[M5A88-V EVO] Hard Shutdown Issue

[Beryllium]

Hi there, longtime reader of these forums yet unfortunately I have an issue that's confused me quite a bit. I'll try to provide as much information as possible.

My machine will occasionally just shut itself completely off, as though the power's gone out. It does not reboot. That point, coupled with the fact that I've used different PSUs leads me to believe it isn't that component. From what I've gathered reading these forums over time PSUs have a tendency to reboot though I suppose there are exceptions. I just highly doubt I've messed 2 up.

It can happen under load, or occasionally happen when idle. The shutdown(off)s can be minutes part or even days.

The other issue I've experienced is sometimes the machine will freeze and leave whatever image was on the screen last up with no ability to move the mouse. This would lead me to check the memory. I ran memtest86 for about half a day with no errors found. I know it's not a perfect solution, but it's worth noting.

The heatsink is seemingly seated properly and if a die was crushed or something of that nature I imagine I'd get worse problems with my system than this.

Every fan has its own molex connection as my PSU has a ton of connections.

This kind of leaves me with the hard drive and motherboard. I spent time talking with an ASUS rep and they weren't able to give me much support. We changed memory timings, NB voltages, NB VID voltages and wound up with the same result. They said I could RMA to see if there was an issue but since they never told me what could be wrong and the fact I'd lose just as much money being without this machine for a couple weeks than purchasing a couple mobos to test, I figured I'd ask you guys.

My case and room where the machine is kept run extremely cool, I've even attached a picture HW Monitor's voltage / temp readings. These are the correct the readings, as I have a nice air cooling system in the case itself but the room it's kept in really runs like an ice box.

http://puu.sh/1c4sX

In brief:
tl;dr - Hard shutdown / shutoffs. Does not reboot. Load does not matter. Different PSUs tested. Happens under Windows or Linux. Memtest returns no errors on RAM. Heat seemingly not an issue. Different keyboard / mouse tested just to make sure they weren't shorting anything. Don't use any optical drives on this box.

Question then:
BIOS? Hard drive? Motherboard? Is the paperclip test still valid to try on my PSU to test it (the machine turns on so I don't think this test would do a whole lot)?

Specs:
CPU: Phenom II X6 1050T
Board: ASUS M5A88-V EVO, NB: 880G, SB: SB850
HDD: Hitachi 7200RPM 500GB
RAM: G.Skill DDR3 1333 2x2GB
PSU: Corsair TX650W

Thanks for any help and / or suggestions!

 

[Beryllium]

Bump / Update. Forgot to add my graphics card:

Radeon HD 6670 1GB (VisionTek)

For what it's worth, I actually have seen the most stability without the GPU but can a graphics card really force a machine to shut down instantly with no BSOD, no beeps on restart and no discernible error log?

I moved the GPU to the other PCIe slot and will be testing the RAM individually next without the GPU.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dorian_grey]

I have exactly the same issue with a quite similar system. Have you found a solution for your problem?

 

[Beryllium]

Unfortunately, yes. Upon replacing the motherboard I haven't had a single shut down.

Worst yet, the board's been discontinued and ASUS refuses to replace it with another model. So it's basically an offer to repair a board that was so problematic they discontinued it within its first year of retail.

If you only use one PCIe slot and 8GB of RAM, I recommend getting the Biostar microATX board with the same chipset (880g). It's extremely cheap monetarily and has worked like a charm so far. In the interim maybe you'll have better luck than I did just trying to get a refund from ASUS / Newegg or wherever you bought it.

Happy hunting!

 

[dorian_grey]

Okay, that's definitely not the answer I have hoped to hear.

I now disabled two of six cores of my 1090T - someone was able to solve the shutdown problem doing just that. I also contacted Asus, but this probably won't help if the board is discontinued already.

Thanks for your mainboard suggestion, I will keep it in mind as last resort.

 

[Beryllium]

Okay, that's definitely not the answer I have hoped to hear.

I now disabled two of six cores of my 1090T - someone was able to solve the shutdown problem doing just that. I also contacted Asus, but this probably won't help if the board is discontinued already.

Thanks for your mainboard suggestion, I will keep it in mind as last resort.

Well, to clarify they WILL repair the board or send you a new one if it's within the 3-year warranty. It's just annoying that it has to be another M5A88-V EVO. I would have happily taken store credit or credit through ASUS but the world just doesn't work like that I guess.

At least not their world. Good luck!

 

[boldy_06]

Its problem with bios setting. If power overload protection is enabled in BIOS then disable it as the mobo wil suddenly shut down if there is power fluctuation.

This wil definitely solve your as well as the problems of others. Took me a whole day and checking all items in a new cpu to find the true problem.