
Chip AMD Duron 1.1ghz 200mhzFSB
Ram 256mb pc2100 ddr
HDD 10 gb IBM travelstar (Laptop drive with ide pin adapter)
HDD2 2gb JTS (yeha it s old...but why throw it away)
Floppy Teac standard
CDROM Hival (toshiba internals) 52x
Sound Pine Crystal ? 3-d sound card (SB 3-d compat)
Vid Pine Nvidia 64mb
Modem Lucent V90 56.6k
SMC 10/100 NIC

[mike breck]

That's why I like buying from local shops. I just get them to order in the parts. If the parts don't work, I take them back and THEY pay the shipping.

BTW a cool heatsink can either be the sign a sign of inefficient heat transfer if the CPU is too warm or a very efficient HSF if the CPU is cool.

My TheremoEngine V60-4225 6800rpm on a T/Bird 1200 266 has always been cool to touch. My current full load CPU temp is 38-40c.

Therefore, logic dictates the TheremoEngine plus Artic Silver makes for a VERY efficient heat tranfer and dissapation.

[glc]

Is that CompUSA power supply on the AMD approved list for that processor? If it's a house brand power supply, I would highly suspect it. I would also suspect that JTS hard drive - they are notorious for poor reliability and it might be intermittently shorting out and shutting the power supply down.

[smorris]

Not sure... but I am now on 22 hours of continuous...and everythings a check....except that i cant get one computer to recognize the other in network Neighborhood, but it finds it everywhere else (winfax, pings, browser by IP...etc) it clearly connected but NetNeighb cant see it. I hate windows.

I also cant get Winfax to succeed in retrieving remote faxes...but thats another problem for another headache!

I thought computers were supposed to make my life more efficient. Seems I waste a lot of time messing around with them.

I tried disconnecting the JTS drive (which for me, has been bulletproof for almost 7 years now, I even dropped it once...must have got lucky there) before, and it still shut down. The power supply says it is guaranteed by CompUSA to compy to all applications and chip in that power rating requirement. So, possible, but unlikely.

Anyway...it seems to have solved itself. Is this unheard of? I am still a little baffled.

...go figure.

Thanks again for everyones input. A bunch of right good folks here-abouts.