GA-Z97x-UD5H Random Shutdowns

[fema]

I have been having random power shutdowns since I put this build together last week. (my first)

Changed out the power supply but problem remains constant. At least once a day sudden power shutdown. I am on a APC Back up (with another PC that does not shutdown) so I know it is not house current.

Tried setting BIOS "Power Loading" feature to "enable" (as suggested in the BIOS notes but still getting shutdowns at least once daily).

Made no other changes in Bios.

No gaming and  I do no overclocking. CPU runs at 10% most of the time. Memory use from 1.5gb to 4 gb (I have 16gb total),. Watch videos, burn data to bluray rw and surf with ie multiple tabs. That's it !!

In fact the shutdowns mostly occur when machine is left idle.

Build as follows:

Corsair CX750M Power Supply
Intel I7-4771 LGA1150 CPU
Memory 16gb Gskill F-31600c9D-16XMR
Gigabyte GA-Z97x-UD5H Mother Board
Fractal Design Define R4 Case (2 Case Fans F&R Powered Directly by PSU)
Samsung SSD 840 250GB (operating system SSD)
Western Digital WD10EZEX  Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive (Storage)
Seagate ST1000528AS 1TB  7200 RPM (Storage)

Anyone have any ideas ?

[absic]

What BIOS version are you using?
What OS are you running?

[fema]

W7 64bit
f8 bios

[absic]

Try updating the BIOS to the F9b beta version available over at TweakTown here: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html to see if that helps.

Also check your power settings that Windows is using and see if that is causing the system to shutdown.

[fema]

Everthing is working so well other than the shutdown issue. I'm not feeling adventurous enough to try a Beta Version. I am trying some ideas I got from GB Tech Support for now.

Regarding Windows "Power Settings" . I am familiar with "Power Options" where I see nothing I could change to resolve the issue. If "Power Settings" is something entirely different, I would appreciate if you would nudge me in the right direction to find those settings.

Thank you for your reply

[absic]

My bad, I meant Power Options. 

I am running this board with a 4770k and windows 8.1 and have not had any of the random shutdowns that you are experiencing and I am using the F9b beta BIOS which is why I suggested that you try that.

[CCraMM]

I have the same board and almost the exact same hardware as you as well as running the F8 bios.
No shutdown issues. (running - never turn the machine off - for a month so far)

This leads me to believe that (if BIOS and Windows are configured to defaults) there's something wrong with hardware.

As far as troubleshooting which piece - i'll leave that to the support staff yer dealing with.

Would be amazing if you could grab another mobo from someone to do a swap test.

c

[Manxminx]

This leads me to believe that (if BIOS and Windows are configured to defaults) there's something wrong with hardware.

That would be my guess as as well.

Did you run Memtest86 after finishing the build? Have you run any stress testing / benchmarking progs? (see http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-benchmarking-tools-to-diagnose-or-compare-pc-performance/ for a roundup of what's available.)

If there's a problem with your hardware running stress tests & benchmarks will hopefully find it.

Good luck,
Ali.

[ipa]

Hello fema,

I had the same issue with my Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H, I flashed the newest BIOS (F8) and my PC was working fine. After two weeks I reinstalled OS and now I am facing the same problem again...

My specs:
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H
Intel i7-4790K
4x4 GB RAM Corsair XMS3 (set in BIOS to XMP profile 1600)
MSI Geforce GTX 760 2GB
PSU Seasonic G 450W
SSD Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB
3x HDD Caviar Black 2TB
Adaptec 6405 RAID controller (3x HDD RAID 5)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

As I already mentioned, I had the same problem and tried following: I removed graphics card (turned the CPU graphics on), removed Adaptec controller and disconnected all HDDs. After booting Windows, my PC rebooted everytime, when I started any task, which needs "a bit more" CPU. For example I was not able to run the Windows Experience Assesment - my PC shut off at the "CPU task" and started again.
After several days trying I flashed the new BIOS version to F8 (the MoBo came equipped with F6) and then worked everything fine. But my PC was so often restarted, that not only the file system, but also the installed software was corrupted. I decided to install new fresh copy of Windows.
You can guess, what happened. I am facing the same problem AGAIN. I flashed the F8 again, loaded default values in BIOS, removed and disconnected hardware as before, but no success.
I installed HWMonitor to check the CPU temperatures. Before upgrading BIOS I have seen temperatures above 90C, which is abnormally high. I touched the heatpipes of CPU cooler and I can swear, they were not that hot. I was thinking about bad placed cooler or missing thermal grease. But everything was ok. I have not seen any high temperature after BIOS upgrade, I think I have seen max. 70C at full load. I thought, the old BIOS version has an issue on how to read or interpret CPU temperature values and CPU (or motherboard) turned the PC off, to protect CPU from frying.
But now, running BIOS F8 with fresh Windows installation, shows the HWMonitor temperatures about 30C at idle but if is there any need of CPU, then PC shuts down immediately.
I tried also to remove CMOS battery for 1 minute with disconnected AC, followed by loading default values in BIOS with no success.
I'm not sure if I'm experiencing a hardware or software (driver?) issue.

Any help or advice is welcome.

[fema]

I am very new at this (first time build), so I cant offer much advise.

I called Gigabyte Tech support and they advised to remove the CMOS battery for 1 minute (also disconnect the power supply temporarily). reinstall the battery and power up to BIOS choose Optimized Settings in BIOS.

I did this 3 0r 4 days ago and have not had a random shutdown since.

They also said to set up W7 power options so the PC never sleeps (presumably sometimes people mistaken a sleep mode for a shutdown).

[absic]

I'm not sure if I'm experiencing a hardware or software (driver?) issue.

A simple test to see if it is hardware or software is to run a live installation of a Linux distro such as Ubuntu or Mint. You can run one of these OS's from a USB pendrive or DVD disk and if the system runs OK then you can be pretty sure it is a software problem rather than your hardware. If the system still shuts down then you can be pretty sure that it is hardware related.

[ipa]

A simple test to see if it is hardware or software is to run a live installation of a Linux distro such as Ubuntu or Mint. You can run one of these OS's from a USB pendrive or DVD disk and if the system runs OK then you can be pretty sure it is a software problem rather than your hardware. If the system still shuts down then you can be pretty sure that it is hardware related.

Hello absic,
thank you for this advice. I did it already before, or better to say - I tried it to do... I was not able to boot any live Linux distro, I tried Ubuntu 14.04, Lubuntu, SystemRescue CD 4.3.0 (based on Debian?), ... I could boot only GParted CD, but I was not able to install any software to simulate work under CPU load (MPrime). After many trials I turned off the AHCI mode in BIOS and I could boot into Ubuntu 14.04 and install MPrime. My PC behaved the same way - it rebooted also under live Linux. That means, it has nothing to do with software.

Fortunately my problem has been solved. After a lot of trying (BIOS flash, BIOS settings changed, RAM tested and exchanged) I exchanged also my PSU. I changed it to another of the same brand and power (Seasonic G 450W, a bit older model) and all problems have gone.
I sent my new PSU to RMA - the main power branch is not working properly. I would never believe, that a brand new, high quality PSU, can behave this way. My problem is also not related to Gigabyte mainboard. But... I would say, that BIOS version F7 is a minimum for successfully running i7-4790K on this board.

[absic]

Pleased you got the problem solved and it just goes to show that even brand new hardware is no guarantee of a successful build.

Not sure why you couldn't get any linux distro to install or run live. I have tested with my own system running in AHCI Mode and have not encountered any issues. The only thing I can guess at is that they are not recognising the i7-4790k CPU properly, or that you have your BIOS configured differently to me.