HTPC shuts down randomly - reboot or power off, cause?

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Scrooge
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:46 am

HTPC shuts down randomly - reboot or power off, cause?

Post by Scrooge » Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:35 am

So I built an HTPC/ gaming rig, with the Ceton and graphics card not yet purchased because I wanted to get the base machine solid first (and the games I'm currently playing are old and work perfectly on SB graphics). The machine is stable enough to run 4xPrime95 and Furmark for hours without hitting 70c, but will occasionally reboot or shut itself off overnight with no explanation I can find. Here's the hardware:

Silverstone GD-05, all fans at 12v
Seasonic X400
Asus P8H61-M
Intel i5-2500k
Scythe Kozuti
G.Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB (low-latency)
Kingston V100 SSD
Samsung BRD
Windows 7 Pro

The part of this I'm most eager to blame is the X400, but the SPCR review indicates this is unlikely with the power draw of a 2500k being quite low for that PSU, and I'd hate to order the X650 and rebuild the machine, only to still have this issue. I find it further unlikely that this is the problem, given the three 120mm fans at full power and the fact that, here in the high desert, it's getting chilly at night. Also, the TV stand is open on the sides, so the fans are blowing in fresh air all the time. Is there any place that W7 logs the reason for a shutdown?

Any help would be appreciated! Otherwise I'll order the X650 and cross my fingers. :?

cmh
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:43 am
Location: Lexington, MA USA

Re: HTPC shuts down randomly - reboot or power off, cause?

Post by cmh » Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:56 am

Any chance it could be Windows Update?

Scrooge
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:46 am

Re: HTPC shuts down randomly - reboot or power off, cause?

Post by Scrooge » Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:09 am

I think you may have nailed it! I assumed (and shouldn't have) that it would give me an "Updates successfully installed" message or the like upon restarting, and it didn't, but the uptime says it came back on at ~3:17am, and when I checked the Windows Update settings it was set to automatically install updates... at 3:00am. Thank you!

Now, I should have also mentioned I was concerned because over the weekend, my wifi card died. The machine was built maybe a month ago, and so it may just have been a young card with a QC issue, or a fluke, but it worried me. It was a Linksys, so should be decent quality, but cheap enough I didn't worry and just ran a wire through the wall to the router, which is better anyway.

Still, I'm going to see if this thing can stay up all day and night on a torture test, and I'll feel a lot better if the furry doughnut is still spinning in the morning.

Oh, one last question - is it normal for the cores to go to different temperatures? Core 0 is peaking in the low 60s, 1 and 2 are peaking in the upper 60s, and core 3 is peaking in the mid 60s.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: HTPC shuts down randomly - reboot or power off, cause?

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:59 am

Scrooge wrote:is it normal for the cores to go to different temperatures?

Up to 10° C, yes.

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