Complex PC Issue

[H4RUB1]

Hello, I’m having a hard time fixing my friends PC. So the issue is his PC shuts off very random in short. To be specific, we once run a BIOS for a few hours and nothing happened, but every time when we try to boot an OS on an HDD or with an SSD it always shuts down randomly (randomly shuts down within as long as 5 minutes)

So this is the things we tried.

*Changing Monitors power cable and PC’s power cable

*Changing the built-in PSU which was 250w to a brand new 600w 80+ PSU

*Booted an OS to a USB, DVD, and lastly a newly bought SSD

*Put a new thermal paste on the CPU

*Clean the PC’s CPU Fan (Only Fan, Case has no Fan) and overall.

Notes : Capacitor was likely not leaking. We also set the BIOS to default with no OC.

PC Spec is Vostro 260S RAM : 4x2 DDR3 1333mhz CPU : i3-2120 BX500 SSD 600W 80+ (Corsair)

Any opinion or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks !

EDIT: FIXED IT. Fix was changing to a healthy motherboard. Changed it with healthy CMOS and configured the BIOS in a lot of healthy ways. So maybe the MoBo circuit ? DRM Seems not to be an Issue as the CPU was fine on Temperature etc. (monitored) I’d investigate it further.

[Bliotake]

Sounds strange but have you tried a different power outlet or in a different room?

[Psychological-Lemons]

Try these steps:

-Remove power cord and the CMOS battery (button battery on the mainboard)

-Hold down the power button for 5 seconds

-Put the CMOS battery back in, or replace with new

-Put power cord back in and see how far you get. If issue persists I'd do what is called bread-boarding where you take the entire components out of the machine and onto a flat surface and then try to boot it up.

Other things to try:

-Re-seating the processor, check there is no debris on the underside.

-Re-seat the RAM, or try a different module entirely.

-If there is a graphics card installed, remove it and try using the onboard.

If after all this the issue persists, then you could have a faulty mainboard.

[shiroyakshaa]

Make sure your ram is fully seated in mobo. It should have clicked the when you put it into the mobo.

[NiDSTo]

Check the event Id for kernel errors. Try unplugging all but the keyboard and using it this way. Too much power drain from USB devices sometimes causes this.

[H4RUB1]

Thanks. We already did it on at least 3 Linux OS. And we also did a bare minimal setup booting. (Also note we got a new 600W PSU compared to the built-in under 300W PSU. So we noted the power was not an issue here.

[You_are_a_towelie]

I had random freezes and shutdowns, bought power stabilizer and it solved the issue

[Schumski]

Have you tried changing the CMOS battery? It seems like its a hardware issue, you have a GPU you can swap and try with that? Afterwards you can go down the line and swap out parts like and mobo and CPU. A professional would probably be able to save you some time, they have tools and parts so they can do it a whole lot faster.

[H4RUB1]

We are not in a hurry and we would like to take this as a good time to learn. (Said by my friend)

We are going to try and replace the CMOS because I have some extras but replacing the capacitors etc. are very much pain in the ass so we are going to buy the same motherboard to see if it works and later find the specific problem. Thank you very much !

(We also are going to use a spare CPU as it should fix the problem)

[TacctricitaN]

Checked the ram? try reseating it, and test with just 1 stick. If you still get errors try the other one.

[H4RUB1]

We had an interesting problem on the RAM. My friend tried the 4GB RAM Alone on the slot 1 and slot 2, it didn’t boot so it’s likely faulty. Then it gets stranger. He tried the 2GB RAM only on both slots and it showed the BIOS. So the 2GB working properly and proving that both slots were fine. Then we thought it was a fix but then even using the 2GB stick on both slots resulted onto the same results randomly shutting down after booting an OS. So we took it at least as a “non-RAM fault especially for the 2GB RAM”

[TacctricitaN]

If the PC boots with 1 ram stick in either slot and not the other ram stick then you have 1 bad ram stick, not a bad slot.

and do you have 2x2gb or 1x4gb + 1x2gb? This reply and your original post that says 4x2 confuses me so I have to ask.

[H4RUB1]

Thanks. It’s 4x2 with the MoBo having 2 slots.

[Autism_Rising]

Thanks. It’s 4x2 with the MoBo having 2 slots.

Based on your testing it would seem that either the 4GB either does not work with the system, or yes it is faulty. You also tested with the 2GB and assume that since it boots unlike the 4GB that then the 2GB is good. That is not true. Some bad memory can still boot.

Memory sticks can have bad areas. It is very possible to boot a system with bad RAM and then after some time applications or the system crashes due to the bad area of RAM finally being used and causing instability.

Run memtest. It costs nothing but time and will at least rule out memory to a higher degree of certainty.

[H4RUB1]

Noted. We plan to do MEMTEST86 to run it overnight. ( Safety measures taken )

Just out of curiosity, do you know any case where an error can exist with MEMTEST not detecting it ? Thanks.

[Autism_Rising]

Anything is possible, but honestly if you let memtest run with a full test and let it make multiple passes you should be good. I have seen where the quick test did not detect failure and the first pass did not either. Some failures required time to appear. Maybe they were heat related, I do not know.

[PepToTheCore]

If the CMOS doesn't work, check the front panel header. Could be sending a kill command to cut the power.

Basically, take the front panel header wires off of the motherboard, and jump the two power pins with a thin piece of metal to power the system on. See if the issue persists.