Building frustration

[Curtis772]

So my home built rig is starting to become frustrating. I’ve received some good troubleshooting advice from folks here which I’m thankful for. I just can’t seem to resolve the issue even after replacing multiple components. My specs are:

Gigabyte motherboard Z68-D3H-B3 (Intel socket 1155)
C4 60gb ssd (OS)
WD Black Caviar 650gb HHD
Antec HCG 620m
GTX 560ti (super-clocked by EVGA)
G Skill 2x2gb 1600
I5 2500k
Windows 7 64bit

Scenario:
The issue is after about 3-4 hours of gaming with no issues my system will not power down when selecting Shut Down via Start Menu. My screen will go blank as normal but the case fans, PSU fans and GPU fans will continue to run. I need to either hold down the power key or flip the power switch on the PSU to kill the power. This produces multiple issues when I try to reboot. Windows will recommend System Repair because it wasn’t shut down properly or the system will freeze up (System Repair, BIOS, Motherboard flash screen, in Windows, Safe Mode). I not overclocking any of the components myself and I’ve been told my PSU has more than power to run the rig.

Troubleshooting completed individually.
-RMA’ed the motherboard – Gigabyte tells me they replaced the Intel Chip
-issues returned after the above scenario
-RMA’ed the GPU – EVGA sent me a new GPU (upgraded even!)
-issues returned after the above scenario
-Replaced memory - passed memtest86+
-issues returned after the above scenario

I appears the onboard graphic is now corrupt as the images are distorted on the motherboard flash screen and will not boot into Windows.

I’m contacting Gigabyte again today to hopefully get the board replaced because of the onboard graphics issue.

I’m also engaging Antec to see if this might be a PSU issue.

Okay I’m done venting. I getting discouraged on the home building idea!!

 

[o1die]

I'll bet a component is overheating causing your system to freeze up; could be the video card or a cooling fan not turning properly. It might even be the stock Intel heatsink getting too warm (correct me if I'm wrong). Good luck.

 

[ahnilated]

It sounds like a power supply issue to me.

 

[smorizio]

i had that shut down issue with my asus mb. (sabertooth). it an issue with the flash bios and not clearing it after you reset the bios after a bios flash. you can read about in on the rog forum under non rog mb. the fix is power down the pc and unplug the ps so the mb drains then clear the cmos. also before you do tht make sure that your mb has the newest bios code. a lot of the x68 and z77 there new cpu and ram code.

 

[Curtis772]

I'll bet a component is overheating causing your system to freeze up; could be the video card or a cooling fan not turning properly. It might even be the stock Intel heatsink getting too warm (correct me if I'm wrong). Good luck.

Thanks for replying o1die.

Because this has been an ongoing issue i've been monitoring my temps while gaming with HWMonitor. The cpu stays around 40c and the GPU averaged around 65c, so I don't believe's it's heating issues.

 

[Curtis772]

i had that shut down issue with my asus mb. (sabertooth). it an issue with the flash bios and not clearing it after you reset the bios after a bios flash. you can read about in on the rog forum under non rog mb. the fix is power down the pc and unplug the ps so the mb drains then clear the cmos. also before you do tht make sure that your mb has the newest bios code. a lot of the x68 and z77 there new cpu and ram code.

Smorizio, thanks for your reply.

I've done similar troubleshooting. Mobo has the newest bios (v F13). i've removed the battery on the mobo for 10 minutes and have reset the CMOS via jumper. Issue remains.

@ahnilated, the PSU is pretty the last compent I haven't replaced so i hope this will fix it.

 

[ahnilated]

One thing you can do is make sure the power supply fan is spinning. It sounds like it just takes time for it to get too hot and then it shuts down. One of mine did this and the only way I knew it wasn't working is because I smelt a hot electrical smell...

 

[Curtis772]

Thanks for replying ahnilated.

The PSU fan does spin, I have my case open so i can watch what is happening.

I did speak with Antec tech support and they suggested that I check the CPU for what processes are running. There may be program that's preventing the system from shutting down so I'm going to look into that next.

 

[baddad]

It sounds like the system is waiting for a piece of hardware or software to disconnect, shutdown, or close. have you gone into safe mode and tried to shutdown that way and not have any problems?

 

[smorizio]

sometime it can be the anti virus fighting windows. does it do the shutdown with a clean image of windows 7. have you checked that the firmware on the ssd and hardd rive are up to date..could be one of the holding the sata bus. have you tried unplugging the cd-rom/hard drive and see if the shutdown error still there. check that your using the newest intel istore driver.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology
and the newest intel mb chipset drivers.

 

[Curtis772]

It sounds like the system is waiting for a piece of hardware or software to disconnect, shutdown, or close. have you gone into safe mode and tried to shutdown that way and not have any problems?

Hey baddad, thanks for replying.

The problem doesn't occur everytime I shut down. It mainly happens after gaming for a few hours. After the issue occurs i'm running into majorfreezing issues in most locations (bios, mobo flash screen, safe mode, windows, ect...).

 

[Curtis772]

sometime it can be the anti virus fighting windows. does it do the shutdown with a clean image of windows 7. have you checked that the firmware on the ssd and hardd rive are up to date..could be one of the holding the sata bus. have you tried unplugging the cd-rom/hard drive and see if the shutdown error still there. check that your using the newest intel istore driver.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology
and the newest intel mb chipset drivers.

Thanks for replying again smorizio.

I've updated the firmware on the SSD and was able to get up an running, but the powering off issue returned after gaming that night and the freezing issues returned. I looked on WD site and there's no firmeware update for the Black Carviar.

After receiving a new component I make a fresh start; clear CMOS via jumper, load optimized defaults, reload OS and go to Gigabyte's site and obtain the most updated drivers for the mobo.

Just out of curiosity, would having BIOS set to IDE v AHCI make a difference? Currently my BIOS are set to IDE, though I'm told AHCI has better performance with a SSD.

 

[smorizio]

yes with ide mode your ssd and sata hard drive may act crazy. ide mode is for very old drives now and old os. hate to tell you this put to fix that error your going to have to wipe the ssd and start over.

 

[djscribbles]

You don't have to wipe the OS:
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/2/

You just need a quick registry mod performed before you switch the modes in BIOS (as stated in the guide, double check that you can enable AHCI mode before modding the registry).

 

[Curtis772]

smorizio and DjScribbles, thank you both for replying.

I don't have a problem reinstalling the OS. I've reinstalled the OS a few times in the past week. Most of my files are on the secondary drive anyways.

I did speak with Antec Support again and they stated it sounded like an issue with the BIOS not telling the system to shut down. I brought this up with Gigabyte Support and they RMAed the board for the 2nd time. They are paying for shipping so I'm happy there and if i'm lucky they will replace the board instead of trying to fix it.

Thanks again smorizio, o1die, ahnilated , baddad and DjScribbles.

 

[InvalidError]

You might want to check your Windows system logs to see if you have some APCM warnings/errors or other stuff complaining about shutdown in there. From what you wrote, it seems like the shutdown works fine at least as far as DPMI-off goes but fails somewhere between there and PSU soft-off.