Computer suddenly shuts down. Suggestions?

[Death Metal Moe]

Hey Baggers.

I got a new computer a year or so ago and gave my older one to my friends to use since they didn't have one. It's been working fine.

Then late last year they and I got into World of Warcraft. It was at that time that the computer started to suddenly shut itself down with no prior notice. My friend Grim Sanity from this board is my computer go-to guy and said it was probably over heating.

He was right, the heatsinks were caked with dust. Cleaned them, changed the fans on the motherboard, changed out one of the 2 case fans because it was old, even added another one so that 2 pull in and one blows out getting a nice cross breeze over the motherboard. Installed a program to monitor CPU and case temps and then played WoW for over an hour. Everything seemed OK.

Only problem is that the computer started to shut itself down again last week. They say it happens MUCH less than before, but it still pisses me off.

Anyone got any help and/or suggestions as to what I can do and what is causing this?

The comp has an AMD chip that's about 1.4 Ghz, 768 RAM, running XP and is about 3-4 years old. I'd like to save this one if I can because they can't afford one, that's why I gave them my old one when I got a new one.

Thanks.

[ruckstande]

Has it been reformatted?

[funnybonez]

Wait, feed it to the shredding like Ant! j/k

Download HDtune. It a CPU Temp check. It will chart the CPU temperature.

Is it shutting down during Gameplay? If so its probably due to overheating.

[Mommadeez4u]

are you getting a blue screen? if so what are the error messages? This is eerily like what is happening to me.

[Ol'BloodyBottom]

MOD EDIT - ENOUGH WITH THE MEATSPIN is a good place for advice those 2 guys know what they are doing

[sknight]

I think my heatsinks on my laptop are caked with dust as well, but I haven't been daring enough to open it without some prior advice. Once in a while it does the auto shutdown when I'm actually using it on my lap. Was thinking about also retreating the cpu chip with heatsink paste.

What's the program that monitors temp levels? Freeware?

[Sparkstalker]

First thought is to check the power supply fan...you may want to swap the whole thing out.

[TreeFortRichard]

also if you have a few case fans make sure there is a balance between air intake and exhaust. If all your fans point in or out you will not cool the pc properly. Also, does the game only shut down when you are gaming? What kind of vid card do you have? you could be overheating the vid card.

[thelord68]

Here's a program that does a good job of checking votages and temps. You may have to change the chipset setting to get one that reports properly for you systems.

NextSensor (http://majorgeeks.com/NextSensor_d4988.html)

sknight: try blowing some canned air through all the cooling vents.

Moe: When you changed fans, did you put some decent thermal paste on the CPU (Artic Silver or any silver-based)?. If not, it costs about $10, try cleaning off any residue and apply.

Also some basic periodic items for better system performance:
Defrag on a regular basis even if the system says it doesn't need to.
Here's a free, quick defragger: Auslogics Disk Defrag (http://majorgeeks.com/Auslogics_Disk_Defrag_d5266.html)

Scandisk as well

If you think you've gotten a virus or spyware, but it doesn't go away. Run scans in Safe Mode. If that still doesn't help, then disable System Restore and repeat.

Power Supply: if your power supply is underpowered, it will crap out faster than a larger PS. Ratings are usually for MAX or PEAK power output and are generally inflated. Think engine redline. Dedicated video cards draw over a 100 watts by themselves especially when used by games.

[Teddy]

cpufan works well to give you temp readings

geting to the cpu on laptops is fairly simple

[Death Metal Moe]

Has it been reformatted?

I reformatted it when I gave it to them a little over a year ago. Fresh copy of XP.

[Death Metal Moe]

are you getting a blue screen? if so what are the error messages? This is eerily like what is happening to me.

No blue screen, just a sudden shut down.

[Death Metal Moe]

First thought is to check the power supply fan...you may want to swap the whole thing out.

That is what my friend Grim Sanity told me to check next, I'll have to look at it this weekend.

The CPU and Chipset fans were making evil noises so I felt it was that, but I guess it was that and now something else too.

[Death Metal Moe]

also if you have a few case fans make sure there is a balance between air intake and exhaust. If all your fans point in or out you will not cool the pc properly. Also, does the game only shut down when you are gaming? What kind of vid card do you have? you could be overheating the vid card.

I did move the fans. Seems my dumb ass had both fans in the back blowing out. So I changed one of the older fans and made both of them suck air in. Then I noticed there was a spot in the front of the case for a 3rd fan, so that one is blowing out. I think that is about the best I can do to move air over the motherboard.

And yes the computer ONLY shuts down when gaming. I have a low grade 3D video card in it. Only like 32 or 64 MB of onboard ram with no on card fan. I started to think this could be my problem. Any way to test this theory to narrow it down?

[Mommadeez4u]

Moe,

When your computer boots back up are you getting a 'windows has just recovered from a serious error' message with the 'report this problem to microsoft' option? Can you access your event viewer and see if there are any messages which might help diagnose the issue?

[Death Metal Moe]

Moe,

When your computer boots back up are you getting a 'windows has just recovered from a serious error' message with the 'report this problem to microsoft' option? Can you access your event viewer and see if there are any messages which might help diagnose the issue?

It has never shut off while I had it so I'm not 100% sure, just going off what my friends tell me about the computer.

Where is the event viewer? I'll look at it this weekend.

[Death Metal Moe]

Moe: When you changed fans, did you put some decent thermal paste on the CPU (Artic Silver or any silver-based)?. If not, it costs about $10, try cleaning off any residue and apply.


I didn't remove the heatsinks, I changed the fans. It was cheaper, faster and to be honest, I didn't see how to remove them so I didn't want to fuck with them.

I'm not familiar with this stuff, what does it do?

[HumpX]

Moe, if you have a hardware monitor in your bios that shows temps and the PSU (Power supply unit) power levels go check it out. Check the various levels for the Power supply unit to see if they are fluctuating excessively.

Many times manufacturers will take the cheap way out and put the cheapest PSU unit they can get in the case. The PSU is very important to the systems stability and will cause shit like sudden shut-downs etc.

If you don't have a hardware monitor I believe theres a few small free apps you can download to get a reading.

[MrBogey]

Without reading the thread, 90% of shutdowns during games I've encountered were caused by bad power supplies.

[Mommadeez4u]

what precisely is a bad power supply? what's the best way to test a power supply to see if it needs replacement?

[HumpX]

what precisely is a bad power supply? what's the best way to test a power supply to see if it needs replacement?

see my previous post.



your power supply is the brick-like thing that your PC's power plug goes into on the back of the case. it then goes on to power the mobo, drives, fans etc. Both the CPU and memory are very sensitive to power fluctuations so its essential to spend at least $100+ to ensure you get a quality PSU. A good indicator is the weight. Heavy=better. Reviews are the best source though.

[Mommadeez4u]

It has never shut off while I had it so I'm not 100% sure, just going off what my friends tell me about the computer.

Where is the event viewer? I'll look at it this weekend.

start-->control panel-->administrative tools-->event viewer

[blazin]

you could be blue-screening but have the PC set to automatic restart, so you barely see the blue screen, if at all.

Right click on My computer -->properties--->Advanced Tab--->Startup And Recovery Settings --> uncheck automatically restart.

If its not BSODing then I'd probably say the power supply...had a customer with this same problem last week and a new power supply solved it.