My pc keeps shutting down.

webhamster

Search for a prog on the net called stinger , Its a small antivirus program.Download and run it , if all is well then check that auto restart is not set if using xp (system settings advanced) , and that your sp2 is installed too if using xp.

If your pc is out of warranty open up the left panel and run it.If the fan on the motherboard , any one , isnt runnin gthen theres your overheating problem.Same with the psu , if its not putting out heat(running) with a draught then its not working.

Further check that your drivers are up to date , and no conflicts exist between software and hardware.

Bios , boot into bios and ensure everything isnt running at mental settings , ie overclock , and set memmory timings down to safe or optimal.Theres always someone that reads about overclocking , and or , thinks they know what they are doing thats a fiddler and changes a couple of settings.

BillK

Thanks for the advice, will try this evening.

BillK

Mike,
Took cover off last night and blasted with my fan heater set to cold. PC ran perfectly, managed to run antivirus and about 2.5 hrs of Memtest (had to abort in the end as I didn't want to leave the fan running all night). From this I conclude it is a heat problem. All fans are working, although I did replace the graphics card fan a few weeks ago, maybe it is not up to the job? When I did the temp check in the Bios setting, was that the temp of the motherboard chip or just the temp within the case? Maybe a fan fitted to the side of the case is the answer?
Just one more point, should fans blow onto or away from the chip on the Graphics card?
Thanks again for any help.
Cheers.

Joe_Bloggs

@BillK Congratulations on your detective work. In general a graphics card fan would blow air onto the heatsink rather than try to suck air through it.
You might try utilities to monitor what iis getting hot. MBM5, Speedfan are two free examples that spring to mind. There may be similar utilities supplied by your motherboard manufacturer. With these you can monitor what gets hot when the system is under load.
A good source of cool air is required as an intake. Move cables out of the way of air flow. Motherboard chips such as the North and South bridges may also need extra cooling on certain motherboards for long term stability.
J_B.

BillK

Ah, disaster, turned my pc on yesterday and it freezes on the first load up page. The one that says - Pentium 111 1000mhz etc, had the fan heater out again with no luck. The line that says 'memory test' runs for about 2 seconds and then stops.

Please help.

Cheers,

BillK.

Toxteth_OGrady

So we've ruled out:

1. Memory (Memtest initially ran 2.5 hours)

2. Heat (CPU temp only 29 C in bios monitoring)

3. Virus (NAV scanned clean)

Next most likely candidate is your power supply. Do you have psu you could borrow to try?

Post the Wattage of your psu and the +3.3V, +5V and +12V Ampage (all will be shown on a label on the side of the psu).

Also try this to calculate what size psu you need for your system.

BillK

Tog,
Sorry, I mean't you when I said 'Mike' in my post above.
What about my current problem I now have? Only first page of start up and no more.

Cheers,
BillK

Toxteth_OGrady

Bill,

Look on the bright side :-/ At least it narrows down the possibilites. The fact it freezes straight after POST and won't even boot to floppy (memtest) eliminates the possibility of it being a Windoze/software or hard disk problem.

Three possibilities are cpu, motherboard or psu problem. Of the three the psu is the most likely component to deteriorate gradually (your symptoms). The others are much more likely to fail catastrophically without warning. However it could still be any one of the three.

To check the psu you really need a multi-meter or try to borrow another psu. One thing you can try is to set up a min power config and see if it will boot.

To do this disconnect all external devices that draw power e.g. USB peripherals. Then inside the case disconnect the power leads off all CD/DVD drives, the floppy drive and any hard drives other than your primary.

Next remove all pci cards, sound, modem etc just leaving your graphics card. Remove all but one stick of RAM (providing the one remaining is at least 128 meg).

So that should leave you just powering mobo/cpu, vga, RAM and one hard drive. Try boot from that. If it works restore components one by one (in your own order of importance) until you reach a config where it fails again.

Let us know how that goes.

8)

TOG

Joe_Bloggs

If you are going to unplug power leads to drives then unplug the interface cable aswell from the drive. The drive may try to draw power through the IDE cable and prevent the system booting.
J_B.