random shutdowns

F

filoflavaz

New Member
hi guys first off as always my system specs (well the basic gist to my knowledge):
-AM2 +4600
-Forsa 7900 GT
-seagate SATA 320GB
-Windows XP SP2
-Antec smart supply 450W PSU
-CORSAIR 2GB RAM

after year of solid computer performance it has of late been starting to show some cracks in the form of random shutdowns! when i boot up windows normally there is a shutdown every time in the space of 5-10 minutes. no new hardware has been installed since i built it over a year ago and no overclocking has taken place with any of the hardware.

what i have tried to do:
1.checked ram is operating properly - OK
2.installed latest drivers - OK
3.virus and spyware checks -OK
4.checked core temperatures in the BIOS right after a shutdown has taken place - CORE TEMPS: NORMAL
5.Restarted windows in 'safe mode' and NO random shutdowns (even if leaving computer on for hours)

My fifth point is the point worth noting. i think (to my knowledge) it indicates that it most likely isnt a hardware issue but something corrupt with the software somewhere (correct me on this if im wrong).

the question i pose to you my fellow computing confidants: where do i go from here?

please share your ideas. thank you in advance
 
It sounds like you need a Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html and the reminder to new members to review the http://www.computerforum.com/off-topic-chat/announcements.html

Have you monitored your system temps with something like SpeedFan or another system diagnostics utility? In year's time the fans inside any pc can get cluttered with common dust and debris causing a loss of heat exhaust and even the intake of cooler air. When temps get high an overheat protection circuit on most newer boards out will take over and shut the system down to prevent permanent damages to the board + cpu. By this time the thermal compound used may have started to give out now resulting in high cpu temps.

Getting inside with a can of air cleaner and monitoring temps overall would be a first step at this point. The freeware known as SpeedFan is found at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php The download link is found at the beginning of the second paragraph on the page there for the l;atest 4.32 version.
 
Try doing a repair install of the OS. If the hardware is not your problem, that's really the only thing left.

If you can back up all your data, then do a complete reformat and re-installation. That way you know it's all good and back to what it should be.
 
PC eye said:
It sounds like you need a Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html and the reminder to new members to review the http://www.computerforum.com/off-topic-chat/announcements.html

Have you monitored your system temps with something like SpeedFan or another system diagnostics utility? In year's time the fans inside any pc can get cluttered with common dust and debris causing a loss of heat exhaust and even the intake of cooler air. When temps get high an overheat protection circuit on most newer boards out will take over and shut the system down to prevent permanent damages to the board + cpu. By this time the thermal compound used may have started to give out now resulting in high cpu temps.

Getting inside with a can of air cleaner and monitoring temps overall would be a first step at this point. The freeware known as SpeedFan is found at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php The download link is found at the beginning of the second paragraph on the page there for the l;atest 4.32 version.
Click to expand...

thank you for your thorough explanation. as u suggested i installed the program and looked at the measurements.
left the program running for about 10 minutes:
temperature charts: all temps were constant between 15-25 deg.c
voltages: all were constant with no fluctuations
fans: fan1 and fan2 unable to get a diagnostic but fan3 running at a constant 675,000 RPM (seems high to me)

what is my next step from here? should i at this point considering a full format and reinstalling windows?
 
The one thing to note about XP is it's own crash control feature and automatic reporting to Microsoft if you see that prompt to send report. Often the report when sent will see a page there open pointing at the type of problem causing a crash of some program or a sudden restart of the systsm.

In a year's time you may be now seeing another problem like memory faults appearing. Besides reducing the number of items that auto load along with Windows with the msconfig utility in case of a bad install of any updates or crosslinks to system files a good run of memtest or a good diagnostic tool will point out any problems with the memory installed usually.

I say that since memtest reported some 578 errors on a brand new pair of 1gb dimms on one old build while reporting none on the next build. That old case saw errors reported on both Corsair and Kingston brands of memory by memtest. Yet Asus advertised Corsair? Some boards get fussy with memory at times.
 
PC eye said:
The one thing to note about XP is it's own crash control feature and automatic reporting to Microsoft if you see that prompt to send report. Often the report when sent will see a page there open pointing at the type of problem causing a crash of some program or a sudden restart of the systsm.

In a year's time you may be now seeing another problem like memory faults appearing. Besides reducing the number of items that auto load along with Windows with the msconfig utility in case of a bad install of any updates or crosslinks to system files a good run of memtest or a good diagnostic tool will point out any problems with the memory installed usually.

I say that since memtest reported some 578 errors on a brand new pair of 1gb dimms on one old build while reporting none on the next build. That old case saw errors reported on both Corsair and Kingston brands of memory by memtest. Yet Asus advertised Corsair? Some boards get fussy with memory at times.
Click to expand...

yup the memory problem is understandable. as mentioned in my inital post, i did do a memory check. i did use memtest and left it running for about 2 hours. reported zero errors in that timeframe. Is there anything else that i may have missed? thank you for your prompt replies
 
If you saw a clean bill of health with memtest you are probably looking at a software amd possibly hardware problem all rolled together. After adding and removing programs over any long period of time you'll find leftovers in the system registry still trying to load drivers you no longer have installed. Your main OS drive could also be heavily fragmented and need defragging. A good registry cleaning to followup on things that software uninstallers leave behind in the registry always helps.

Looking at the items in the startup group in the msconfig can help if something loading with Windows is now clashing with something like system files. You could have seen a bad install of an update or the worng version of something being a cause for some problems being seen. The more involved the software environment is the more complex the problems become seems to be a rule there.

One old tool for a fast cleanup of the system registry is called RegCleaner free at http://www.dewassoc.com/support/useful/regcleaner.htm When it first opens to the main window you can look to see if something you know was uninstalled still sees a main registry key there. It's great for manually removing anything non MS installed too.

For the automatic cleanup simply go to the menu bar and scroll over to "tools". Drop down to registry cleanup where a dropdown menu appears to the right and click on the do them all option seen there. It goes quick. This one works just as well on Vista as it does on XP, 2K, 98, 95 even and is strictly a freeware.
 
PC eye said:
If you saw a clean bill of health with memtest you are probably looking at a software amd possibly hardware problem all rolled together. After adding and removing programs over any long period of time you'll find leftovers in the system registry still trying to load drivers you no longer have installed. Your main OS drive could also be heavily fragmented and need defragging. A good registry cleaning to followup on things that software uninstallers leave behind in the registry always helps.

Looking at the items in the startup group in the msconfig can help if something loading with Windows is now clashing with something like system files. You could have seen a bad install of an update or the worng version of something being a cause for some problems being seen. The more involved the software environment is the more complex the problems become seems to be a rule there.

One old tool for a fast cleanup of the system registry is called RegCleaner free at http://www.dewassoc.com/support/useful/regcleaner.htm When it first opens to the main window you can look to see if something you know was uninstalled still sees a main registry key there. It's great for manually removing anything non MS installed too.

For the automatic cleanup simply go to the menu bar and scroll over to "tools". Drop down to registry cleanup where a dropdown menu appears to the right and click on the do them all option seen there. It goes quick. This one works just as well on Vista as it does on XP, 2K, 98, 95 even and is strictly a freeware.
Click to expand...

thank you very much for your suggestions, i found them useful and informative. i just completed a registry clean . i will reboot my comp and leave it running on normal mode until i get home from work to see if the problem has been rectified. i will post here again if problem persists.
 
The RegCleaner won't repair a number of problems but help prevent many by simply cleaning up a ton of leftovers you can find on any system after a period of time. The one system tool that can often help is the defragmenter included with Windows. Simply running the analysis part of that will show how much actual fragmentation is seen on the drive there.

When you move, create, and delete a large number of files over a period of time some things tend to see fragmentation. This is simply part of maintainence when using that. Go to START>Programs>Accessories>System Tools to use this. This won't sure problems seen with missing or incorrect driver versions but can help with overall performance by keeping the fraqmentation level down low like under 5% total less then 1% ideal.
 
PC eye said:
The RegCleaner won't repair a number of problems but help prevent many by simply cleaning up a ton of leftovers you can find on any system after a period of time. The one system tool that can often help is the defragmenter included with Windows. Simply running the analysis part of that will show how much actual fragmentation is seen on the drive there.

When you move, create, and delete a large number of files over a period of time some things tend to see fragmentation. This is simply part of maintainence when using that. Go to START>Programs>Accessories>System Tools to use this. This won't sure problems seen with missing or incorrect driver versions but can help with overall performance by keeping the fraqmentation level down low like under 5% total less then 1% ideal.
Click to expand...

thank you four your ongoing help. after cleaning the registry i rebooted the comp in normal mode and 5-10 minutes later i got the random shutdown. performing a disk defragmentation now to see if this is the cause. will post here when i have finished.
 
That will help somewhat with any Windows problems being seen. Unexpected shutdowns only have two main things to look at however. Either something is tripping the crash control that XP has and you see a sudden restart when a program crashes or something is heating up pointing at either a supply or board problem. A board problem could be memory ruled out so far. A problem being seen with the cpu or bios or even a bad cap there. A sudden power loss from a supply problem would also see a system crash.
 
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