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Topic: Foobar causes PC to shutdown (Read 5255 times) previous topic - next topic
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Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Hello all,
I have been using Foobar for only 12 months or so and find it great. For me it is the perfect music player.
I have 6 desktop PC's at home with Foobar on 5 of them. I wished to pension off the last XP machine and have replaced it with a Win8 machine. My first 8 machine.
Trouble is when playing music with FB the new machine it shuts down.
The machine was built from upgrade release of Win8. Started out as Win7 for the 8 install. Freshly built 7 for the upgrade.
The MoBo is Asus G41 chip set micro-atx. CPU is Pentium D 630. 4 gig G-skill ram 1TB Seagate HDD. I use SPDIF to output audio.
I used the Foobar check for unstable components and they reported zero probs. I use the Monkey audio and DTS components only. PC does not have problems until running FB and it won't have a problem till I play music. Then within 5 minutes of starting it will shutdown the PC. I have swapped PSU's in case the first was faulty. No luck. The shutdown is so abrupt that I get no log files.
I have replaced chip set, audio and network drivers with Win8 upgraded units.
The machine has nothing else on it other than AVG antivirus and the Lite codec pack including media player classic.
All advanced power saving features I have turned off for trouble shooting.
My question is does anyone have any idea where to start.
I would love any ideas.

Thanks and regards,

Steve

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #1 –
I'd test the RAM (just to rule it out):
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #2 –
First, you should elaborate on how the PC shuts down. Is it a bluescreen -> reboot? Or does the PC simply turn off?

If it is bluescreening and rebooting, find "view advanced system settings" via the startscreen, go to "startup and recovery" and disable the automatic restart. Next time the PC gets a BSOD, write down the STOP message and any mentioned system files (.dll, .sys, if any) and post it here. It will look similar to this:

STOP 0x0000008E (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

If it is restarting without a message, it could have multiple reasons, but all of them usually mean hardware is defective. Since you already ruled out the PSU, there could be a microcrack on the mainboard that opens up when the board heats up... But that usually happens independent on what you do.

Personal opinion, AVG is not a good choice of an AV, too many false positives and pretty heavy on resources. Don't know about detection rate.

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #3 –
Quote from: ChronoSphere on
First, you should elaborate on how the PC shuts down. Is it a bluescreen -> reboot? Or does the PC simply turn off?

If it is bluescreening and rebooting, find "view advanced system settings" via the startscreen, go to "startup and recovery" and disable the automatic restart. Next time the PC gets a BSOD, write down the STOP message and any mentioned system files (.dll, .sys, if any) and post it here. It will look similar to this:

STOP 0x0000008E (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

If it is restarting without a message, it could have multiple reasons, but all of them usually mean hardware is defective. Since you already ruled out the PSU, there could be a microcrack on the mainboard that opens up when the board heats up... But that usually happens independent on what you do.

Personal opinion, AVG is not a good choice of an AV, too many false positives and pretty heavy on resources. Don't know about detection rate.




The shutdown is complete turn off. No BSOD. No error message. No restart. Just off. I sometimes even need to pull the power cord for 5 seconds to get it to boot again.
Event Viewer just says Power Kernel problem. Solutions here are just so wide and varied that I cannot make headway. This was the reason I chose to try PSU first. However I stress it is just when playing music with FB nothing else. Mind you there is not much else on this PC. It is only for FB and some MPC. MPC does not create this problem.
BTW I moved from FB 1.2.3 to 1.2.5 during this issue and it is still here.

Problem only occurs if playing music on FB. I can leave FB open all day without playing any music and I will have no problem. Start playing music and down it goes. Sometimes I will get 5 minutes, sometimes 15 minutes of up time. But it will always fail. I can use WMP and have no problem. Same library (NAS Drive) same files no shutdown.
Watching the new resource monitor in Win 8 I am not hitting network very hard nor the CPU.
I do agree that AVG is resource hungry however my preferred anti-virus, Avast made Win 8 into a black screen.
I am just waiting for it to be fixed and yes protection with AVG is only 78%. Just waiting on Avast.
I am going to try RAM as suggested above and flash BIOS to boot. If this draws no result I might try Win 7 on this machine. Though I would love to stick with 8.



Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #4 –
Which audio output do you use in foobar2000 (DS, KS, ASIO, WASAPI)?

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #5 –
You shouldn't waste time by trying Windows 7, the operating system is not the cause.
You said foobar2000 is the only thing causing the shutdown, do you also play Monkey's Audio files in WMP? Monkey's Audio format is heavily optimized and has a long history of revealing hardware issues. If you want to rule these out you could search for various CPU stability testers along with testing your memory.
Another possible cause is of course the sound card drivers. If at all possible I'd recommend testing your sound card with the native High Definition audio drivers available in Windows. You get them to use by uninstalling any manufacturer drivers you have now.

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Case on
You shouldn't waste time by trying Windows 7, the operating system is not the cause.

I concur. A full shutdown without any error messages usually means something is wrong with your hardware.
Are you using the onboard sound card or a PCI one? If you have the chance, try testing another soundcard with this PC.

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #7 –
Quote from: foosion on
Which audio output do you use in foobar2000 (DS, KS, ASIO, WASAPI)?

I am using the default windows output. With onboard sound - Realtek digital out through SPDIF.

Cheers

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #8 –
Quote from: ChronoSphere on
Quote from: Case on
You shouldn't waste time by trying Windows 7, the operating system is not the cause.

I concur. A full shutdown without any error messages usually means something is wrong with your hardware.
Are you using the onboard sound card or a PCI one? If you have the chance, try testing another soundcard with this PC.


I am using just onboard sound Realtek chips. SPDIF out. I have not bypassed the Windows defaults in any way.

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #9 –
Quote from: carpman on
I'd test the RAM (just to rule it out):
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

C.


Hello C

I used the MEM TEST as you suggested. Passsed. I was interested to see CPU utilisation at 95% and Memory utilisation at 94%.
I left them both go (recommended two windows) to 105% and ended test.

At this point I was just writing up this reply when the PC just shutdown. FB was not running.
So it was more a fluke that when WMP was running it did not shutdown.
At this point I will say the issue is nothing to do with FB and close this thread.
Thanks everyone that offered information. I appreciate your time.
Till this morning it had never occurred without FB playing music. Just a total coincidence.

Regards
Steve

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #10 –
I agree with Case re. CPU stress testing (I've used CPU Overload, but I'm sure there's better freeware around).
Also try Crystal Disk Info (will give you a decent error report for HDDs).

All this stuff is "portable" so doesn't require any installation etc..

Good luck, hope you figure out the issue.

C.

ps. Just a thought but have you checked all the fans and temps (core CPU etc ...). Maybe it's shutting down because it's overheating. Memtest tests the RAM but as you noted it runs the CPU quite hard as well, perhaps the CPU's overheating? Just a complete shot in the dark. But if you haven't done so I'd look at your temperatures (and if hot - check the CPU fan and heatsink for dust and muck).
http://openhardwaremonitor.org/ is good (and again no installation required).

EDIT: Is the RAM DDR3? Some here will know better than I, but I think you can stress the CPU if the RAM runs fast while the CPU runs relatively slow. 
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

Foobar causes PC to shutdown

Reply #11 –
Quote from: carpman on
I agree with Case re. CPU stress testing (I've used CPU Overload, but I'm sure there's better freeware around).
Also try Crystal Disk Info (will give you a decent error report for HDDs).

All this stuff is "portable" so doesn't require any installation etc..

Good luck, hope you figure out the issue.

C.

ps. Just a thought but have you checked all the fans and temps (core CPU etc ...). Maybe it's shutting down because it's overheating. Memtest tests the RAM but as you noted it runs the CPU quite hard as well, perhaps the CPU's overheating? Just a complete shot in the dark. But if you haven't done so I'd look at your temperatures (and if hot - check the CPU fan and heatsink for dust and muck).
http://openhardwaremonitor.org/ is good (and again no installation required).

EDIT: Is the RAM DDR3? Some here will know better than I, but I think you can stress the CPU if the RAM runs fast while the CPU runs relatively slow.



Just thought I would come back to this after all this time to let you know that it turned out to be a dud PSU unit. I had been using this PC rig with another power supply previously and had the same problem. However to cut a long story short the first power supply I just discovered two days ago had a dicky IEC block on the back - when I tried to use it again on another rig.
That is what caused the shutdown with it.
When I first had trouble with it I moved to a new PSU (purchased in a new case) and it just happened to be a dud and could not deliver more than about 100 watts before it just gave up. So a sorry tale of coincidence that just took so long to fix.
Thanks again everyone that replied.
So with a soldering iron I fixed the original PSU and I have had a warranty replacement of the purchased PSU that has now been in one week and working fine.

Regards
Steve