Freeze followed by shutdown when using front panel IO

[hoardofbaboons]

Yesterday I finished a rather satisfying transplant of my old Dell XPS 8500 into a SAMA IM01 case, along with a GTX 960 upgrade. Everything worked out great, but here is an odd one: when I tried testing the front IO panel with a USB stick, the computer froze and shut down in about 10 seconds. After restart (and ever since) USB works fine -- in fact I am using one of those front ports with a wireless keyboard receiver. Same story with front audio jack -- happened only once and no issues since.

 

Only the power button and FP LED connectors are proprietary on this Dell motherboard (and the pinout is well known), the rest is standard. I am in an extremely dry climate. Static electricity stored in the connector, which I somehow discharged by plugging things in? 

[Skipple]

Are you properly grounded?

[hoardofbaboons]

50 minutes ago, Skipple said:

Are you properly grounded?

You mean me when touching that thing or the PC?

This was such a simple build that I don't really know what could cause a grounding issue. The motherboard is firmly sitting on the standoffs and I can't think of anything possibly dangling around. Before putting things together I had to replace the PSU fan with a much quieter one (rated at 1/3 the current of the old one), it is spinning fine and everything has been operating normally. I also had to use a short extension cable for the 4-pin CPU power connector -- I got a spare and could try it if the issue reoccurs.

 

The only somewhat relevant thing I can recall is this: when I got it almost 10 years ago, I had a printer hooked up to one of the back USB ports and we had a massive power jump, which ended up damaging that USB port -- the PC would freeze if anything was connected to it. This was resolved by not using that one USB port -- and I am not using it now. Still none of this would explain the freeze from the audio jack.

[Skipple]

1 minute ago, hoardofbaboons said:

You mean me when touching that thing or the PC?

I'm referring to the PC itself. Is it plugged into a properly grounded outlet? 

[hoardofbaboons]

1 minute ago, Skipple said:

I'm referring to the PC itself. Is it plugged into a properly grounded outlet? 

It is plugged into a UPS. When it froze, I was using a regular outlet, the quality of grounding in which I am not sure I can assess. But, the issue did not persist with that outlet either.

[Cyberat]

Not that I do not support butchering Dells PCs, but you still have a garbage MB.

One issue everyone forgets in an upgrade, especially out of cheap PCs is the Heart - PSU.

The other thing that can possibly cause that is you inverted the pins on connect ? + Goes to + and - goes to -.

[hoardofbaboons]

17 minutes ago, Cyberat said:

The other thing that can possibly cause that is you inverted the pins on connect ? + Goes to + and - goes to -.

Wouldn't that cause this issue every time, then? As I said before, it happened only once, followed by normal operation since. If I inverted LED polarity, neither of the LEDs would light up, but they do!  

[Cyberat]

Ok, so we eliminate that out of the equation.

[Cyberat]

What is your PSU Wattage ?

[hoardofbaboons]

Just now, Cyberat said:

What is your PSU Wattage ?

550W (as claimed by Dell)

[Cyberat]

That's low for a modern system and probably a cheap design model.

You want a min. 750W PSU from a good name brand.

[hoardofbaboons]

10 minutes ago, Cyberat said:

That's low for a modern system and probably a cheap design model.

You want a min. 750W PSU from a good name brand.

It's a 3rd gen i5 + gtx 960, so not really a modern system. I just took the whole system (which never had any issues) and moved it to another case -- with the exception of upgrading my older gtx 660 with gtx 960.

Although I am not sure if it is causing this particular issue, I generally agree on the PSU. Furmark crashes (without crashing the box) on 1080p within about 15 seconds, but NFSMW @ 2560x1440 perfectly stable & smooth as butter.

 

I guess I will just keep an eye on it...

[WkdPaul]

8 hours ago, hoardofbaboons said:

It's a 3rd gen i5 + gtx 960, so not really a modern system.

That system can easily run on a 400W if not lower ... I have a 3rd gen i7 and a 1060 on a 400W HP PSU and it's perfectly fine.

 

If the issue doesn't come back, it might be just a fluke, but I would still check if the front panel IO connections to the motherboard and to the IO board itself too. It's possible the connector on the front IO board has vibrated away due to shipping, meaning you have a poor connection on the front IO itself, and so when you're connecting things to it, it could cause the connector to move and possible short (that's all speculation, but I wouldn't see why else connecting that would happen with the audio connector).

[hoardofbaboons]

7 hours ago, WkdPaul said:

That system can easily run on a 400W if not lower ... I have a 3rd gen i7 and a 1060 on a 400W HP PSU and it's perfectly fine.

 

If the issue doesn't come back, it might be just a fluke, but I would still check if the front panel IO connections to the motherboard and to the IO board itself too. It's possible the connector on the front IO board has vibrated away due to shipping, meaning you have a poor connection on the front IO itself, and so when you're connecting things to it, it could cause the connector to move and possible short (that's all speculation, but I wouldn't see why else connecting that would happen with the audio connector).

Agreed on the wattage, just not sure this 9 year old PSU is in good shape at this point. I did double-check all the IO to MB connections, but you do make an excellent suggestion re: board in the case itself -- thanks, I will at least take a look. There were signs that this case was someone's return (a few screw markings where there shouldn't be any in a brand new case) and come to think of it FP IO problem could be a serious reason to return a case. I wonder if that assembly alone could be replaced...

[hoardofbaboons]

Well, it does look like the IO panel itself could indeed be replaced. I poked around, tried to tighten the two screws holding the assembly, but everything was already tight. Put the front back on, no issues. Also realized that I installed the PSU the wrong way, with the fan facing the solid front panel. 

[hoardofbaboons]

yeah, someone needs to call Dr House on this case... Flipping the PSU just dropped my idle GPU temps from 55C to 45C. It's one of those cards by default dead set on not spinning its fans...

[Cyberat]

You can change fan defaults in GPU drivers. Default is never good for a high-performance demand.

[hoardofbaboons]

41 minutes ago, Cyberat said:

You can change fan defaults in GPU drivers. Default is never good for a high-performance demand.

Not much of a gamer here, but this gtx 960 is actually unstable with NFS and I'm not sure what to make of that. Re: fan speed, nvidia system monitor exits with 'out of memory'... MSI Afterburner? 

[Cyberat]

Don't know what you mean by NFS, but I meant nVidia Drivers should have fan controls, not 3rd party Apps.. Otherwise you installed incompatible drivers for your GPU.

[hoardofbaboons]

3 minutes ago, Cyberat said:

Don't know what you mean by NFS, but I meant nVidia Drivers should have fan controls, not 3rd party Apps.. Otherwise you installed incompatible drivers for your GPU.

NFS = Need for Speed, not terribly demanding. There are no fan controls in nvidia settings and you need to download their System Monitor, which refuses to run, kind of a known issue with it.

[Cyberat]

Well, then if Afterburner can be verified and works for you, do that instead.

[hoardofbaboons]

MSI Afterburner brought the GPU back to life, no more issues whatsoever. It kinda makes sense why EVGA didn't want these fans to spin in their GTX 960 almost to the point of overheating. But, my fan curve ensures complete silence at 40C while not gaming and a freaking turbine while gaming, which is exactly what I want.

It just occurred to me that I seated the motherboard without removing any extra standoffs... I guess if there was a short, it would manifest itself by now. Should I listen to my OCD and reinstall the motherboard or not?