Computer turns on then off with in seconds

[Tippy928]

Hi,

I have recently built a custom computer consisting of,

An Amd X4 640 CPU with heatsinkfan
a XFX ATI HD Radeon 5770 Graphics card
An ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 R Motherboard
A Western Digital 500gb Hard Drive
LITE_ON DVD Burner
A Rosewill 600W Power Supply
2 2GB Crucial/Ballistix Tracer RAM (not sure which is the brand name both were on the pakaging)
and a XION AXP Solaris Case
The problem im having occured out of nowhere. Basically when i turn the computer on it shuts off within a few seconds. Then when i press the on button again nothing happens it wont turn on. it will only turn back on if i flip the switch of the master power on the PSU off then on again.(the one with the o and -). After i do that it turns on then off again and i cant seem to figure out why. The Computer was working for over a week then this happend. It seems that if i let the computer sit for around an hour or so it will turn on with no problems and run fine for awhile but then have that random shut off again, in turn leading to the shuting off after a few seconds problem again. Any help. information or tips will be greatly appreciated.

If i left out or you need to know any additional information please feel free to ask and let me know.

 

[treefrog07]

It sounds like your cpu is overheating and shutting the system down to protect it from damage. Check your cpu heatsink to make sure it is not loose. You may want to re-seat the heatsink, cleaning the base and the cpu face with rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter, and then re-applying your thermal interface material. I use arctic silver 5.

 

[capt_taco]

Yeah, heat definitely seems like the No. 1 culprit to look for here. To be absolutely certain before you go tearing components out, download a program like Speedfan or Coretemp that can monitor your CPU temperatures. Try running a game or whatever it is you normally do that causes the problem, and check the temperature frequently. If it gets into the mid-high 50s, you can be pretty sure you've got a problem. I believe this generation of AMD processors shut themselves down at 62C.

With quad-core CPUs, it's not unusual that the stock heatsink will not be powerful enough. Also, check for dumb mistakes like your case fans being installed backwards. That's pretty easy to do, and it seems to happen all the time. That can definitely screw everything up.

 

[Tippy928]

Thank you both i will try and use a program to monitor the temperatures and ill apply some new heatsink and get back to you. I also tried to reset the CMOS which ddnt work just to put that out there aswell.

 

[jsc]

Work through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.

I have tested the following beeps patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU. You do have a case speaker installed, right? If not, you really, really need one. If your case or motherboard didn't come with a system speaker, you can buy one here:
http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU.

Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card. Silence or long single beeps indicate a problem with the memory.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

 

[Onus]

The fact that you are having to power-cycle your system suggests this could also be a PSU issue. If that Rosewill has a little red voltage switch on it, it could be from a series that helped earn Rosewill a reputation for crappy PSUs. A quality modern PSU has full range active PFC (no little voltage switch) and 80+ certification. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, Enermax, and XFX are among the better brands. Your system would be fine with a 430W-500W model.

 

[Tippy928]

I have applied new thermal compound to my CPU after cleaning the old one off. the one i used was antec formula 5. It Didnt work, i also did the paperclip green wire to black wire thing to see if my PSU is dead but it worked the blue led and fan ran fine, i even attached a case fan to make shur. i went threw that whole checklist i believe and i still have the problem cept now if i wait and give it time it still shuts off with in a few seconds. Ill probly try the breadboarding to rule out any case issues but any other tips and help would be great, thank you.

 

[Tippy928]

Work through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.

I have tested the following beeps patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU. You do have a case speaker installed, right? If not, you really, really need one. If your case or motherboard didn't come with a system speaker, you can buy one here:
http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU.

Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card. Silence or long single beeps indicate a problem with the memory.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

Ok i have tried this beep method thing but i have a quick question, i only had the Motherboard, CPU and fan, and the PSU connected and i heard the series of beeps like it said. So i added a stick of RAM i got the one long beep followed by 3 short beeps also like it said but then after the beeps maybee 1-2secons after the system shut off. Is that suppose to happen it doesnt specify if the system is suppose to shut off after or not. If its suppose to stay on then i think i have some bad ram.

 

[Tippy928]

^one stick turns it off right away the other makes it stay on for like 30secs-1min after the beeps just wanted to specify that.

 

[Onus]

Well, there could be a problem with your mobo around the RAM slots; perhaps a short that is causing the PSU to shut off. It seems unlikely that both of your RAM sticks would be shorted the same way. Do you have any spare parts for testing? If only because of the brand, I am still suspicious of the PSU not being able to hold up its end of the log. I'd replace it just on general principle with a 500W unit from Antec, Seasonic, or Corsair; or perhaps an OCZ ModXStream.

 

[Tippy928]

Well, there could be a problem with your mobo around the RAM slots; perhaps a short that is causing the PSU to shut off. It seems unlikely that both of your RAM sticks would be shorted the same way. Do you have any spare parts for testing? If only because of the brand, I am still suspicious of the PSU not being able to hold up its end of the log. I'd replace it just on general principle with a 500W unit from Antec, Seasonic, or Corsair; or perhaps an OCZ ModXStream.

Is there anyway to tell if the mobo has a short around the ram or a way to fix it if there was? or would i just need a whole nother mobo?

 

[Onus]

Well, you could look for broken traces or bad solder joints. Also check the mobo for blown capacitors. http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=bad+capacitors&aq=f&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=b7b968c575c3858f

 

[Tippy928]

Well, you could look for broken traces or bad solder joints. Also check the mobo for blown capacitors. http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=bad+capacitors&aq=f&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=b7b968c575c3858f

i dont see any bad or blown capacitors, i think im going to send the ram back and get new ones since its lifetime warrenty and see if those work. if they dont ill try and get a new PSU, in the meantime im gonna ask some friends if they have some ram i can borrow to see if it works which i doubt. But thx again for your help ill post if the new ram worked or not when i get it.