PC shuts down immediately on Prime95 with graphics card.

[ybriK]

I have a spare PC that if I run Prime95 or any other CPU stress testing software it will immediately shut down when a graphics card is installed which is weird because running a GPU stress software like Valley, FurMark or 3DMark (Fire Strike) will run fine no problems whatsoever. I have swapped out the CPU from an i5-3470 to an i5-2500 thinking it was a faulty CPU but that wasn't the case. Even with a fresh install of Windows 7 it still happens. When I use the iGPU instead (graphics card removed) I can run Prime95/AIDA64 any mode for a long time, longest was 7 hours on Prime95 blend and then I stopped it.

 

Temperatures aren't the issue here (I have been monitoring temperatures using AIDA64 and they are well within the thermal limits) as I have mentioned before the PC only crashes when a graphics card (power hungry in particular) is installed while the CPU being stressed. I'm suspecting it's something to do with the motherboard and PCIe its' power delivery. It wouldn't make sense if it was the PSU as I can run a GPU stress test as mentioned before on these power hungry just GPUs fine.

 

pcpartpicker.com/list/wtgrPs

I have the latest motherboard BIOS

 

List of GPUs I have tested with that have immediately shutdown. I have the latest drivers.

HD 6990

HD 5970

GTX 590

GTX 480

R9 270X

 

List of GPUs I have tested with that DOESN'T immediately shutdown. I have the latest drivers.

HD 6670

iGPU - Intel HD 2000, Intel HD 2500

[Kitten of the Broccoli]

Have you tried not using Prime95? From what I hear, P95 is what you use when your hardware has been bad and you want to punish it. AKA it puts such a high load on the hardware that overheating can occur even when you have adequate cooling. Using pretty much any other benchmarking software will be better.

[DragonTamer1]

P95 is excessively hard on computers, I personally have had it kill motherboards.

 

The problem that you are describing makes it sound like your power supply is too weak and you are triggering an over current shutdown protection. What are your full system specs? At this point it is only speculation.

[Kenrou]

Only thing Prime95 does is stress the CPU, if it's overclocked it might BSOD or freeze, never simply shutdown. 1st thing that comes to mind is the PSU getting pushed past it's limits or faulty. Does this happen only with Prime95 ? Have you tried stressing with other programs like RealBench or OCCT ?

 

Hardware 1st then Software.

 

[DragonTamer1]

After re-reading the post I see that the OP has tried two different CPUs. This further supports the theory that it is a PSU issue. The problem can also point to a faulty motherboard. If the GPU doesn't trigger the over current then it is most likely a motherboard problem.

 

Neither one of these CPUs support overclocking right?

 

In any case, I would suggest never using P95 again and I would suggest not using Aida64 anymore either as further stress testing will just make the problem worse for the motherboard.

[ybriK]

I still don't buy it's the PSU as this was the PSU I used with an overclock 2700K at 4.5GHz and that never crashed which used to be on my main PC that's using a different PSU now. If it really is then it's a shame it couldn't even live for at least 5 years as this thing is only 2 years old. But if I can get my hands on a cheap 1155 motherboard then I might get one to see if the situation will still occur.

 

No I've used 3DMark Physics, AIDA64 SST, Cinebench all will immediately shutdown (less than 10 seconds as soon as I start any of these) the system only when a graphics card is connected to the motherboard.

 

Currently have my HD 5970 (290W+ TDP) running for about 7 hours now on FurMark no issues but if I ran a CPU stress tool right now I guarantee this would immediately crash.

[Kenrou]

Then it would be the motherboard causing the issue methinks.