pc keeps turning itself of - why?

[jimmy mumu]

right here's my setup.

amd 2800+
512 ram
geforce 5500
2 dvdrw
1x80 gig ide hd
1x160gig ide hd

now the problem.

this has been running fine for 2 years till now. when i try converting xvid to dvd using convertxtodvd the pc keeps switching itself off before its finished. i've also has it happen a couple of times when surfing. theres no warning it just go's off, as in if it was switched off at the socket. when it restarts no problems. i'm running win xp pro . any ideas please

cheerz jimmy

[backup2k1]

sounds to me your machine is over heating or bad power supply.
what your power supply 240volts or higher
for this setup i would have atlesss 450watts for the amount of hardware.

allso worth checking out the temp in the bios see if the cpu is going to high.
anything over 89% is way to hot
should be around 50%
if it is the machine automatic shuts down

[jimmy mumu]

i've no idea what the power supply is and dont know how to check temp either. any help please

update - just downloaded hmonitor and it says

cpu running at 76.5
hd running at 45
cooling fans 3375 rpm
voltage +12.04v

so where do i go from here. ta

[jimmy mumu]

right been inside pc and cleaned fan on cpu, made sure both cpu and chassis fan was both working. had a look in bios and it switches itself off at 85%. found out that the psu is a 350 watts. when i switched pc back on cpu temp was 66 after 10 minutes this rose to 69. is there anything else i can do to cool it down. pc is not in a cupboard or anything, cheerz jimmy

[Van Nugent]

You'll need to check the system temp as well to make sure the CPU overheating was not caused by poor ventilation of the interior. Everest Home (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html) is a very good tool to have (I'm assuming you're running XP).

Normally, if the CPU temp is over 10C higher than the system temp, you are having poor CPU cooling. Get some decent thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 then take the heatsink off to redo it. Now if the CPU fan is a 60mm fan, you'll need to get a bigger fan (80mm) with an adapter or get a new copper HSF with at least 80mm fan.

Because you didn't say much about your system (what CPU, HSF size and OS) you have, I can't tell you more than that. :)

[jimmy mumu]

just checked system temp thats at 42 operating system is xp, had a look at the fan it is big but will have to measure it

[stanexpo]

Does it competely turn off or does it restart itself and boot up again? If its restarting you've probably got 'restart on error' enabled. If you disable this it will enable you to see the error causing the restart. If it completely switches off so you have to press the button to reboot then it could be any of the above suggestions. Those socket 939 2800s do tend to run a bit on the warm side especially when worked hard as in converting DVDs. It could also be your power supply is on its way out - is the power supply fan working OK?

[jimmy mumu]

right here's where it gets a bit wierd, i've downloaded motherboard monitor and ran that, it now reports cpu runnung at 46 and system at 41, i tried to convert a dvd and cpu temp went to 55. all is ok for the mo , so i'm a bit puzzled now.

btw thanks for the replies so far

[emailrob]

have you installed any of the components above recently, like a new hard drive?

[jimmy mumu]

new hard drive was the last thing to go on but it ran ok with 2 hds for ages, why would that change?

[backup2k1]

cpu will get a little bit hotter because its using the power to do the conversion.

the other option is the hard drive is breaking down.
what the make of your hard drive and how many gigs

allso have you installed any new memory in your machine
its worth doing a memory check
if this is failing the machine will shut down or go to a blue screen of death


it could be that your cpu is burning out slowly amd are known for doing this
or possible a faulty motherboard.

[andyroo]

I've not read through all the replies in depth, but I had this very problem recently.

After a lot of testing I replaced the PSU and all is now stable, no more shut downs. Check out Maplins this month and their 500w psu for £29.99, reduced from £45.

[jimmy mumu]

nice one guys cheerz