Sudden PC Shutdown - Need Help Trouble Shooting

[richiespeed13]

Hi All,

I recently gave my system a fairly big upgrade. In the last 3 days I have installed a new PSU, Graphics Card, HDD, and RAM.

I replaced the PSU as the old one started to make a high frequency sound when pc was switched off. The PC itself showed no symptoms, I just wanted to be safe. Upon installing the new PSU, I have noticed even this one makes just as much of a high pitch noise when PC is off.

I have since learned 2 things regarding this noise:

A) The PSU is old and/or failing.
B) It happens when the PSU is under loaded, and is harmless.

I would presume in my case, it is option B, as it's brand new. But it could be faulty.

Anyway, since these upgrades I have had no issues at all. My PC runs great, I have been doing a lot of video editing and gaming, no issues.

However, last night I was playing Arma 2 with some friends online. Everything was fine, but after 10-15 minutes, the PC literally just died. No freeze, no warning, it just turned off, went quiet, and then booted up again. I thought it was odd, but hoped maybe it was just a one off. Play Arma 2 again, within 15 minutes, same thing.

Seeing as it's only happened with Arma 2, is there an off chance it is something the game is doing?

I have run CPUID, coretemp and Furmark to check all the voltages of the PSU. Everything seems perfectly normal.

The voltages only fluctuate very slightly, far within normal range. There are no odd spikes, no random drops.

So I am wondering, is there any software I can use to diagnose this problem further? I ran cpuid to check system temperatures, under almost 100% load the cpu went up to 74c before i closed the program. GPU gets up to about the same temperature as expected.

I guess the most likely cause of these issues would be the user, perhaps I made a mistake when installing these components. However, I was very careful. I made sure to check everything was plugged in and connected properly, treated the components with care, and checked and double checked everything was ok.

I have not experienced this issue other than when playing Arma 2. My PC before the upgrades has never had this issue in 3+ years of hard use.

Of course, maybe this issue is not even related to the PSU. I do not know.

Thanks a lot if anybody can help me!

Rich.

System Specs:

Asus P5QC motherboard
Intel E8500 @ 3.16ghz
8GB DDR3 1333mhz
AMD 5870 1GB
Win 7 Ultimate

PSU: Powercool 700GT 80+

http://www.cclonline.com/product/57465/PC-700GT-B/Power-Supplies/Powercool-GT-700W-PSU-80-Dual-12V-V2-2-High-Efficiency/PSU0219/

 

[richiespeed13]

Update!

I was doing nothing, merely sitting at the desktop, and the problem happened again.

I am going to wire up my old PSU, if the problem stops I will send the new one back.

 

[swifty_morgan]

could be a bad cap on the board you hear and not the PS. don't leave your machine running unattended. and I mean that. if you've ever had a cap go bad you'll understand what I mean. be prepared to grab the machine and run outside with it.

 

[richiespeed13]

Thanks for the reply mate. Upon installing my old PSU the system will no longer boot. The PC powers on, motherboard fan goes to 100%rpm, and then beeps 4 times. The first beep is long and then 3 quick beeps. I am on an AMI board.

Apparently this means the mobo timings could be wrong, possibly the battery is dead? I will make a new thread in the CPU section.

 

[swifty_morgan]

beep code could be memory. try 1 stick and then try another stick. also try different slot.

 

[richiespeed13]

Thanks mate. I removed all the new DDR3 RAM and reinserted 1x 2GB block DDR2. No change.