Immediate shutdown upon ALU assessment test in WEI win7

escapeartist

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Jan 27, 2010
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18,510
Bought a Asus M4A785-M and AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE combo off Newegg last week. Long, long story short: It immediately shuts the entire system when doing the DirectX 10 ALU assessment test. It completes the test when I underclock the cpu to 2ghz and lower. I am planning to RMA the entire combo tomorrow but am afraid the exact same problem will happen again with the next combo. Other components are Nvidia EVGA 8800GTS 512mb, 1x2GB stick of samsung ddr2 667. The shutdown also occurs in heavy action in COD6. Any help would be appreciated. one last note, all the cpu and memory settings are set to AUTO in the bios, except for the multiplier when I underclocked.
 

r_manic

Administrator
What appears when the computer shuts down? A BSOD? I can only assume that it's an issue with your GPU or power supply, the latter caused by a PSU that can't handle the power requirements of your video card under load.
 

escapeartist

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Jan 27, 2010
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18,510

Thermaltake 480w
how much juice does my graphics card suck down?
when it shuts off on it's own, it is as if someone cut the cord to the psu and i'm looking at a black monitor :(
what psu wattage do you folks suggest? I may just have to run out and pick one up (try the WEI test) and return it if it doesn't help
 
That PSU is overrated. At least its overload protections seem to be working. You'll need to find a new one. A good way to lessen the risk of getting something that can't output what's on its label is to look for 80+ certification, since that means the unit could supply 100% of its label, and do it efficiently. You also want one with full range active PFC (no little voltage switch). Antec, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, and Enermax are among the quality brands. A 500W Antec Earthwatts would be an excellent choice for you.
 

Wandat1978

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Nov 28, 2012
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10,510

I am having the exact same problem but I do have a 500 watt PS. I have a EVGA GTX560Ti with a Gigabyte 970A-DS3 MB, 32 gig Corsair DDR3- 1600 RAM, and a 256 OCZ Agility III SSD. It completely shuts down during the WEI (at the ALU assessment)and as soon as I try to start a game, such as WOW. I have read elsewhere there could be a driver conflict with Microsoft but thus far I have not found a solution. This is a brand new build, still trying to get it running correctly.