Power Supply Surges

[sisi lee evans]

Hi just finished my first new build with the following specs

CPU
Intel Core i3 3220 (3.3 Ghz) Ivy Bridge
PSU
Corsair GS Series Alimentation pour PC ATX 600 W
RAM
Mémoire Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 (2x4Go DDR3 1333 PC10600)
MOBO
Asus P8B75-M LX Carte mère Micro ATX Intel Socket 1155
VIDEO CARD
Sapphire 11200-14-20G Carte graphique AMD Radeon HD 7850 920 Mhz 2 Go PCI-Express 16
HARD DRIVES
Western Digital WD5000AAKX WD Blue Desktop Disque dur interne 3,5" SATA III 7200 tours/min 500 Go
SSD Intel 80g

I'm occasional getting computer shutdowns
"ASUS Power surge detected - computer shut down to protect etc"
when the system is idle or running small programs like word (but strangely enough not when gaming CS GO etc)

Here are my questions.
Q1) Is this happening because the PSU is not powerful enough (I checked forums before the build and people said it would be fine)
Q2) Could this be happening due to home power supply being unstable?
Q3) I've downloaded HWMonitor to check for voltage spikes but what should I be looking for to know if something is wrong?
Q4)This started happening after I installed the vid card so I suspect it's because the PSU is not powerful enough but before I fork out for a new one is there anything I can do to confirm that this is the problem and not something else?
Q5) Some forums recommend turning off ASUS power surge protection from BIOS but could this damage my rig?

 

[Cons29]

maybe the power surge protection is trippin' (pun intended)
imo, psu's are good enough to provide good clean power to our rig. even those cheap psu's survive for years (most of the time)

 

[spawnkiller]

Power surge protection is genrally cause by unstable voltage output of your PSU, maybe it's not powerfull enough or too old (all capacitors lost efficiency over time)

You could turn that option off and check for 1-2 week for voltages, stability test to make sure it's the BIOS that is faulty (maybe a bios update correct the issue, check on the ASUS website)

Check 3.3V, 5V, 12V and 5VSB... They should be within 5% of the specified value

If only 1 is off spec, use another program to confirm (as software reads are oftens false) and if you can verify with a multimeter to be sure after...) Then if the multimeter confirm the wrong voltage, replace the PSU

PSU should get rid of unclean power unless they're really cheap...
PSU lose about 10% of their capacities per year due to the capacitors aging...

 

[abbadon_34]

Turn off the option in the BIOS. It's was an interesting idea that never worked out. And every other computer in world has survived without it. Even ASUS unofficially agrees.

Your power supply is fine. If you continue to have issues invest in a decent UPS, especially if you have existing electrically issues like black/brown outs or more commonly momentary "flickering".

P.S. Try to keep any future posts in a single language (English for this board).

 

[sisi lee evans]

Great thanks for the rapid responses. So my next step is to turn off surge protector in BIOS and invest in a UPS (which I should have done anyway) as I'd already done the BIOS Update before

I'm not familiar with HWMonitor but it's giving me these read outs
Min Max
CPUVCORE 0.808v 1.016v
VIN1 1.00v 1.00v
AVCC 3.408v 3.408v
3VCC 3.408v 3.408v
VIN4 1.016v 1.016v
VIN6 0.208v 1.016v

POWERS
Package 8.08W 18.38W
IA Cores 2.15W 12.38W

Spawnkiller you mention that I should
"Check 3.3V, 5V, 12V and 5VSB... They should be within 5% of the specified value"
Can you tell me where to find the specified values and how these read-outs relate to them?