Help - system turning itself off?

[Alistair]

My System:
Abit IC7 Max 3
Pentium 4 3.2 (800 Northwood)
2 x 512MB Patriot P4200 DDR
Thermalright SP94 with 92mm Enermax
550W Antec TruePower
Antec P160 Aluminium Case

MY PC for some reason decides its going to power off for no reason - I'm just using windows & all of a sudden the power goes off. No errors or windows shutting down messages, nothing.

The temperatures don't seem to bad - using speedfan CPU is 47oC & the other temps are 34 & 36 oC.

Anyone got any ideas?

[mike_w]

Is it a restart or a shut down? Are you sure there isn't a blue screen just before the computer shuts down? To stop it restarting automatically after a blue screen on Windows 2000 (I think its the same on XP) go to: Settings/Control Panel/System, Advanced Tab, Startup and Recovery and untick the box that says Automatically Reboot. If it does come up with a blue screen, copy down what it says and you might be able to work out whats wrong from that.

[Alistair]

Its more like someone has cut the power to the system. Its a complete power off rather than a reboot. Could the PSU be overheating ?

[mike_w]

The PSU would then be the first thing that springs to mind, but Antec tend to pretty good. Do you have any PSUs spare, or any PSUs you could borrow, to test whether the problem still occurs?

How often does it happen?

[Alistair]

The PSU would then be the first thing that springs to mind, but Antec tend to pretty good. Do you have any PSUs spare, or any PSUs you could borrow, to test whether the problem still occurs?

How often does it happen?

Unfortantely I don't have a spare PSU & don't think I'd be able to borrow one Its fairly random at doing this. I have ran prime 95 for 9hrs & memtest without any issues. So I'm fairly sure ram & cpu are fine. The PSU is only a couple of weeks old (so is the ram & motherboard too)

[Flash]

whats your cpu, chipset and ram volts

[Alistair]

whats your cpu, chipset and ram volts

CPU = 1.575v (fluctuating between 1.50-1.55v in pc health screen)
RAM = 2.7v
Chipset = 1.55v ( AGP?)

[Flash]

first of all check the event viewer to see if its logging any issues prior to the power down

[Alistair]

ok flash checked the event log but doesn't appear to have anything out of the ordinary. Have cleared all events & will see if it shuts down overnight

[Flash]

also make sure there are no loose connectors on your power leads coming from the PSU and are you using the 4 pin P4 power lead?

[Alistair]

also make sure there are no loose connectors on your power leads coming from the PSU and are you using the 4 pin P4 power lead?

I have taken all leads out & replaced them again. Yes, i'm using the 4pin lead as well as the std one.

[Flash]

strange! to be honest the only way you can really get to the bottom of this is by using other components

[GreenPiggy]

Can you reboot again straight away or does it take a while?

[Flash]

good point bas

[Sepster]

Hi Alistair,

How long has this been happening?
You mentioned that the PSU is new... has it been occurring since you got the new PSU, or prior to this?

Have you got anything else plugged in 'near' your PC (eg on the same powerboard, or even same house circuit) that may be firing up at the same time your PC shuts down? Like a fridge or heater or something?

Cheers,
Sepster.

[Alistair]

I can powerup the system straight away no problems. I'm finding it difficult to source suitable PSUs etc as my colleagues have fairly old systems & their PSUs would probably struggle in my system.

The case, psu, motherboard, ram & heatsink are all new - sold my shuttle & went back to a normal sized case (mistake )

The power cables are exactly as before the tower is all thats switching off nothing else on the same block (includes monitor, printer & speakers).

I'm @ work at the moment but left it running Prime 95 this morning on the most CPU & heat intensive test. I'll see if its still on maybe @ lunctime or early tonight.