Computer Shuts Down All of Sudden: Window XP

Hi,

I have a Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz, ECS motherboard rs400, 1gb corsair memory, maxtor & western digital hard drive.

My computer has been shutting down on me in the middle of Windows lately. I am not sure what the problem is. I am running Window XP Professional Service Pack 2. It is not rebooting itself. It just shuts down completely.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Most likely caused by heat, pull the side cover off and take a look, see if the heatsink and fan are full of lint and dirt. ed

 

Thanks for the response.

I read on the internet & other forum that that could be the problem w/ the heat sink not tightly connected to the CPU, but I have made sure it is tightly connected to the CPU. It has not shut down on me yet since the last time I make sure it was connected tightly.

Currently, I am also monitoring my fan speed. The highest temperature it reached was 96 degree fahrenheit.

Any other suggestion or advice I can do is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Check your ram. I had a bad stick of ram and my machine kept restarting. Turned out to be a bad ram stick and a bad ram channel on the mobo.

 

How do one do a check on their ram? Is there a device that I need to have? I was thinking it could either be my memory ram or CPU. I recently replaced my power supply & motherboard.

Thanks.

 

You will have to download memtest86 on another machine and make a bootable disk to run memtest. I your machine will not post you will have to use another machine to test you components. You can also try one stick at a time in your mobo. try one channel and then the other. If you have one bad channel you may post if you try the other. (That is how I found out I had a bad channel on the mobo) Try to run the test on another machine. You could take your machine to a place like Frys Electronics and have them test it for you.

 

You can also burn to a cd,

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

I took my computer last time for a diagnostic, & Fry's wanted to charge me $69 to let me know what's wrong w/ my computer.

If I take it to Fry's, won't they charge me for the test? Do I just take my memory stick in there & have them test it? If Fry's does not charge me, then I can take it there & have them test it for me.

 

Usually theres only two things that will cause a shut down, heat and-or a going south power supply, i personally have never had memory cause a shut down, errors or no post at all is common in ram. When you had your heatsink off, was the thermal paste still soft? ed

 

yes. It was kind of moist or wet too...

 

Then that should be alright, go into bios [setup] and see if it lists your voltages,should be under the title Health. F2 is the most popular key to get there, yours may be different tho. Write down the voltages and post back. ed

 

I went in BIOS. Mine was under PC Health Status. Here are the readings

CPU vCore 1.37v
3.30 v 3.28v
5.00 v 5.16v
+12 v 11.71v
Voltage Battery 3.15v
Current Sys Temp 37 degree Celsius
Current CPU Temp 63 degree Celsius
CPU Fan Speed 3375 RPM
Sys Fan Speed 0 RPM
Pwr Fan Speed 0 RPM

Hope this is what you were asking for.

Thanks.

 

FYI

I am currently using Speed Fan & monitoring my CPU or Fan....

It goes up throughout the day....This morning it was at 88 degree fahrenheit & by the end of the night it is currently 99 degree fahrenheit....I leave the computer on all day today...

Thanks.

 

Cpu temp is way too high, check cpu fan and be sure it is running fast, not just turning, i have a feeling the fan might be shot, 12volt rail is low but i dont think that is the problem. ed

 

I am going by the temp in the bios screen shot, is speedfan matching them numbers?

 

Speed Fan 4.27

Fan 1 3375 RPM
Fan 2 0 RPM
Fan 3 0 RPM


Temp 1: 99F
Temp 2: 126F
Temp 3: 41F
HD1 : 108F
Temp 1: 104F

These are the current reading. Mine I remind you, the computer been on all day today.

Thanks agian.

 

Swap out the PSU it's the easiest swap, and yes your 12 Volt rail is low, faulty PSU's are the major cause of overheating and time based shut downs. They are also the cheapest component that OEM's put into the system. Thats my $0.02 worth

 

Thanks for the response. I just recently sway out the PSU. It currently has a 500W brand new PSU. The one from outpost....

http://www.frys.com/product/4587977

hehehehehehehe

 

Looks like you got something for nothing there tvn, maybe thats why the 12Volt rail is low. By the way did your problems start after the swap????

 

If that new psu is only putting out 11.7 on the 12 volt rail, you need another one. You could also use an exhaust fan in the rear of the case to pull the heat out. ed

 

No. The problem started before the swap. I since have changed the PSU as mentioned & motherboard.

 

I have two extra fan in my Computer case. One sucking in. One sucking out.

 

I seen that speedfan was not showing them, un hook them and see if your 12volt rail comes up. ed

 

oh no. This 2 extra fan connects to the PSU plug. It shouldn't show up unless it is hook to the motherboard...

huh???

 

Im thinking them fans may be killing your 12 volt, if your 12v comes up without them, the fans are of very cheap quality or your psu cant handle the load. ed