Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

Here is a sequence of events:

  1. My hard drive recently died and I have been slowly re-installing all of my programs / drivers.

  2. I installed the Realtek sound drivers from Gigabyte's website.

  3. I noticed that my MSI afterburner wasn't letting me change the settings on one of my graphics cards. Normally I OC the core of my 2 6950s to 950mhz with 1250 voltage and 310mhz memory. The system is watercooled.

    I thought to myself that I should re-install afterburner, and attempted to do so. I went to 'uninstall or change a program' and click uninstall on afterburner.

    Immediately the system shut down.

  4. Upon restart, the computer got to the log-in screen and shut down.

  5. Upon second restart, a stuck red pixel appeared in the center of my monitor (weird) - and has since disappeared.

    It allowed Windows to load; after 2 minutes of being on the desktop it shut down again.

Does anyone have any idea how to diagnose this? I really hate to have to load from a 2-day old backup, format again, or do system recovery.

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote accepted

Ok the problem was that my water pump for my graphics cards was overheating (it was seated atop the radiator)

I moved it, and now windows is no-longer shutting down on its own.

The problem with afterburned showing 0mhz on my one card is still present, but I will make a new question for that...

share|improve this answer
3  
Overheating elements are almost always the reason for immediate shutdowns. You won't even get a blue screen, it's the moderboard doing the shutting down. – TFM Aug 18 '11 at 3:38
Good to know, now I won't be as worried about going away on a vacation. It did a full shut-down, and not a restart. Which I think is much better so that it doesn't get stuck in a loop – Alex Waters Aug 18 '11 at 3:57

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.