Computer randomly shuts down and periodically freezes.

[cvheifner]

Hi,

I have a custom built tower with two 1 TB hard drives. I recently installed a 128GB SSD (Crucial RealSSD) as my main OS, with the other drives as storage.

Here is my problem - the computer randomly freezes for a second or two at times and turns off periodically (when idle or active). I'm guessing I installed or hooked up the drive incorrectly. FYI, I'm not extremely tech savvy. I can give you more info if you need. Below is my setup.

One more thing to note, when I installed the drive, I unhooked the other two drives, which were plugged into the SATA 6Gb/s on my motherboard, and plugged them into the SATA 3Gb/s. I then plugged the SSD into one of the SATA 6Gb/s connections.

Thanks and I would greatly appreciate any help.

Christian

Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core)

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D Premium SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)

System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)

Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Recommended)

Hard Drive Set 1: SSD. 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5” SATA

Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia/Data: 1x (1.5TB Seagate Barracuda (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)

Hard Drive Set 3: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1.5TB Seagate Barracuda (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)

Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)

Internet Access: High-Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)

Video Card(s): NVIDIA PNY Quadro FX 580 512MB (Outputs: DVI, DisplayPort)

Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio

Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua Dual 120mm Fans High-Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans

Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)

Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)

 

[g5insider]

My first suggestion is to make sure everything is seated correctly in your machine

Push all the cards into the slots and make sure they are in there nice and snug
do the same with the memory and do this with all the cables

Over time you can get chip creep the heat from the pc will slowly push out the components causing problems.

If this does not help i would unplug your hdd's and just leave the ssd plugged in and see what your pc does and if it crashes or hangs

We have to isolate the problem if your pc does well with just the solid state then go ahead and plug in one of your hdd's and see what happens

Then i would swap out that hdd with your second hdd and see how that works

If everything works fine up to that point connect everything back up and test the whole machine again maybe your having some problems with the read/ write 3gbs/6gbs between ur hdd's which may make them hate each other lol

Let me know how things go

 

[opexx]

you have a very low-wattage power supply for that kind of gear.... that would be my guess. 2 platter drives, ssd, and a 580 on an i7 system.... yeahhh just seems a bit much for a 750 watt power supply.

 

[photonboy]

Points:
1) Your PSU should be adequate. Opexx is wrong. I'm not saying that it's definitely not the problem but a quality 750W PSU is adequate for your build.

2) RAM. Run Memtest or the Windows 7 memory tool (both require a reboot. memtest requires you burn a copy to USB or disc, and also your BIOS must have the boot order to have the USB or disc BEFORE the hard drive)

3) SSD. Run diagnostics with the tools from the website.

4) SSD. Replace with a hard drive.

5) BIOS. update to the latest

*Basically you need to swap out parts to test which one is causing your problem. I don't think it can be software related.

Other:
- Memtest is very good, but not 100% accurate.
- My freezing issues ended up being my BIOS not liking my SSD. I had to use a hard drive until a BIOS fix came, then I got the new BIOS update and my SSD worked. I ALSO had the same BIOS incompatibility with my RAM and an update to the BIOS sorted that out.
- swapping the graphics card: if this solves the problem then it's either the graphics card OR the PSU
- swapping the PSU: if that solves the PSU then either it's defective or it's not adequate for the task (I haven't read the specs but I believe it's just fine)

 

[cvheifner]

Hey guys. Thanks for your comments. I really appreciate it!

I figured out the problem. I use to be a Mac guy, and had to switch because of certain software. I still use an Apple keyboard, and to get the full key functions on the board, I installed bootcamp drivers on the machine (note, I did this before I add the SSD as well with no problems). Last night I deleted bootcamp off the machine and EVERYTHING runs perfectly. I'm so happy! I'm now using KeyTweak to gain the keyboard functions.

Thanks again everyone. You guys are very knowledgable.

C.

 

[cvheifner]

Best answer selected by cvheifner.

 

[photonboy]

Glad it's solved.

It was my understanding that Bootcamp was solely for installation on Apple computers for the purpose of dual-booting Windows (so x86 CPU's only).

That probably explains the major incompatibility.

I'm interested that KeyTweak makes the Apple keyboard work as I wanted to get one but so no supported drivers to get full functionality, so Thanks for that.