PROBLEM - Computer Periodically turns off

wixostrix

wixostrix

New Member
My sister computer keeps turning off. there isnt a set amount of time it does it, it just does after some hours. its not like a system power setting where if it sits in idle it will shutdown or standby, sometimes it does it while ur working. it was custom built by someone else. there no huge power sucker in there. she has an Intel P4 3.2GHz, 1GB ram and a 300w psu. i was think its either the fan and the heatsink not cooling the processor enough but she dosnt even do anything but go online and download. i was also thinking the psu might not be good enough.

does anyone else think they know what could cause it?
 
wixostrix is the closest to the correct answer there. If the cpu or board is overheating the overheat protection circuit would kick in. One freeware for seeing just what the temps are for both cpu and board is called SpeedFan. You can find that at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php The latest 4.30 version has just been released.
 
Blue said:
Sounds like it could definitely be the PSU. How is it for Virus's and such?
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its clean of viruses.

PC eye said:
wixostrix is the closest to the correct answer there. If the cpu or board is overheating the overheat protection circuit would kick in. One freeware for seeing just what the temps are for both cpu and board is called SpeedFan. You can find that at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php The latest 4.30 version has just been released.
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ill look at that, thanks.
 
wixostrix said:
its clean of viruses.



ill look at that, thanks.
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The thing to note here is that the #1 temp is for the cpu and the #2 for the board itself when you first run it. Those will be on the readings tab which is seen first. The last tab on the right is the chart were the #1 and #2 temps still are the same there. The center info tab is for the memory. The one to the left of that is the board's clock control. To the right is for reading information on the one or more hard drives installed on the system.
 
This souds like a common spyware problem check it for spyware using adaware spybot search and destroy as well as ccleaner and then see if it still does it my guess is she has some major malware going on there
 
codeman0013 said:
This souds like a common spyware problem check it for spyware using adaware spybot search and destroy as well as ccleaner and then see if it still does it my guess is she has some major malware going on there
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Adwares and spywares don't shut systems down. They are there generally as information gatherers. Certains viruses are a different matter. The P4 with the small supply of 300w could be seeing a power drop or overheating as the things to look at there. A flaky chipset can also see problems like this where the board has a fault.
 
PCeye usually i agree with you but now i'm starting to see why certain people say not to listen to you becuase it is a very common thing that certain spyware and adaware can and will shut down a system i have seen several of them that as soon as you removed all the malware the computer stopped. Some malware is programmed to do this and i have seen it on many user comptuers at my job!
 
codeman0013 said:
PCeye usually i agree with you but now i'm starting to see why certain people say not to listen to you becuase it is a very common thing that certain spyware and adaware can and will shut down a system i have seen several of them that as soon as you removed all the malware the computer stopped. Some malware is programmed to do this and i have seen it on many user comptuers at my job!
Click to expand...

Most common adwares and spywares like data miners that AdAware and Spybot will locate and remove are far from being able to effect the hardware environment. That would take a specialized type of virus or malware. The most two problems on an older system are temps and power levels. If the supply is having problems due to a bad cap the power would drop off seeing a sudden shutdown. If the thermal compund on the cpu and sink is now dried up and deteriorating the temps would climb there. Since the system first runs for a period of time and then sees the shutdowns it points at temps mostly.
 
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