System Shutting Down Odd

[CorpSysEngineer]

My computer has been totally shutting off while playing a game or whatever. I first thought it was heat related... but I took the side of the case off and put a fan blowing on it and it still did it. If it doesnt shut totally off, you can hear it stop the processor and the HDD's, but whatever is on the screen is frozen there. Any ideas? I'm running a 120GB HDD and a 40GB HDD... AMD Athlon 1.4 MHz processor. Is it possible its not getting enough power?

 

[DragonQ0105]

Firstly, it may well be heat - if it's been doing this for a while, then the heat may have already caused irreversable damage to your processor. If you took the case off and used your deskfan as soon as it started happening, it may have been OK. But, hey, you weren't to know.

Try to grab a replacement processor and try it (with the case off and fan blowing), and if it stops freezing, then you know the otehr processor was damaged by heat. In this case, I'd get a case fan and/or a better CPU Heatsink/Fan.

Secondly, it could be power. Try a higher-rated Power Supply Unit (you could borrow one from a friend's PC, or buy one), and see if it continues.

 

[BadBigBen]

it could well be gfx-card and/or Ram overheating, to the above mentioned CPU or PSU...

1.) when gaming, depending on the games, the gfx-card gets stressed and thus pulls more power from the PSU... post what type of GFX card and PSU you are using...

2.) dust built up on the HS of the CPU can cause the same lock ups/restarts under stress... not enough thermal exchange...

3.) Ram that isn't correctly timed or damaged can cause under a stressful situation can also cause this...


Ben

 

[mal103]

To prove or disprove the power issue take out or disconnect as many add ons as possible, like extra HDD, Vid/Sound cards etc. If the system runs okay afterwards then you know you need a better power supply.
Also, even with a fan blowing inside the case a CPU can still overheat if the connection between it and the heatsink is not sufficient, check the clips of the heatsink that holds it in place and the goo that goes between them.

 

[CorpSysEngineer]

The computer only had a 250W PSU, and I had a 300W so I put that in... and left the other HDD's off, and that stuff. Still crashed, the Graphics Card is only 64 meg, so that could well be the problem. Any other ideas?

 

[DragonQ0105]

A 64MB Graphics Card won't cause this (unless it's damaged...).

A 64MB Graphics Card can handle any game that it out at the moment....it's unlikely that 128MB will be NECESSARY for quite a while (I'm thinking Jan 2005?).

Try replacing Graphics Card?

 

[BadBigBen]

1.) deinstall drivers for the gfx card reinstall them, to make sure that it's not driver related...

2.) run DXDIAG and do a complete testing of the gfx card...

3.) check for dust on the CPU HS fan...

Ben

PS - Post specs of gfx card...

PSS - @DragonQ0105 it's not the MEM of the gfx card that's important (64 or 128mb perform similiar by same type of GPU)... but an older GeForce 2 or 3 will not perform (Slower FPS) as good as a GeForce 4 or 5 (FX) model with similiar specs, for example...