Hello,

 

Allow me to do a bit of ‘brain picking’ among the more computer literate in the community. Since a few weeks I’m experiencing computer shut-downs at random intervals. The shut-down looks like a sudden power failure. Black screen, no restart, no BSOD. It can happen during a flight, but also without FS running,

After some exploration, I discovered that the phenomenon is not uncommon, however the causes can be various, according to the messages in all sorts of forums. Hence I checked possible causes and took a number of measures:

• Checked temperatures of CPU and GPU; nothing out of the ordinary.
• Cleaned out the case.
• Performed a disk check (chkdsk/f); nothing wrong.
• The disk monitor (Acronis) reports no problems.
• Checked capacitors for leakages or damage; no problems detected.
• Ran anti-malware software; nothing detected.
• McAfee anti-virus scans did not detect anything wrong.
• Updated all drivers (chipset, graphics card, etc. etc., total of 19 drivers).

A few data about the computer:

Built in 2011 (yes, I know it's aging), i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40 Ghz, Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti, 8GB RAM. Hard disk (1 TB) replaced about eight months ago.

Any suggestions as to what more can be done would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

Kind regards,

René

Same thing was happening to a friend of mine and it turned out he had too many USB devices plugged in, even the ones he wasn't using at the time. Unplugged some of them and rebooted and hasn't have a random shut down since. So this might apply to you only if you have a number of devices plugged in? 

I had a similar problem just a while back. My symptoms pointed to a graphics card failure because periodically when a graphic intensive load would take place, shutdown, or warm reboot. I changed out the graphics card and the problem persisted. Come to find out, it was my power supply. When it reached a certain level of demand, shutdown or reboot.  Replaced it and have had no problems.

As mentioned, a good possibility it could be your PSU...or some other component if you unlucky.  A friend of mine had this problem and replaced his PSU, RAM, gcard and mobo only to later find out it was his CPU.  Fortunately this second computer he "built" he was able to sell.  I hope this isn't your experience.

Another vote for power supply.

 

Get out your multi-meter or buy something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/HDE-Power-Supply-Tester-PCI-E/dp/B005UZHB6G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1450500681&sr=8-4&keywords=power+supply+tester+computer

 

gb.

Possibly power supply. If  the demand is too high it can trip the OCP, and a PSU output reduces with age of course. Find out the requirements of you graphics card, amps on the 12V rail/s.

 

Easy to test a PSU with one of the PSU testers on the market. Cheap and great little devices.

 

Are you overclocking? If so set the bios to default parameters, no overclock and test.

 

Could be numerous things this one. I had it occur once due to an ATX extension cable that was arcing out.

Same thing has happened to me in the past, always turned out to be a failing PSU.  I would recommend testing the PSU.  If it is failing, best off to replace it before it does something bad.  Also, if you do have to replace the PSU, don't buy a cheap one, get one with a well established reputation for quality.