# "Anti surge was triggered to protect system from unstable power supply"



## Frick (Jun 10, 2015)

It's the system in system specs.

In short, should I worry? The system was in sleep mode, and on resume there was no video signal. I had to switch the PSU off at the back, then it showed me the thing below. I had run windowd update earlier and it installed them before starting windows.

The system used to be wonky before I reinstalled it some days ago (occasional mouse lag, Flash videos/applications crashing the video driver mostly).

If you can't see system specs:

Asus P5G41T-M
e8400
1 x Crucial Ballistixsportsomething 1600mhz 4GB
1 x WD Blue 1TB
HD 7850 2GB PCS+


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## erocker (Jun 10, 2015)

If it were me, I'd already of ordered a new PSU.


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## ne6togadno (Jun 10, 2015)

http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90551748/seasonic-ss-series.asp


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## Frick (Jun 10, 2015)

Now some support dude at the Corsair forums are saying that feature does some false positives. Others are claiming that as well. No way of knowing without test equipment... Ho hum. Could just be a fluke.


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## Solaris17 (Jun 10, 2015)

Iv gotten this a few times with systems that come in at my job. This feature can be shut off in BIOS manually for one. and honestly most of the time that i see this its from the little tabs on the I/O shield sticking into USB ports and stuff. Id check your rig for loose screws and just over all build quality.


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## Bill_Bright (Jun 10, 2015)

I keep hearing more and more reports of ASUS Anti-surge reporting these issues that I firmly believe the problem is more ASUS Anti-surge than it is the PSUs. Even with decent Seasonics run through top quality UPS with AVRs, ASUS Anti-surge has prevented computers from booting, or locked them up with errors similar to above.

It is not really a "false positive", it is a problem with the threshold settings being sensitive.

No doubt ASUS is getting RMAs boards that were hit with excessive surges coming through or being generated by cheap, generic PSUs. But any ATX motherboard should be able to run fine with any ATX compliant PSU that is working (and regulating) properly. And every motherboard has regulator circuits too that should suppress any "normal" anomaly that may get through.

Of course not all of these reports are due to over sensitive thresholds, but power off the grid is not becoming dirtier, and more and more PSUs buyers are aware that quality PSUs matter. So I think the problem is ASUS Anti-surge being to sensitive.

Another reason for me to stick with Gigabyte.



Frick said:


> The system used to be wonky before I reinstalled it some days ago


That could change the whole equation, depending on what wonky means.


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## Frick (Jun 11, 2015)

Bill_Bright said:


> That could change the whole equation, depending on what wonky means.



svchost (the network ones) hogging all the RAM, mouse lag (due to Firefox stealing all the CPU's), when closing flash videos/apps/games the video driver crashed (often). Some of the things could be PSU related, but I'm guessing not since the problems went away.


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## Bill_Bright (Jun 11, 2015)

Frick said:


> but I'm guessing not since the problems went away.


But not the problem with ASUS Anti-surge, right? Can you change the Anti-surge parameters to make it less sensitive? Or can you only disable/enable it?


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## Frick (Jun 11, 2015)

Bill_Bright said:


> But not the problem with ASUS Anti-surge, right? Can you change the Anti-surge parameters to make it less sensitive? Or can you only disable/enable it?



I've only seen it this time, so I dunno. I haven't disabled it, I figured I'll wait and see if I see it again.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 11, 2015)

i wonder if my board has it...


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## Caring1 (Jun 12, 2015)

eidairaman1 said:


> i wonder if my board has it...


It should have.


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## R-T-B (Jun 12, 2015)

My X99-A has this feature.  Can't say I've ever seen it triggered though.


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## OneMoar (Jun 12, 2015)

given that it occurred out of the blue after all this time and that the system was experiencing issues leading up to this  I would say that there is indeed a problem someplace
id rather have the fault detection be on a hair-trigger then have a grand worth of dead hardware we have seen what happens on x99 when things burnout


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## RealNeil (Jun 12, 2015)

If it happens again, get a new PSU. Maybe that anti-surge really is protecting your components.
Have there been any strong Thunderstorms in your area lately?


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## Frick (Jun 12, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> given that it occurred out of the blue after all this time and that the system was experiencing issues leading up to this  I would say that there is indeed a problem someplace
> id rather have the fault detection be on a hair-trigger then have a grand worth of dead hardware we have seen what happens on x99 when things burnout



I have no issues after I reinstalled Windows, and it happened a few days after the clean install.


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## Caring1 (Jun 12, 2015)

Frick said:


> Now some support dude at the Corsair forums are saying that feature does some false positives. Others are claiming that as well. No way of knowing without test equipment... Ho hum. Could just be a fluke.


Check reviews of your PSU and see how close power spikes are within tolerance.
I've seen a few that get certified but still have the odd spike outside what it should.
@Bill_Bright would be the PSU go to guy.


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## GreiverBlade (Jun 12, 2015)

never seen it triggered on any ASUS board i had (quit a lot in fact) but i never had a Corsair PSU
Seasonic (M12II 750 Evo bronze), Fractal Design (Integra R2 650 bronze) and InWin (Commander III Desert Fox 700 gold) for the 3 best i had (and some crappy, but rarely long enough  )

might be the PSU, or the Anti surge feature is too sensitive (well ... what's too sensitive when it come to a power surge ... )


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## Aquinus (Jun 12, 2015)

Frick said:


> I have no issues after I reinstalled Windows, and it happened a few days after the clean install.


Does that mean it has happened more than once in general? I've had ASUS boards for the last 7-8 years, and I've never seen anti-surge get kicked off.


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## Frick (Jun 12, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Does that mean it has happened more than once in general? I've had ASUS boards for the last 7-8 years, and I've never seen anti-surge get kicked off.



Only the one time. I too have had a bunch of ASUS boards and never seen it happen before.


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## Bill_Bright (Jun 12, 2015)

eidairaman1 said:


> i wonder if my board has it...


Look up your specs. It appears it does.



Caring1 said:


> @Bill_Bright would be the PSU go to guy.


Thanks. That said, he's referring to what the Corsair guy said. And I note that "some" Corsairs have not received the best of reviews as they did consistently in the past, but still, excessive surges is not something Corsair PSUs are known for.


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## RealNeil (Jun 12, 2015)

I checked my ASUS H81I-Plus/CSM LGA-1150 mainboard and it has this feature too.

I can remember that we had a large and violent T-Storm a few weeks ago when I was at the grocery store.
When I got home that PC was off, but it had been turned on when I left.

Maybe that's what shut it down. It still works fine.


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## OneMoar (Jun 12, 2015)

pretty much every intel board has it weather its documented or not


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## RealNeil (Jun 12, 2015)

Is it built into the chipsets?


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## kn00tcn (Jun 12, 2015)

shouldnt you disable TPM if you're not using it?


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## Bill_Bright (Jun 12, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> pretty much every intel board has it weather its documented or not


No, that is an ASUS feature, not Intel. Note the Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 motherboard is an AMD board.


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 12, 2015)

Is there a way to disable this feature in BIOS, or is it hardwired?  I ask, because for instance, with a UPS that has built in surge protector, they caution against having another surge protector in the line.  If this functions like that, it seems it could cause problems.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jun 13, 2015)

You'd have to figure out what kind of surge protector it is... That would help a lot because it would give a lot more clues as to what is causing it to trip.


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## R-T-B (Jun 13, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> Is there a way to disable this feature in BIOS, or is it hardwired?  I ask, because for instance, with a UPS that has built in surge protector, they caution against having another surge protector in the line.  If this functions like that, it seems it could cause problems.



It's built into the board and is a common ASUS board feature.  It's also bios controllable.


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## Mussels (Jun 13, 2015)

Frick said:


> Now some support dude at the Corsair forums are saying that feature does some false positives. Others are claiming that as well. No way of knowing without test equipment... Ho hum. Could just be a fluke.



it could have been triggered by you turning it off at the back of the PSU. Failure to wake from sleep is often caused by mild ram instability more than anything else.


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## OneMoar (Jun 13, 2015)

Fricks system is pretty dam ancient. maby it was just having a "senior moment"


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## R-T-B (Jun 13, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Fricks system is pretty dam ancient. maby it was just having a "senior moment"



That too.  I have an old Core 2 Duo server who has "Senior moments" by reving it's fans to 100% every one in three boots, requiring a power cycle.


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## Frick (Jun 13, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Fricks system is pretty dam ancient. maby it was just having a "senior moment"



Only the CPU and sound card. The rest is new, the motherboard I got from a friend who never got around to use it.


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## R-T-B (Jun 13, 2015)

Frick said:


> Only the CPU and sound card. The rest is new, the motherboard I got from a friend who never got around to use it.



Heck, he still beats my system in his benchmark scores.  Mine can't even get 20mph with me carrying it.


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## BiggieShady (Jun 13, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Mine can't even get 20mph with me carrying it.


It can in free fall, I'm sure of it, I wouldn't recommend it though


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## R-T-B (Jun 13, 2015)

BiggieShady said:


> It can in free fall, I'm sure of it, I wouldn't recommend it though



Ah.  That explains those figures.


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