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Resolved Question

What is causing my desktop to crash??

by May 5, 2012 9:46PM PDT

Hey guys, I've Googled the hell out of this issue but to no obvious avail and so my last stop is here hoping someone out there knows more about this than I do.

Okay, so here's my problem during normal application use and folder surfing and once while Idling my desktop PC just shut off and rebooted itself. I'm not sure what's causing this because A) There's no BSOD, just a black screen then an immediate reboot. B). My system is not creating dump files or crash files. C). Nothing significant is logged in the event viewer at anytime around the crash.

It's a pretty fast process when it happens and the LED's on my cooling fans don't even shut off, for all intents and purposes it looks just like a regular system reboot.

This computer is bran new, I mean only about 3 weeks old with a fresh windows 7 professional installation.

I've checked for viruses, overheating, dust build-up, and faulty parts, but nothing seems to be wrong. Security Essentials and Malwarebytes find nothing, my CPU and MoBo stay at a cool 20-35c and with every test I could find and run it would appear everything is installed and working properly.

These crashes only started happening about a day ago, but being a bran new computer I'd like to solve it sooner rather than later.

The only thing that comes to mind at this point is power. I have a plenty big PSU (850w) and I have a bran new surge protector and I'm in a new apartment. The one thing that I feel may be the issue is the amount of power I'm drawing on from this one outlet alone. I have my 850w PSU, a 23" Monitor, a Network splitter, and an Xbox 360, all plugged into that one powerstrip.

The crashes have only happened while I was working on my PC (extracting files/converting them) and using the Xbox at the same time. This leads me to believe that maybe I'm drawing to much power? Or that not enough is getting to my PSU?

That's all I've come up with and I'm hoping someone else with a little more know-how can help me with this. Would buying a UPS help at all or am I just wasting my cash?

Here's my PC specs if anyone needs them:

OS:::: MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit
CPU:::: AMD FX-6100 Six-Core @ 3.3GHz stock (OC'ed to 3.8GHz)
RAM::::24GB (4+4 and 8+Cool Dual channel DDR3 (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard:::ASUS M5A97
Graphics::::AMD Radeon HD 6850
HDDs::::1TB + 500GB 7200rpm

I use it mostly for Gaming and working with high resolution images in Photoshop (upwards of 5,000x12,000pixels) as well as the occasional 3D model in Blender.

Thanks in advance to anyone with a little feedback!!

Discussion is locked

Vastias has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
11 Posts
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Clarification Request
So
by samkh May 5, 2012 11:36PM PDT

does it crash when running at stock? Recent generations of AMDs don't oc well.

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Yes
by Vastias May 6, 2012 9:09AM PDT

Oddly enough it crashes once OC'ed and once at stock. I thought it could have been the OC'ing as well, but regardless I'm keeping it at stock until I figure this out to an extent that I'm happy with.

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Try
by samkh May 7, 2012 1:18AM PDT

re-installing W7 and apps (ensure removal of any remnant software errors in code after crashing) after you reset everything on mobo to stock. It would be a bad hardware sign if crashes recur after re-install.

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Clarification Request
Clarification Request # 2
by mchainmchain May 6, 2012 7:42AM PDT

Is your power strip rated for so much power, is it up to snuff? Unlikely the wall outlet is the cause.

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As far as I know...
by Vastias May 6, 2012 9:12AM PDT

From what I can tell there's nothing on the strip itself saying that it can run that much voltage, but at the same time, there's nothing saying it can't. So long story short, I don't know.

Best Answer

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Figured It Out!
by May 7, 2012 11:11AM PDT

Well, first off, thank you too everyone who offered help and suggestions as many of them I might not have thought of and I'll definitely keep them in mind in the future, but I did some process by process multi-hour testing on my own and found the culprit.

You know how earlier I mentioned I was extracting files? Well, they're sound files from a video game that I'm going to implement into a personal sound theme for windows and the tool I'm using to extract the files was written by a single person not too long ago and is still in Beta stage. Turns out that that tool could hit an exception during the extraction process if extracting over 1000files. I emailed the coder and said he'll fix it in the next update, but that when he tested this it also crashed his desktop.

So, turns out that that was my problem all along, thank god haha...I just have to keep my extraction chunks to a sub-1,000 limit for now. Glad it wasn't anything major.

Thanks a lot though guys!! Love these forums...

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Answer
(OC'ed to 3.8GHz)
by Forum moderator May 6, 2012 7:45AM PDT

Right there, any service counter should tell you that you are on your own. This is far from a sure thing.

Less seasoned builders may write "it worked before."
Bob

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Yea the OC worried me a bit.
by Vastias May 6, 2012 9:15AM PDT

My computer is plenty fast at stock, but since the BIOS came with an automatic and manual option for OC'ing I thought I'd give the automatic a shot and boost it the "Fast" speed and not the "Ultra" which is at about 4 or 4.1GHz. I'm running at stock now, 3.3GHz, and I was running like this before too, but I'm staying away from the OC for now. Granted it did crash once OC'ed and once at stock...not sure what's going on.

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It looks like Windows does crash still. Example?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 6, 2012 11:27AM PDT

Look at how many good machines crashed when Adobe turned on Hardware Acceleration in Flash.

It's sad but machines are going to crash given the way things are.
Bob

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Understandable
by Vastias May 6, 2012 4:45PM PDT

I'm very aware of the fact that these things can just crash for no other reason than to smite me for some unpaid karma, but the thing that has me concerned is the fact that it's the first PC I've built from start to finish and it's fairly new. Perhaps I'm worrying too much about a little thing, but if there is a good reason as to why it did it I would like to know, regardless of how serious it is. I just like being informed with things like this, paranoid as it may be.

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I can offer this one recent rash of crashes.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 6, 2012 5:19PM PDT

Google FLASH HARDWARE ACCELERATION and you find too many folk with issues.

This is not a matter of good/bad hardware. It's an industry that I'm starting to see more and more folk question whether there is another solution.
Bob

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