PC problem - shuts off when idle, req. P/S reset

[action9000]

I've just been having some weird problems with my computer lately. I have copy/pasted this post from a similar Reddit post that I made trying to find as much help as possible:

Basically the problem is that my computer works perfectly fine. If I leave it for an extended period of time, when I come back it's OFF. Not sleep - OFF. The only way to get it to boot back into Windows is to shut the power supply off and turn it back on.

I'm thinking it might be related to my overclock but it's a fairly modest overclock with no heat problems AND the problem only occurs at idle...so I'm not sure.

Here's the full post:



https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/commen..._it_for_awhile/



Quote:

Hi,
I'm running the following system:

i7 3930k CPU overclocked from 3.8 to 4.22GHz

Asus p9 x79 Pro motherboard

620W Earthwatts power supply (from the Antec Sonata IV case)

64 GB Kingston / Corsair DDR3 RAM (not overclocked)

HIS Radeon R9 270x (2GB)

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

multiple SSDs as secondary storage

Power Options in windows are on High Performance - custom-tweaked to not allow any sort of sleep mode or low-power settings whatsoever.


Recently I've had some very strange behaviour. I recently formatted my computer, say, 6 months ago. Shortly after that, say a month or two, I started having this problem:

As long as I'm using the computer, it's perfectly fine.

Normally I leave it running 24/7 with no problems.

Lately, whenever I go to bed, when I get up in the morning my computer is just...off. It's not in sleep mode so I can't wake it. Pressing the power button DOES NOT reboot it back into windows; instead, pressing POWER simply causes the bios logo to show, goes to a black screen and completely stops. It doesn't even attempt to load the OS.

In order for it to boot back up, I have to unplug the power supply OR flip the P/S switch off and on again. Once I do that, now I can boot up normally. Every time I do this, however, I get a warning that Windows did not shut down properly last time. I can "start Windows normally" and it always works fine.

Otherwise the system seems perfectly fine. I'd love to know what's happening behind the scenes when I walk away for an extended period but I honestly have no idea. I have no scheduled tasks that run when I walk away (that I know of. It's just a desktop system at my home office - not on some corporate network).

At first I thought it was a hardware thing, and it still could be I suppose, but the fact that it only dies after being IDLE for awhile is very odd to me.

Does it sound like it's simply related to the overclock?
Heat dissipation is good, I've stress-tested the system at 100% load for hours and it only dies at idle so I'm honestly not sure.

Does anyone have any ideas? Do you need more information?

Thanks.

[DarkHououmon]

Perhaps it is a power supply issue. If you know how to use a multimeter, try checking the condition of the PSU.

[action9000]

Perhaps it is a power supply issue. If you know how to use a multimeter, try checking the condition of the PSU.

Thanks for the idea, DH.

The power supply was my initial thought as well and I wouldn't be surprised if it was wearing out. It's had almost 24/7 operation for the last 4 years on an overclocked system.

Various software tools including HWMonitor are showing voltages to be well within reasonable values. Here's a a screenshot:



I received an interesting response over on Reddit from someone who wondered if there was actually a USB peripheral malfunction, either on the USB controller or on a USB device. Here was the post:


"Hi!

I had a similar problem though mine would restart when left alone. I tested it by noting the time i stopped using it and then checking the time it crashed in event viewer.

 It was always 10 minutes which I assumed was something to do with power saving options. After some searching of the blue screen code etc i got it down to the keyboard USB not being inserted correctly or probably faulty, reinserting it fixed the problem.

I say probably faulty as the problem reappeared a month later or so, and as i was due an OS reinstall on new hard drive, i just did it which fixed it."




After checking voltages, I have switched the USB ports of all of my devices and intentionally left ports empty that have given me problems in the past. I'll see what that does.

[action9000]

So far so good - I haven't had a problem since I switched the USB ports of all of my devices.