Random Shutdowns, Please Help

Cyos

Cyos

New Member
Hello everyone.

Recently, I've been having a very serious problem with my computer - it just shuts down. No warning, no error messages, not a thing indicating any problem what so ever - my PC just turns off. Poof, gone, screen goes black, fans stop, all with no warning. My monitor, speakers, and external hard drive all stay on just fine, but without my PC... well, you see my problem.

This has been happening for four or five days now. Sometimes I can go several hours, sometimes I don't even get to the logon screen.

I'm running:

Windows Vista Home Premium
Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz
2 GB DDR2 RAM
320 GB Seagate Hard Drive
EVGA 8800GTS 640 MB
ASUS P5N-E SLI Mobo

So what on earth is the problem?

Please help, I can't live like this!

Thanks in advance.
 
That could well be from a few things like the cpu or board overheating seeing the overheat protection circuit kicking in. A weak battery on the board itself a year or so old will start seeing problems like this until one day you get nothing. A problem now being seen with the board like bad caps is more serious. The other item is a bad cap in the supply now becoming evident.
 
Shutdowns seem to occur in only 2 scenarios, at least thus far; I'll notify you if this changes. In any case, shutdowns happen when a) playing the popular computer game "Portal", or when the computer is running a security related scan.

As for temperatures, both aps suggested above report my core temperatures as 45-50 degrees celcius while idle, ie not playing a game, burning a DVD, etc. My GPU temp hovers around 55. These all go up by 5 to 10 degrees during heavy gaming. Is a 59 degree temp on 3 of my 4 cores bad?

I don't use thermal paste, at least, not that I know of (a small but reputable business put my PC together).

And PC eye, could you dumb your post down a bit, I'm not very up to date with my PC terminology. What is a cap, and what causes it to be bad?
 
Last edited:
A "cap" is simply the shorter term for capacitor. In other words a component on the main board itself or in the power supply. In fact there's one web site entirely devoiuted to the problem of "bad caps" with information on how to identify bad components on pc boards as well as found in other electronic devices seen at http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5

While gaming or running some demanding program the request for cpu time is placed on the system. If the cooling isn't adequate like seen often with stock heat sink/fan combinations the newer boards will shut down to avoid damage to that and other hardwares installed. On old boards you had to manually set a shutdown temp in the bios setup program to avoid cooking the processor.

Being that the system was prebuilt for you there it probably lacks enough cooling you would normally see in a gaming style case with more and larger case fans in use. The internal temps climb to the point where the protection circuit shuts it down. Another possible problem would be seen with a power supply too small for the system there that lacks good regulation and is seeing power drop offs.
 
I do have an Antec Nine Hundred gaming case, and thanks to my motherboard layout, I have the top fan and back fan just inches from my processor, in addition to the heat sink. So I doubt heat is the problem. I also updated my last post - my CPU temp, under load, was around 55, and core temps, under load, were around 60. Is that too much?
 
OUCH! The max on the newer cpus is like 60-70C with most seeing 60C or even 65C. You are at the cooking mark even for a quad core model. Besides a good Zalman cpu cooler a fresh application of Artic Silver or something is needed. While Intel models still run a little warmer then those by AMD that's way too high seeing the overheat protection kicking in there. The protection circuit so far has kept you from cooking the cpu.
 
Well, PC eye, I truly appreciate your advice, but what you are saying doesn't make much sense to me at all. According to what you're saying, Intel is intentionally shipping it's processors with insufficient cooling for high end tasks. Why would they intentionally ship a moderately high end processor with a fan that cannot keep the processor cool during any intense use? Furthermore, the crashes/shutdowns sometimes occur when the computer is idle, just running AVG or something - why would that overheat me? Also, I successfully played Supreme Commander, a VERY processor intensive game, and held my processor usage at 75% or so for several minutes, with no problems.

I'm not calling you wrong, if my temperatures are too high, that can be fixed. But due to the fact that the crashes are not consistent with my CPU temps, nor with any other pattern of use, I'm doubting it's the source of my problems.

Again, however, many thanks for the information.
 
What I was pointing out was a problem being seen with whatever cooling is in use not singling Intel's stock hsf as being the problem. If the thermal pad or paste is no good then you have to see that replaced. The idle temps shouldn't be in the 50s even unless the cpu is being cranked up for ocing purposes.

Adequate cooling effects more then just the hsf. You can have a Zalman 9500 or 9700 installed and still see high cpu temps if the case lacks good cooling in general. That was seen on an old case here when swapping out an old Socket A board for a 939 model. The board temp climbed above the cpu's seeing 48C while the cpu saw 44-46C idle.

That case only saw two 80mm fans one rear -one top. Once everything was moved into a new case with a 140mm front intake, 120 rear, and even adding two 120s on the side cover the board then saw 31C with the cpu at 33C. Cooling the board more saw every temp lowered.

A now weak battery on the board, a failing bios eprom or chipset besides caps could also be a concern. The first being the low cost option at any watch/jewelry or consumer electronics section in a retail store. Walmart even has their name stamped on the typical CR or DL 2032 lithium battery most common on pc boards.

The last item to consider besides board related would be a poorly regulated power supply seeing dropoffs if that is overheating there. If your case fans and even the supply's fans are all gummed up and slowed down with dust and debris or a fan gave out that would also see temps climb.
 
Well, I opened up my case to have a look and see if anything was apparently amiss, and found that my CPU heatsink and fan had an alarming amount of dust. I used a minivac to clean most of it off - I'm about to embark on some heavy gaming to see if that makes a difference. Temperatures do seem a couple degrees lower, so it's promising thus far.
 
Probably you had a temp shutdown enabled in your CMOS. The dust lead to a high temperature, thus triggering the shutdown...

Dust can gather alarmingly fast. I recommend inspecting monthly and cleaning every half year, as with reapplying thermal paste.
 
Some people go the length of monthly cleaning with a can of air cleaner. But if you never look inside you would be amazed at what you can find. I just opened up one old 98 case to see insects living there! In another case a friend built last year he never opened it for cleaning where I literally pulled off a "blanket of dust" off of the board alone. The aluminum fins for the Artic Cooling Freezer64 Pro were another gastly sight!
 
PC eye said:
Some people go the length of monthly cleaning with a can of air cleaner. But if you never look inside you would be amazed at what you can find. I just opened up one old 98 case to see insects living there!
Click to expand...

I guess it's true what they say about old computers having lots of bugs in them. :D

In any case, the problem has yet to reoccur. I'll probably try to get my hands on some compressed air, or at least do a full cleaning this weekend. If things get worse, I'll let you know.

Thanks a ton for the help - not only have I apparently solved my PC problems, I learned a lot too.
 
That's what forums like CF are for. Even those experienced at custom building have to pick up on things as they go along. One tech that started off with IBM back in the 60s later becoming an electronics instructor stated that he would have to go back to the books even then in 90s to refresh and update himself on the various changes seen in that time frame. It's a continuing process no longer how long you have been in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top