PC switching itself off

Nelli_2

Somethings you may need to consider, firstly the wattage of your PSU.
Looking at your spec if you have a new (last 12 months) graphics card I'd use a PSU rated higher than 300 watt.

I currently use a cheap one from ebuyer that is 500W, cost about £20, £10.50 now including VAT... Quickfind code: 61308
500W PSU for £10.50

However not all PSU's are alike.
I might have been lucky with mine but you might like to look round for articles
on the importance of getting good values (amps), on the rails. (i.e. 5v / 12v rail).

It's just possible if you are using 300W or less that it's just not enough juice and the time some component asks for a little more your machine, or rather PSU is quitting on you. :eek:

Richie(UK)

Hi Nelli,

The PSU is 480 watt. The techie knowledge isn't that great but I would have thought that this would be enough.

Hi CurryQueen - the extra fan came with the replacement PSU.

Nelli wrote:

Somethings you may need to consider, firstly the wattage of your PSU.
Looking at your spec if you have a new (last 12 months) graphics card I'd use a PSU rated higher than 300 watt.

I currently use a cheap one from ebuyer that is 500W, cost about £20, £10.50 now including VAT... Quickfind code: 61308
500W PSU for £10.50

However not all PSU's are alike.
I might have been lucky with mine but you might like to look round for articles
on the importance of getting good values (amps), on the rails. (i.e. 5v / 12v rail).

It's just possible if you are using 300W or less that it's just not enough juice and the time some component asks for a little more your machine, or rather PSU is quitting on you. :eek:

Curry_Queen

Richie(UK) wrote:

Hi Nelli,

The PSU is 480 watt. The techie knowledge isn't that great but I would have thought that this would be enough.

Hi CurryQueen - the extra fan came with the replacement PSU.

Ok, thanks! Maybe I should look into getting an extra one put in then.

To answer Nelli, without looking to be sure I think the PSU is at least 400W as I remember thinking I'd need to put a decent sized one in as it's primarily a gaming machine and quite high specs. I'll check it out later though just to be certain


Edit: just to mention, if it's of any use, that he was playing Championship Manager at the time - is that game known as a resource hog?

Curry_Queen

PS Sorry for hogging part of your thread Ritchie, but I guess as we have a similar problem it's as easy to get answers in the one thread

Richie(UK)

Curry_Queen wrote:

PS Sorry for hogging part of your thread Ritchie, but I guess as we have a similar problem it's as easy to get answers in the one thread

No problem

Nelli_2

No CM is not known to be a resource hog as I understand it.
I'd say something like Half Llife 2 / World of Warcraft would be considered hefty.

Please bear in mind a high wattage is not the only thing to look for in a PSU, you need to consider the ampage and stability of the rails.

Curry_Queen

Thanks Nelli

Well he turned the PC back on again last night and was only do minimal stuff like browsing the web when it turned itself off again in less than an hour. I felt the back of the unit and it was quite hot to touch, much moreso than my PC is and that's left on 24/7 :eek:

I've told him to leave it turned off now until I take a proper look at it later as I'm wondering if one of the fans has stopped working or something. If that's the case could it have already done any irrepairable damage, or did it cut out to prevent that? Don't you just hate PC's sometimes

Nelli_2

I *think* you should be ok. If the machine will boot and go into windows I doubt your chip has been damaged.
As I understand it if it had overheated and broke you would find it didn't work full stop.

AMD Athlon chips have a failsafe that shuts down the machine before it overheats, no idea if Intel chips do the same, maybe someone else with an Intel chip could comment ?

I doubt the CPU fan has gone as that would overheat almost immediately, I'm talking 20 seconds and every time even on an icey cold day.
It could be you need to replace the thermal paste that sits between the CPU and heatsink,this can dry out and become inneffective with time, have you had the PC long ?

It could be
a) The fan on the PSU, you should feel it blowing out the back.
b) The Video card fan... if it has one at all, which card do you own ?
c) The rear case fan, again just feel the back to see if it's blowing.

PC's Do get rather hot even when running normally, don't be surprised if the air coming out of the case feels pretty warm the main thing is air flow, that it is constantly moving the air from the inside to the outside.

For reference I am running :
AMD 3Ghz 64 Bit, 1Gb Ram, Geforce 6800 Vid card, 2 DVD Writer, 1 CD Writer, 3 Hard Drivers (500Gb+ storage), 500 Watt PSU.

All I have is a fan on the CPU, Rear, video card and inbuilt with the PSU. I used to have 2 side panel mounted fans but teh extra noise was too much and I saw no problems without them.

I just thought, I have known Video cards to close a machine down if they are not getting enough power. I'd recommend you only attach only one device, the card itself, to a cable and not share it if possible.

Anyway, a few things to think about keep going I'm sure we'll get it sorted !

NellyLock

rip off the sides of the case and put the computer away from heaters/direct sunlight...make sure all fans are turning properly...if you've got a normal house fan and are willing to test if its o/heating put this nearby the case...you could also get motherboard monitor (google for it..its free)this allows you to see what temperature the psu/case s running at (from looking at your specs the comp seems pretty new so is likely to have the temp probes)

neil

Curry_Queen

Ok, I've had it running for the best part of an hour now, with the side off, and all fans appear to be working fine. Air coming from the PSU fan feels warm but the case is still cool to touch (could have been too close to wall in warm room etc yesterday)

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 2500+ and the graphix card is Geforce 6600 GT (which if I recall correctly has it's own fan attached but can't see properly without doing acrobatics on the floor )

Now what is worrying me is that the PSU is smaller than I thought with total output at 350W. I could have sworn I'd bought a bigger one

Could this be the problem and it's overheating too easily because it's not rated high enough to run the PC? Also has 1gb memory and a cd/dvd reader and cd writer. I built it just under a year ago and has been in more or less daily use since.

BTW, thanks for all the help and advice, much appreciated :A