Host frequently shutting down

[prasannag6]

Hi, Running workstation v9 in Win 7 host with 24GB RAM/AMD FX-4300 Quad 3.8GHz . Whenever more number of VMs are powered on (or memory consumption is higher), the host win 7 desktop shuts down without warning. Logs are not revealing much. Tried various memory settings (modifying reserved memory, fit all vm to reservation, allow some/more to be swapped etc), but whenever DC, vCenter, 2xESXi hosts and nested VMs (vCD/vShield) are powered on, host crashes.

Any suggestions are welcome.

[dariusd]

By far the most likely cause for an abrupt physical host shutdown is thermal protection – If the system (particularly the processor) is reaching a critically high temperature due to insufficient cooling, most systems will shut down automatically in order to prevent permanent damage to the hardware.  You may be able to install and use thermal monitoring software to determine if this is the cause.

Another possible cause is an inadequate power supply.  If your PC's power supply unit (PSU) is unable to meet the demands of your entire system when it reaches full load, the power supply might shut down abruptly to protect itself.

The above specifically relates to reasons for a system to shut down and power off abruptly with no error messages; The potential causes of a host crash/BSOD or abrupt host reset are quite different.

Hope this helps!

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Darius

[dariusd]

I have to mention this because it's just weird: Three hours after posting the above message, my laptop did an abrupt thermal shutdown for the first time in a few years.  I was running a VM that was fully utilizing one of its two CPU cores, and doing a bunch of other work on the host at the same time, while it was playing an MP3, etc., and I could hear its fan laboring right before it suddenly logged out and powered off.

I popped the system open, and cleaned something that probably wasn't a small furry creature (but sure looked like it) out of its fan/heatsink.  Uggggghhhhh.  Now the system's fan is back to normal and everything is up and running again.

Just totally weird that this happened today, right after writing that post.  Check your system for small furry creature-like things! 

Cheers,

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Darius