[phillpower2]

Ah I see, I was working on what you said in your reply #3

3. I put two gigantic fans aimed at the chipset.

A common suggestion with possible overheating issues is to leave the side of the case off and direct a household cooling fan (or two) inside the case, as you have a good knowledge of what you are doing I am sure that you are aware of this though.

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Eureka, I think I found the reason for these strange occurrences, I think that it's a power problem, but not with the power supply but with the motherboard power distribution, since every time I remove any device that relies on the motherboard for power, the system becomes more stable, but if I remove any device that takes power directly from the PS the system is unaffected. The chipset heatsink still needs to be cooled by a fan, or the same problem would reappear.
Please let me know if this has any merit, or am I hallucinating from the lack of sleep?

Regards,

[nasiraod]

Eureka, I think I found the reason for these strange occurrences, I think that it's a power problem, but not with the power supply but with the motherboard power distribution, since every time I remove any device that relies on the motherboard for power, the system becomes more stable, but if I remove any device that takes power directly from the PS the system is unaffected. The chipset heatsink still needs to be cooled by a fan, or the same problem would reappear.
Please let me know if this has any merit, or am I hallucinating from the lack of sleep?

Regards,

[phillpower2]

Yes it is entirely possible that some element of the MB is the issue but this is harder to pin down than a bad PSU.

Can you fit only the bare minimum of components such as the PSU, CPU + cooling fan, one stick of Ram, onboard video chip and the keyboard, power up the computer and run Speedfan and then post a screenshot of the results for us to check;

Download Speedfan and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows. The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.


(this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

[nasiraod]

Good thinking, I ran that program when I was suspecting heat was the only factor; however, it turned out that the MB didn't have a lot of heat sensors. I just hope that it is compatible with Windows 8.

[nasiraod]

This is what I got, everything seems in order except the -12. as you can see it is showing -0.68.

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[phillpower2]

Thanks for the screenshot

Are you aware that Speedfan does sometimes report anomalous readings, this is why running another similar program is sometimes required.
If anything the +5V rating is a little higher than what it should be, see attached table below, can you please run HWMonitor and again provide a screenshot so that we can compare the results http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html please disregard any other product or service at the link.

NB: Also please note the CPU usage shown in your results.

[nasiraod]

Here everything seems normal

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[phillpower2]

The +5V rail is also shown to be too high by HWMonitor, also this is when the computer is idling and it may increase or decrease when the computer is put under load/stress, I would if you can swap in a known good PSU and run the same tests and again check the readings.

[nasiraod]

I am going to have to buy it again, since the other PSUs that I have are not compatible, just so you know the set up is bare minimum now: just the HDD, the CPU, the RAM (one module 2GB), and the fans.

[phillpower2]

For some reason I did not receive notification that you had replied

If the PSU is under warranty then it should be replaced free of charge, also Corsair have a 5 year warranty on those PSUs.

[nasiraod]

Here in Canada, most stores have a 15 days no questions asked return policy, so I bought the Corsair PSU, but when it turned out that the PSU wasn't the cause, I just went back to the store and returned it.

[phillpower2]

So what PSU are you using now please.

PSU suggestion http://www.ncix.com/...ir&promoid=1084

[nasiraod]

I am using the original one that came with the casing (It's Called Data Power), but I am going to the store to get that Corsair back, and check the voltages again.
Last time I got this one:
http://www.futuresho...20f46ba0fa3en02
But this time I am getting this one:
http://www.futuresho...cd1dd8d46bfen02
since they don't have the first in the store near me.

[phillpower2]

Sorry never heard of that brand of PSU (which is a bad sign) please use a PSU calculator to make sure you get the correct output, to give yourself some headroom allow 50W+ what is recommended so you know that the PSU can cope easily, an example PSU calculator http://images10.newe...tage-Calculator