Help with diagnosing PC issue?

[Fira]

Hi,
I built my computer a couple of years ago and over the years I have replaced most of the parts (haven't replaced Graphics card or RAM), so most of them are no more than a year old.

Specs: Asus M5A78L motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz, OCZ ZT 650W PSU, GTX 560 Ti, Cooler master Centurion 5 II case, Thermaltake Frio CPU cooler, 4GB corsair xms3 DDR3 1600MHz, Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD.

My computer began restarting when I was in game and I would get the message 'Power surges detected during the previous power on. ASUS anti-surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply' and after some research I decided it would be best to replace my PSU.

After replacing my PSU the same thing happened so I assumed there was a problem with the anti-surge function on the motherboard so I disabled it. I then played a game again and after 20 minutes it did exactly the same thing except without the message appearing on restart.

I have monitored the temperatures whilst playing games and nothing overheats.

Is this a problem with my motherboard or could it be another component causing this?

Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

 

[C12Friedman]

Here's what I'm thinking... an intermittent short. Possibly the GPU, you might try pulling the GPU, connecting to your VGA on the motherboard and running furmark (watch your temps good) - if you can do that successfully, try again with the GPU in place...

 

[Fira]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately my motherboard doesn't have inbuilt graphics, however, I could get hold of another GTX 560 Ti to test if that would help?

 

[C12Friedman]

I could get hold of another GTX 560 Ti to test if that would help?

An even better option, yes try that

 

[Fira]

Well, I just used furmark and prime95 to stress test my GPU and CPU for a good 15 minutes or so, putting my computer under a lot more stress than games do, and there were no problems whatsoever. So I can't understand why it only restarts during games =/

Any ideas?

 

[Fira]

I've also done memtest and it doesn't report any errors...

 

[C12Friedman]

Well, I just used furmark and prime95 to stress test my GPU and CPU for a good 15 minutes or so, putting my computer under a lot more stress than games do, and there were no problems whatsoever. So I can't understand why it only restarts during games =/
Any ideas?

Was this done with the replacement 560 or the original one?

 

[Fira]

I tried with both, they were both fine.

After checking windows event viewer it appears that I'm getting multiple errors with the name 'Kernel-general' with event ID 12. After my PC restarts I get a critical error called 'Kernel-power' with even ID 41. Any idea what those errors are?

 

[gamerk316]

Kernal-Power means the OS shut down without user prompting. Probably caused by the ASUS utility though.

From what I've heard, the ASUS utility has a VERY low standing by several people here, because it seems to be overly sensitive and flags a lot of false failures. Safest course may be to disable it.

 

[Fira]

Kernal-Power means the OS shut down without user prompting. Probably caused by the ASUS utility though.

From what I've heard, the ASUS utility has a VERY low standing by several people here, because it seems to be overly sensitive and flags a lot of false failures. Safest course may be to disable it.

Are you referring to the ASUS anti-surge protection that triggers the restart?

If so, I disabled that when I got my new PSU a few days ago as because it was still happening I assumed it was a problem with the feature. Even with it disabled it still restarts it just doesn't show the message.

 

[C12Friedman]

Here's what Microsoft has to offer...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504
not super helpful but a start

 

[C12Friedman]

Just thought of something else, when did you change your graphics card for that unit and were any previous drivers wiped beforehand?

 

[Fira]

Since I built the PC I have had this graphics card and often update the drivers (I'll check for new updates now though).

Looking at the link you sent me prompted me to check the Stop error BugcheckCode and the power button time stamp and they're both listed as zero. This means that my computer is restarting before windows gets the chance to log the error. The windows website says that this usually indicates a hardware issue. Going down their list of things to check, they either don't apply to me or I have already tested them.

Pretty stumped to be honest. After finding out more information about the problem I have been googling it and a lot of people are having exactly the same problem, but I'm yet to find a solution.

 

[Fira]

I don't know if this could be a problem, but I'm using HWmonitor to check my PSU voltages and I think they're way too low;

+3.3V: 1.9V
+5V: 3.33V
+12V: 8.21V
-12V: -8.11V

So I'm wondering if the sensors on my motherboard aren't working properly, I can't say I really know much about voltages though.

 

[C12Friedman]

You wouldn't boot if those voltages were accurate

 

[Fira]

You wouldn't boot if those voltages were accurate

Yeah sorry about that, I've just used another program and they come back normal.