SOLVED Annoying PC Power problem, not sure if O/S or H/W

[curly57_]

I'm having an issue with my PC.

Every night, i turn the power off at the socket (after it's properly shutdown ) because the lights on the mainboard light my bedroom up like it's christmas, and i like it dark when i sleep. When i turn it all back on the next day, everything boots up as it should and runs perfectly, but after ten minutes and up to thirty seconds, it will turn off imediately, as though i've switched it off at the wall, and will then reboot. It'll then run for however long i let it, without issue. If i leave the mains socket for the tower itself switched on over night with the machine shut down normally, not only do i get aeroplanes trying to land, but the computer boots up and runs fine without any shutting down. I've tried changing the power supply, Updated to the most recent Bios, and i've even changed the graphics card (the one i had was pretty old, i needed an upgrade anyway ) But no difference. I ran memtest+ overnight for the full suggested 8 passes, with 0 errors. The CPU also runs at a max of 65°c even when under a pretty good load (fallout 4 on max everything) and the board is running around 42°c constantly so i don't think it's an overheating issue.

I have noticed this evening in HWmonitor, that there is a discrepancy between the CPU's reported temperature, and the Mainboard's reported CPU temperature. The CPU says that each core is running between 40°c and 43°c (highest reported on any one of the 4 cores is 48°c), where-as the Mainboard is saying that the CPU is running at 56°c (with a max value of 59°c). This isn't something i've noticed before, and although i doubt it'd make much difference, i thought it worth mentioning.

The machine in question is..

I5 2500K
EVGA Z68 mainboard
4x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333mhz memory (matched)
Asus Strix GTX970
650w power supply (also tried a known good 800w, no difference)
1x Crucial 240GB SSD
3x Western Digital 1TB HDD
1x generic DVD R/RW

Nothing is overclocked, nor has it been.

Windows 10 pro, 64bit (free upgrade from 7 pro). installed on the 240gb SSD.

The machine is reasonably new to me (even though i built it), and it had a failed power supply when it arrived. Every test i've run though says there's nothing actually wrong. The event viewer just says "Critical kernel-power", but that seems to be just because windows wasn't shutdown, it just got turned off.

I just can't think of anything else to check.

So far, on another forum, the best advice i got was to either change the case for one without any air holes ( ) so the light can't get out, or chuck a blanket over it over night . I don't use that forum any more. I've built many computers in the past, including this one (for someone else), and although i don't neccessarily know all of the ins and outs of Windows, i know my way around it

Any thoughts or suggestions? (Please, no stupid ones)

 

[Tim Locke]

If it were me, and I build my own pcs, I would carefully dust out the system. I'd pull the power plugs from the mainboard and the disks and reseat them and the cpu and case fan plugs as well. I'd probably remove and dust the RAM and put the modules back in a different order. None of these may make any difference but it might be 10 minutes well spent..

 

[curly57_]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Cleaning the machine out is something i did straight away. When the machine came back to me with this issue, it was one of the first things i thought of, but made no difference. The PSU that was in it was DOA, but worked fine before the original owner brought it to me, so it was damaged in transit somehow.

The more i've looked into this issue, the more i thought it was going to be a side effect of whatever happened to the PSU, but after testing i've almost ruled out a hardware failure.

 

[curly57_]

Someone suggested to me to see if the computer had the same issue while in BIOS (don't know why i didn't think of that really), so i've been testing that for the last 3 days. It does NOT shut down or suffer a power loss while in BIOS, so the problem has to be software/windows based.

 

[Trouble]

Some motherboards have a setting that controls the behavior of the system when it recovers from a loss of AC power, which is basically what you are doing manually

Every night, i turn the power off at the socket

Every BIOS is different but most will have it under the BIOS "Power Management Setup" section or area.
Have a look there and see how it might be set (configured) and try experimenting by changing it to something different.
There may also be additional settings in there that might be worth sampling regarding other potential power management settings or states (sometimes called C-States).

 

[Tim Locke]

The mobo LEDs are not visible from outside the case on my machines.... but the modem, router, Gb switch, NAS box, Hue base station, speakers, and the Raspberry Pi do indeed guide the flying saucers in to land. ( 20 LEDS at night, more in the day) But then I keep all this in a separate room from where I sleep.

 

[curly57_]

Some motherboards have a setting that controls the behavior of the system when it recovers from a loss of AC power, which is basically what you are doing manually

Hi, i did think of this, and it is set to power off on my board.

The mobo LEDs are not visible from outside the case on my machines.... but the modem, router, Gb switch, NAS box, Hue base station, speakers, and the Raspberry Pi do indeed guide the flying saucers in to land. ( 20 LEDS at night, more in the day) But then I keep all this in a separate room from where I sleep.

I wish i had space to put it somewhere else to be honest. There's around 8 LED's on the mainboard when it's on or off, and another really bright white on on the GTX970 too. It quite litterally lights up the room, even through the small 6 inch square fan vent on the side of the case.

I have had an idea though that i will test out tonight. Instead of turning the mains power off at the socket, i'm going to turn the switch on the PSU off instead. I doubt it'll make any difference, but i'll test it again tomorrow and see what happens.

I am still leaning towards this being an Windows environment problem though, because even if i was to turn the power off now, leave it for an hour and turn it back on, it won't reproduce the problem. Tomorrow it will though.

 

[Trouble]

I am still leaning towards this being an Windows environment problem though, because even if i was to turn the power off now, leave it for an hour and turn it back on, it won't reproduce the problem. Tomorrow it will though.

I know you've mentioned that you've tried a different power supply.....
Have you also tried a new motherboard CMOS battery.
When you leave it off overnight, IF..... you boot into the BIOS is the date and time being shown properly?

 

[curly57_]

Yeah, something i also thought of when i first got it. I actually built the PC for someone else about 3 ish years ago, and i know the battery won't have been changed in that time, so i replaced it with a brand new item from PC world (Cost me an arm and a leg). It's been in the board for about 2 months now and i've had no issue with the BIOS at all.

 

[Trouble]

it will turn off imediately, as though i've switched it off at the wall, and will then reboot.

The fact that it is "rebooting" and not shutting completely down could be indicative of a BSOD.

Make sure your machine is configured properly to facilitate the collection of .dmp files.

Go to Start and type in sysdm.cpl and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button
Insure that Automatically restart is unchecked
Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump << where your .dmp files can be
found later.
Click OK twice to exit the dialogs, then reboot for the changes to take effect.

 

[Saltgrass]

Anytime I turn off the main power or turn off the power supply, on the next boot my system will boot part way and restart itself. I believe it is having to reset the Bios settings or reconfigure them is some manner.

I do not know why yours waits 10 minutes but it might just be a difference in the motherboards.

 

[curly57_]

The fact that it is "rebooting" and not shutting completely down could be indicative of a BSOD.

Make sure your machine is configured properly to facilitate the collection of .dmp files.

The Auto restart box was ticked, so hopefully i'll get something more to work with tomorrow. I'll update then

 

[BigFeet]

Humor me and try this (Saltgrass also). Go to Control Panel/Power Options. On the left select "Choose what the power buttons do". Select "Change settings that are currently unavailable". Uncheck "Turn on fast startup". Click "Save changes". Reboot.

Fast boot has created odd behavior on two of my PC's (both with Windows 8 and 10). One PC will start to boot, then reboot itself again, only after being shut down. Then boot normal the second time. The other will post, then go to an endless black screen (I let it sit over 2 days and nothing). But a hard shutdown and restart, and it would boot normal.

Give it a try, hopefully it helps. If not, just reselect it.

 

[curly57_]

Humor me and try this (Saltgrass also). Go to Control Panel/Power Options. On the left select "Choose what the power buttons do". Select "Change settings that are currently unavailable". Uncheck "Turn on fast startup". Click "Save changes". Reboot.

Fast boot has created odd behavior on two of my PC's (both with Windows 8 and 10). One PC will start to boot, then reboot itself again, only after being shut down. Then boot normal the second time. The other will post, then go to an endless black screen (I let it sit over 2 days and nothing). But a hard shutdown and restart, and it would boot normal.

Give it a try, hopefully it helps. If not, just reselect it.

Have just decheked fast boot, i'll report back tomorrow

 

[curly57_]

After making those few changes yesterday, so far (touch wood) my PC hasn't shut down after being switched off overnight. However, my PC threw me a curve ball last night. Whilest sat doing some graphics editing, all of the open windows started to flicker, as if being rapidly selected and then deselected. I unplugged my Logitech G600 mouse, and it stopped. Bit weird, but okay, sticky button on my mouse maybe. A few minutes later, the windows started to flash again, so i unplugged the G15 keyboard, and again it stopped. I'm now using a different Keyboard and mouse, so i'm also wondering if the shutdown was to do with either of those.

I'll investigate over the next few days and try to find out the cause. Thanks for all the help and advice though, i apreciate it

 

[BigFeet]

You know, come to think of it, I had a similar issue with my dad's PC shutting down by itself on Windows 7 about a year ago. I spent days plowing through event logs and doing google searches. After giving him my backup PC while I tried to figure out his issue, my backup PC started doing the same thing. It ended up being his old microsoft keyboard. So nothing would surprise me at all.