PC Shutting Down every couple minutes

Hello, i recently posted this on the malware section but they said it was a hardware problem so i decided to come here, the problem i was having / am having again is, when im using my computer , like say listening to music or playing a game, the monitor goes black and the light on the monitor goes yellow like if it was hibernating or in standby or something like that, and the sound from my song continues but then it stops, and no buttons have any effect to return it to normal, unless i turn off the pc then back again,

is there any possibility that there is a problem with my warcraft 3 frozen throne disc? cause my problem was gone till i popped in the frozen throne disc, and stayed logged into the bnet public chat room , any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

 

Sounds to me like you have an overheating problem here. Can you take the top off your machine and check that the processor fan is running?

 

i took out the disc and couple minutes after i posted this topic it happened again, twice in a row , ill go check the fan

 

which one is the processor fan? , i took off the top and both of the big Fans are running

 

Try installing Everest , and you can check running temperatures from thee program.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

 

Could be video card related. What video card do you have and how old is it?

 

i have a Geforce 7900 GS , its as old as my pc, bought both if i remember near the end of december of last year, so 6 months almost 7

 

That's not it then. Are you doing anything besides gaming when this happens?

 

no, i had just cleaned out my pc through all the steps from the malware topic, and all i did was insert my Wc3 frozen throne disc and stay in the public chat room on bnet , gonna go look at the help thing from everest to see how to check the temps and ill post them on here in a min

 

also try opening up task manager and see what your performance is.

 

do you mean the performance of when i insert the disc? or as it is right now without it? it goes from 0-5% right now, and pf usage at 519mb ( at the very bottom for both of the bars)

 

what about when you run the game?

 

If you have been cleaning down malware, you may have corrupted some Windows files.
If you are running XP,I suggest that you go to start, run, type in sfc /scannow, and insert your XP disc, and keep your finger over the mouse to keep clicking o.k, - It can take a while, but could solve the problem.

 

this happened before i started cleaning malware, thats the reason i started cleaning malware cause the problem was so annoying i couldnt stay on my pc for more than couple mins before it turned off, also here are the temps for GPU and some HDT thing


GPU : 72 C ( 162 F)
HDT : 44 C ( 111 F )


still trying to figure how to get the temp for CPU ( thats from the sensor section on everest )

and i dont have a XP disc, it didnt come with my pc , although i do have warranty that will replace my pc for a new one if anything happens , and HP support etc

sorry forgot to check the performance when i run the game, ill insert the game disc but it will prob turn off again so ill give it a shot

 

ok still cant figure out how to find the processor temp, and here are the results of performance when i was on the game

20% CPU Usage when i inserted game,
501MB PF usage


when i was playing the game it was
0-4% CPU
546 MB PF Usage

also this never happened before till recently, about 2 days ago is there a risk of jacking up your pc from viewing videos on dailymotion.com? (its like youtube)

 

sooooo am i screwed or something? =/

 

try using this one since you can't figure out everest

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download337.html

 

Well if it was overheating, the monitor wouldn't just go black the whole computer would crash. I'm thinking a repair install might fix it.

 

kk installing the one you just gave me, also the problem seems to be gone again , kinda weird , even when i play Wc3


edit : ok i installed it, heres what it reads under readings

HD0 : 36C
Core 0 : 44C
Core 1 : 44C

 

ok next time it happens make sure you check the temps..... 44 isn't too bad.... not too good either..... but if it happens again check the temps and if they're up in 50s or higher its probably a heating issue.....

 

kk thanks will check next time

 

soooo i just loaded up wow , and checked the temps again, they went up to 50 with a lil red flame on the left

 

yup.... thats not too good..... is your computer case in an open area? or do you have one of those desks where you put it in its own enclosed compartment?

oh and open up your case and make sure the cpu fan is going..... if you look at the mother board there should be a fan with a large metal heat sink under it...... is that running? are all the other fans running?

with speed fan you can also increase the speed of all your fans..... you can try doing that..... especially the cpu fan

 

its not really a open area, the right side (no holes on that side) is to the side of the desk thing, . and the one with holes is likehalf a foot away from my monitor, should i leave it at a more open area or something? back of pc is like half a foot away from the wall too , how do i increase fan speed?

 

it doesn't sound too bad..... did you make sure all the fans are working? use speed fan to increase the speed of the fans..... i can't remember how to off the top of my head since ive only played around with it a little bit..... if you can't figure it out and if no one else says anything ill let you know when i get home in like 3 and half hours..... lol

 

kk yea, sorry forgot to check ill open it in a min, and ill go ahead and ask a friend how to mess with the speed lol thanks ill let ya know if i need some more help

 

yea all the fans seem to be working, bout to go outside and dust my whole pc , would compressed air can be good? , also would it be better dust it while its on or off

 

ya thats good...... off it better..... and doing it outside is a good idea..... you dont want to just let the dust settle back inside the room or the case, lol.....

just make sure you keep the can vertical because if you slant it took much or point it down you can spray out liquid co2 which could cause damage if it freezes certain parts too much....

 

Just be sure to let the computer cool down completely before using cold air to clean it.

 

ok it cooled, i cleaned it then let it rest like whole day so far, cause i had to go out anyway lol, so how can i increase the fan speed?

 

keep an eye on your temps...... over heating can cause major damage so you might want to be careful till you get this fixed...... what kind of computer do you have? did you build it yourself or buy it? Please give us the details on your system so we can start helping you further....

 

no i didnt build it, i bought it at fryz electronics, specs are

HP Pavilion a1640n

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 and 1.87 GHz ( i think it shows as one as 1.8 and other as 1.5 on everest or speedfan not sure which

Geforce 7900 GS ( i bought that and installed at same time as pc)

2048 MB Memory

250 GB HDD at 7200 RPM

super multi dvd burner with lightscribe

OS : Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Creatve SB X-Fi

 

The stock coolers are pretty good on these cpu's, but I use the Artic freezer 7 Pro, on mine, when it was running at 48 C, and found it dropped dpwn to the 30 C mark.
I have not used speedfan,myself, so I am unable to help you on that, but usually, you open up the program, and these sort of programs usually give you a settings option.
If your cpu shows at 50 occasionally, it can be worth pressing del/f2, when starting to get into the bios, and look for the shutdown temperature part, and increase the shut down point to 70 C, as it could shut down when temperature exceeds bios settings, automatically, and if it is set to 50/55, that could make it shut down.

 

It could also be worth checking the graphics card driver is up to date.
Tidy up any leads, to give a good airflow (I use the round type, and it does help airflow).
If you have another pci card near the graphics card , it could be worth moving it into a slot further away from the graphics card, if you have the space.
The faster the fan, the noisier the machine - that's why I mentioned the Artic freezre 7 pro- there a many out there which use a larger fan, and reduce the need for speed, as the airflow is better with bigger (and quieter)

 

yea my card driver is up to date

 

would you void any warrentys if you were to change the heat sink or redo the thermal paste? is there a warrenty on that machine at all?

 

i have no clue if it would void it, and i dont know how to do any of that, and yea i got 3 yr extended full cover warranty, from the store not the HP , so they said if something were to happen i could get a new one , like if it gets totally screwed or something like that, should i go onto hp online support? or just go to the store or something

edit: it just started happening again, after like a good couple weeks its acting up and its shutting down every couple mins again after i boot like before, it happened while i was on WoW this time, idk why, its never happened on wow or at anytime before that

 

As you have warantry , I would ask the store , or, HP , before touching anything else, as you could void any waranty.
As this is happening in games, it could be a driver, but, also, it could be faulty memory, graphics card, psu.
Unless you want to run all the checks, with software, only- (like memory test, cpu, psu, graphics, with guidence of course), I would advise asking the store/HP, first.

 

it happens outside of games too. but when it goes away it usually comes back when im in a game, then happens at anytime after that, i was talking to a hp tech online yesterday, made me change power settings, right now im about to go talk again since it didnt help ..

 

Try this. Go to My comp>properties>advanced>Startup and recovery>uncheck automaticaly restart,press OK.

Now, tell us if you start getting any BSODs (blue screens of death) if you do, write down all the information you can and let us know what it is......

I would also suggest downloading wise registry cleaner from here http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5437.html and run that once or twice..... to be safe i would only fix the green ones and dont fix the yellow ones unless you get some help from people on here..... oh and make sure you back up your registry before you run this!

 

yea, i did the uncheck thing, i was talking to a senior tech on hp and told me that exact thing, just backing up my data atm, then ima do the rest i was told by the tech

 

which is what? just so we know what you're doing so we dont waiste our time telling you to do it again and so that if that fixes it maybe it will help someone else....

 

the guy told me to uninstall my video card/ sound card etc any non - manufacturer packed items, then do the system recovery (reset to manufacturer settings, to see if it solves it)

 

well, i figured out the problem now, i was running a full cleanup on my pc since i reformatted (im talking bout virus / spyware clean , from the malware section) , and it turns off and wont restart, so i take it to the store, turns out my card was the culprit, since it was ovearheating it kept turning pc off, so when the guy told me to change it to 'never turn off" guess it made iit go past its limits, and my geforce is now fried, so they took it out and wala , pc is fine, after they did full diag check etc. funny tho how the store assistant never suggested a better power supply, since i know crap about that, he just said this pc is good (which is a lie, the guy at service said they have a cramped up case, crappy power supply, etc) well thanks again all

 

well glad its fixed and good thing you had the warrenty!!!

 

yea its fiex but my card wasnt covered in warranty lol, oh well

edit: oh yea, would you happen to know how much power supply a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatality Pro series, sound card uses? cause ive been searching online but cant how much it needs, cause im kinda cautious now as i dont wanna burn this out too