Desktop computer shuts down frequently without warning

[DerStrom8]

Hi everyone.

I tried the instant help with one of the gigabyte customer service people, and their suggestion did not help at all, so I'm going to start a thread here.

To start off, I recently bought a used desktop machine from a friend that's about 4 years old. It has the EX58-UD3R Gigabyte motherboard, 16GB of RAM, the CoolerMaster V8 CPU cooling system, two Hydravision 4650 (?) video cards, and a CoolerMaster 650W power supply. A while ago I started having an issue with it shutting down randomly without warning when it was in use. It would restart automatically, and just shut down again, and it would continue this cycle until I would press the power button after the phase LEDs turned off after the POST. At the suggestion of a friend of mine, I unplugged the USB ports (connected to the front of the case--A CoolerMaster GLiTE 430) in case they had a short, and things seemed to work fine after that (for about a month). However, just today it started doing the same thing. I've reseated the RAM, checked for viruses, cleaned the fan in the V8, and disconnected any hardware that wasn't absolutely necessary, and it still continues to shut down during use. I've entered the BIOS and let it sit and it doesn't seem to do anything abnormal, and the core temperatures are fairly reasonable (~40C). I even tried booting from a Ubuntu Live disc to eliminate the possibility of an operating system issue, and it still turned off when I was trying to use it. Likewise, when I booted into safe mode (with networking and with command prompt), it would do the same. I checked the voltages on the PSU output and they were all good, though I haven't been able to hook them up to a scope yet to see if the output is clean or if there's noise.

I'm wondering if you might know what is wrong, and how to fix it? This has really begun to annoy me, and it's important that I get this machine back up and running the way it should be, as I have important work to do on it. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!
Matt L.

EDIT: I forgot to mention--

When the computer begins to POST, I hear a single, loud beep, which from my research means everything is ok. However, I also just noticed that sometimes, right before it shuts down, I can hear two extremely quiet long beeps. I'm not sure if this is an alarm of some sort or what, but I thought I should mention it, just in case.

[dmdilks]

You say the cpu is not overheating but could one of the video cards be doing it.

Try running with one card and try running with one stick of memory. But do one at time not together.

It could even be the hard drive doing it too. I had a SSD that would just disappear and reboot the computer.

If you turn off the computer by the power switch on the PSU and than turn it back on the computer would fine.

So it could be almost anything and you will have try each part in the computer. One at a time till you find out which one is the problem.

 

[DerStrom8]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did try one video card at a time just in case there was something wrong with one of them. This mobo has two slots, and I've got two video cards, and I tried one at a time in each of the slots, and both installed in both configurations, and it made no difference.

I did the same with the RAM, and even swapped it out with some different sticks (the one that came with the machine, actually) and again, it made no difference.

I thought it might be the hard drive, perhaps it was going bad--it's not a SSD, it's a 500GB Seagate--so I ran a few tests through the command prompt. I tried chkdsk and sfc, but nothing turned up. I've been struggling with this problem for actually more than a month, with a couple weeks break when it worked fine, and just now it started acting up again. I'm completely stumped. 

I appreciate the response. If you've got any other suggestions, I would greatly appreciate hearing them.

Thanks guys.

Cheers,
Matt

[dmdilks]

If you have a spare hard drive try installing Ubuntu on it and see if that will take care of the problem.

Plus have you try to reseat the cpu too. And look at all the pins in the cpu socket. 

[DerStrom8]

Unfortunately I don't have a spare hard drive, which is why I haven't tried that yet. As I mentioned I did try running from a ubuntu live disc, but I don't know if that runs completely independently of the hard drive or not (not quite that advanced with computers, to be honest  )

I was hoping to avoid reseating the CPU because I don't have any thermal compound to replace the old stuff. If you think it might be the problem, I suppose I could try to source some, but it's a bit more trouble than I was hoping for. I suppose if it's necessary, though....

[DerStrom8]

Hello again folks.

I have determined the problem definitely isn't the hard drive. It also isn't the power supply, because it does not fail at all when sitting in BIOS. If there was power fluctuation, I'm thinking it would shut down regardless of what the computer is doing. I have narrowed it down to either the sata cables (which means both are damaged since it doesn't work with either one), the sata ports (the look okay, still firmly attached to the board, etc, but I'm not sure what all to look for), the SATA chip on the mobo (I feel a little uneasy about re-seating it since my soldering iron is not designed for SMT chips) or a heat issue. I would actually like to know where exactly the heat sensor is on the CPU. I have set the alarm to go off if it reaches the lowest "high-temp" range in BIOS, and it does not sound at all. Unless the sensor is not working properly, I'm not convinced it is a heat issue. Any thoughts? I'm getting rather desperate as i need this computer for work, and my laptop really isn't enough.

Thanks for any more suggestions you have.

Best wishes,
Matt

[dmdilks]

One thing you haven't said what bios are you running and have you tried to update it.

Plus make sure you have the right version board. There is 3 of them 1.0, 1.6, & 1.7.

The version is in the bottom left corner when looking at it in the computer.

[DerStrom8]

One thing you haven't said what bios are you running and have you tried to update it.

Plus make sure you have the right version board. There is 3 of them 1.0, 1.6, & 1.7.

The version is in the bottom left corner when looking at it in the computer.

Oops, sorry, don't know how I forgot that. The board is Rev 1.6, Bios version is FB. Haven't been able to update it because the machine doesn't stay turned on long enough for me to do anything. Usually it starts booting (shows the windows logo and startup progress bar) then shuts off.

[dmdilks]

Can you get into safe mode. If you can do safe mode with networking. Download the bios unzip it and put it on a flash drive.

 boot into the bios and do a Q-Flash. Than just find the flash drive and update it. Download FK bios. That might fix the problem maybe.

[DerStrom8]

Can you get into safe mode. If you can do safe mode with networking. Download the bios unzip it and put it on a flash drive.

 boot into the bios and do a Q-Flash. Than just find the flash drive and update it. Download FK bios. That might fix the problem maybe.

Unfortunately, no--it even shuts down in safe mode. I do have a laptop though, so I may be able to do that. I'll just need to find the most recent bios version. Not exactly sure where to start looking to be honest. Thoughts? Links?

Many thanks!

[DerStrom8]

I take that back, I believe I just found it here on the site

[DerStrom8]

Okay, well I have it on a flash drive and I entered BIOS, pressed F8 to get into the Q-Flash menu, but it's not finding the flash drive. Does the flash drive have to be specially formatted for this? i.e. as NTFS? If so, I think I need to go back and change that.....

[DerStrom8]

Hmm, no luck. Still not finding the flash drive.

[dmdilks]

I have one of those and I just did it with no problem.
'
Did you unzip the file and then copy and paste all three files?

It will not show a USB Drive it will show it as HDD

1. f8 - y - enter
2. Update from drive
3. floppy or HDD 1-0
4. HDD 1-0
5. ..  DIR & EX58UDERFK
6. EX58UDERFK

[dmdilks]

Once you get done doing the update shut it down and clear the cmos.

Then go back into the bios and set it to the default setting save and exit.

Then you can go back in setup the bios to how you had it running.