Computer Just shuts off? Like i pulled the plug!

Hi,

My computer has just started randomly shuting down when i use applications such as Adobe Photoshop and virus checkerd.

Could this be 'Overclocking'?

I dont know anything about this problem but was reading on temperatures etc. So I downloaded a a CPU Temp check amongst other things,

these are my results:

CPU: 98(C) 210(F)
Motherboards: 28(C) 82(F)

These results are whilst running a virus checker plus writing this thread.

Is this bad or good?

Any pointers on how to stop the random crashing?

Could it be a virus?

Please Help!

Thanks

White:Knight

 

Just went upto 101 (C) when submitting thread.

 

*Cnt Edit* So here is some added information.

I have added a house fan at the side of my PC and taken the cover off, it still runs high whilst running appilcations but at idle its ruoghly 65(C).

My CPU Type = Intel Pentium 4 640 for extra info.

If you need anymore ask as I am running areport viewer.

Going to try another high intensity program to see if it closes down.

White:Knight

 

Those are very high temps. What kind of cooling do you have on the processor and the case?

 

Just a desltop case, a medion the one it came in. Dont know what he fan is unless you can tell me how to find out.

I can tell you it is a CPU Fan speed = 2109 RPM

 

Well, I can tell you that your computer is most likely overheating due to your high tempertures and shutting off to not damage components.

Overclocking is manually increasing the processor speed, and does not apply to your problem. (Thread should probably be moved to cooling/modding forum).

Is it possible that the heatsink/Fan for your processor has become loose or in any way seated improperly?

Have you recently removed or altered your heatsink/fan?

 

Ok if a mod could move the thread tht would be grate.

Toour question o I havent done anything within the computer. I moved it a while back but nothing drastic.

I will look for some guides on heat sinks to see if i is loose.

Thanks For you help.

White:Knight

 

What are the specs for your computer? What kind of motherboard and processor do you have?

 

Heres a report.

Attahced txt file zipped

White:Knight

 

Well it sure looks like an HSF problem of some sort, These are your idle temps are they not?

Temperatures:
Motherboard 27 °C (81 °F)
CPU 69 °C (156 °F)
WDC WD1600JD-00HBB0 26 °C (79 °F)
WDC WD1600JD-22HBB0 25 °C (77 °F)


Your HSF will be anchored to your motherboard via plugs on the four corners of the HSF that match four holes in your motherboard. Gently wiggle the plugs and make sure they are not loose.

Also, make sure the fan is working properly and unobstructed. Since its an OEM machine, I assume your cables are all tied neatly together, but its important to make sure you have good airflow.

 

nick gave ya good advice.

If the 4 plugs are tight, then check the HSF (heatsink/fan) itself. If you can wiggle/wobble/wibble/wabble/make-up-yer-own-word..... if ya can do that to the Heatsink part, then it is not touching the CPU.

You said that you very recently moved the computer, so my gut reaction is that the HSF popped loose.

 

Hey I have check the cables everything seems fines.

But i was looking through system and this came up.

I attached an image.

It says 'The UPS Service is currently stopped'

Could this be causing it?

White:Knight

 

Hmm, that does seem slightly odd for that to crop up. USP by the way if you didn't already know stands for "Uninterruptable Power Supply". I presume that you are running directly from the mains supply and not throught a USP system yes?

 

yeh i realised that it would be for a power cut or something. Thanks for the advise any way, Touch wood the problem has been sorted, i am going to try another virus check to see if it copes then I will know wether it was overheating.

Thanks Again,

White:Knight

 

White: Knight these are EXCESSIVE TEMPERATURES and it is assumed your system is hitting the defiend "System Shutdown Temp" in your BIOS basically to preserve your computer in case of malfunctioning hardware/cooling. overclock.net notes that a P4 will range from 55C (idle) to 65C (load). BUT THAT IS FOR A PRESCOTT CHIP if you haven't sorted this yet you need to provide more info.

 

If you purchased this from a company such as gateway or dell(im guessing you did), try to get them to help, and if your warranty/labor is still active, have them work on it if we aren't making any sence to you. Please post more information though, as eagle said above ---^

 

I attached a new report with this thread. Also I have contacted MEdion and Intel on this problem and am waiting to be contacted.

Hope this is the information you need.

White:Knight

 

White: Knight I do not know what file type this is but could you please just attach a plain text document or somehting to that affect I have tried twice to view these files but to no affect and I am not about to search for an app to allow me to view something so as I can provide advice for you. Here is an exceptional Daignostics program that will provide all the sufficient info that is required, free, EVEREST Home Edition:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Go to Comp > Sensors and hit report (.txt would be lovely!)

 

It looks like he does have a prescott:

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 640
CPU Alias Prescott-2M
CPU Stepping N0
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
CPUID Revision 00000F43h

 

Thats correct I do have a Presscot, does that mean it can cope with high temperatures. I have emailed Medion but still no reply.

White:Knight

 

no it means that temperatures in the 55c to 65c range may be normal under load (as prescotts run a bit hotter than your average processor).

Your temps are still high though. How long have you had your computer? Is it still under warranty?

 

I think its just over a year unfortunatly, I got it around this time last year.

 

And you checked the HSF to make sure it is secure?

 

White: Knight the temp range implies idle@55C and load 65C (games, burning,etc) you really don't want to be getting over this for any prolonged period or you will significantly shorten the life expectancy of your sys.

Allright did you download EVEREST? If so can you give as an idea of your (temps/volts/RPMs')?

Next reboot have a look in your BIOS (tapping "delete" at first start up screen) and look under "PC Health" (or something to that affect) and take note of (temps/volts/RPMs') but also "System Shutdown Temp". I would seriously ensure that it is enabled and lowering it to 80C until this has been sorted out. Maybe you'll get more shutdowns but it will minimise the potential for hardware failure/damage.

Turn everything off, rip of the right hand side panel and switch "CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING" and have a look is there much dust and crap build up? Are all fans spinning? put your hand "near" them and make sure. With side panel off look at the EVEREST (temps/volts/RPMs') have they gone down significantly, (no it is not a good idea to leave your side cover off all the time, unless you know how to clean your sys properly).

Next look at your heatsink does there seem to be a lot of dust build up and trapped between the fins?!? Here is a link for heatsink removal and replacing:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007989.htm

We need some more info so we can assist with this.

So (temps/volts/fans), dust, all fans working and heatsink clean?!?

 

The report is a .txt document, just click 'open' and use your extraction wizard.

 

Well its' got me buggered I have FF and Free Download Manager and all it wants to do is download it as a xxxxx.php file and to be honest I don't like to download zip files from an unknown source generally not a good pratice!!!!

 

From EVEREST we can see that your temps are very high and it is assumed that this is at idle as mobo and hdd are at 27C and 26C respectively. Your CPU Fan is spinning at a low rate relative to CPU temp. Also your voltages seem a bit erratic compared to "expected values".

Have you been OC???? It doesn't look like it but an important question.
Firstly can you look at your heatsink and note if it is extremly dusty and tell me what you see but Whiteknight imho you need to remove your heatsink and have a look at the thermal interface material I am suspicious that you will find it is dried and crusty and essentially not working.

Temperatures:
Motherboard 27 °C (81 °F)
CPU 69 °C (156 °F)
WDC WD1600JD-00HBB0 26 °C (79 °F)
WDC WD1600JD-22HBB0 25 °C (77 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 2136 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.24 V
+3.3 V 3.33 V
+5 V 5.03 V
+12 V 11.80 V
+5 V Standby 4.41 V
VBAT Battery 3.22 V
Debug Info F FF 4F FF
Debug Info T 27 69 127
Debug Info V 6F C2 D0 BB B6 00 00 (01)

If you don't address the CPU temp I beleive it will only get worse and you will suffer more shutdowns until complete hardware failure.

 

Thanks for that guys.

After been on my hands and knees exploring my computer i have found this. It is shocking I know, but hopefully I have sorted the problem out with a spring clean.

I have some pictures to show how dusty my fan was.

I hosted them on my website take a look:

http://www.kovyrecords.co.uk/dusty.html

Now my CPU at idle and writing this is about 67(C).

Thanks for all your suggetsions, I will take alook at the heat sink also see if its crusty.

Regards,

White:Knight

 

The dusting helps, but your problem is worse than dust. most likely your heatsink is not flush with your CPU die, and I would double check that fan is running as intended.

 

Thats an excellent start White but 67C is still HIGH there would be some cringing at that and it is above what you would like a Prescott to be doing for idle. You know what really concerned me is that your mobo and HDD were so low compared to your CPU this indicates that your ambient temp is also low (educated guess 17-19C) but your CPU is 52C higher than both. Come summer your CPU will really suffer. I'm concerned if I'm getting 15C higher than both HDD and mobo during purposeful STRESS TESTING.

Okay have you pulled that heatsink of ever if not I will assume that you have a thermal pad under your heatsink and they are CRAP. Mine turned dry and crusty after 3months (from brand new) and had to be removed and a proper thermal paste used, temps went down by 5C immediately. A good thermal paste is Artic Silver 5 and the provide go info on their site:

articsilver.com

Here is a link for removing a P4 Heatsink and replacing (but for a 478 pin yours is 778 pin I'm thinking):

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007989.htm

If you haven't done this before tell us and we will provide as much info as possible. Get it thouroughly sorted in your head before undertaking.

I am 100% this heat is causing your "instability".

 

Its now gone upto 107 (C), I am defently having alook rite now.

Thanks for the help Bold Eagle. It is the wkend now so I am going to have a proper look inside, thanks fo rthe links I will sure look at them plus I will post if I need anymore help thankss for that.

Rite am going to get to work.

Thanks.

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advise for this issue, hopefully I have sorted it.

Whilst looking at the fan I noticed the plastic clip holding it had come loose, I moved the fan gently and the whole of the HeatSink was loose too (Been held by same clip)

So i took it all apart anyway to see if it was crusty underneath, thankfully it wasent and I put it back to gether now making sure it was secure.

My conclusion was that this clip not been secure made the chip 'flap' on and off the CPU thats why some days it has been fine.

So i built the computer back up and took a look at my temps.

The temps were good, Mobo 33(C) when idle, and CPU 49(C) whilst idle.

Thanks again guys for the help i appreciate it.

Regards,

Chris

 

Thats excellent Chris and I'm glad we prompted, probed and cajoled you to look into this further and probably saved you future hardware failure, BUT whenever you remove a heatsink it is always BEST practice to clean of the old thermal interface material (TIM) and replace it because it has more than likely become contaminated with dust, etc etc and will be a lot less effective. You can get thermal paste for a few dollars/pounds and considering how much a CPU costs it is worth the outlay. Its up to you but you have already played with and removed the heatsink so why not complete the job PROPERLY. Look at the above link for articsilver.com

 

Thanks Bold Eagle, I have seen that ArticSilver for £5 so I might look into investing in some.

Thanks again for you time.

Chris

 

Glad we could help, if you decide to replace your thermal paste, be sure to read the application instructions on the arctic silver website beforehand.

 

Does no one remeber that Pentium 4's were going to be set on recall for over heating issues he just said he has a pentium 4 all i can say is your computer is a piece of crap other then that all i would recommened is to add a cooling system

 

Very constuctive Wildfire, what do you have? My P4E3.06GHz is currently at 44C Idle and goes to 67C load. If you go to overclock.net there is the 4.0GHz club for these babes, "You get an AMD to do that". Now I'm not 1 eyed but the new "Conroe CPU" is putting Intel back up on top, temporarirly and going to bring prices right down for both Intel and AMD (to compete).

Where do you get off with such baseless, senseless and moronic commentary, huh? You are a moron, morrroooonn.

What are you benchmarking at?

Whats your Super Pi?

Whats your Sisoftware Sandra 2005?

 

I couldnt put it better my self Bold Eagle.

Wild Fire, My Pentium is actually 64 bit and can take anything I can through at it, I also know someone with the model lower than mine who has had his computer on non-stop for 4 years with out turning it off and its still running, apart from the hard-drive that burnt up. They are very good chips.

SO what are you running on??