# Computer randomly shutting off/restarting...but -not- overheating??



## Darknesscyshado (Nov 3, 2006)

Ok so recently my beloved (though illmannered) pc has begin shutting herself off. No shutdown screen, no warning, just an all out cutout of power. She also sometimes simply resets, quietly, again with no warning.

First thing I thought when this started was "Fuzkittens, something must be overheating"- so I loaded up Everest and checked it out.

Sensor Type	Winbond W83627HF (ISA 290h)

Temperatures	
Motherboard	33 °C (91 °F)
CPU	66 °C (151 °F) (goes between around 60 and 50 depending on stress levels)
Aux	15 °C (59 °F)
WDC WD1600BB-56RDA0	36 °C (97 °F)

Cooling Fans	
CPU	4116 RPM

Voltage Values	
CPU Core	1.36 V
Aux	2.53 V
+3.3 V	3.12 V
+5 V	4.97 V
+12 V	11.49 V
-12 V	4.26 V
+5 V Standby	4.90 V
VBAT Battery	0.08 V
Debug Info F	FF 29 FF
Debug Info T	33 66 15
Debug Info V	55 9E C3 B9 BD E9 FF (01)

I'll admit, I know fluffykittens all about the voltages, but the temperatures seem fine to me.

The computer will cut off after anything between 20 seconds to 15 hours, sometimes before the initial booting of XP has even completed, no explaination, no initial slowdown. I performed a stress test on my CPU and everything seems to be fine. Yesterday I played KOTOR 2 for 6 or so hours without any shutdowns what so ever.

Also my computer seems to lag slightly lately (another thing that made me think it would be the CPU), but this seems to occur randomly, and generally not just before a shutdown. 

Further computer information:

Field	Value
Computer	
Computer Type	ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Operating System	Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack	Service Pack 3
DirectX	4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name	VERTIGO1
User Name	Veyus

Motherboard	
CPU Type	Intel Pentium 4, 3000 MHz (15 x 200)
Motherboard Name	Unknown
Motherboard Chipset	Intel Springdale-G i865G
System Memory	1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type	AMI (09/08/06)
Communication Port	Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port	ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display	
Video Adapter	CONNECT 3D RADEON 9600 Series - Secondary (128 MB)
Video Adapter	CONNECT 3D RADEON 9600 Series (128 MB)
3D Accelerator	ATI Radeon 9600 (RV350)
Monitor	HP L1706 LCD Monitor [NoDB] (CNC641P0B4)

Multimedia	
Audio Adapter	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-2/A-3]

Storage	
IDE Controller	Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 24DB
SCSI/RAID Controller	A1OUYQ75 IDE Controller
Floppy Drive	Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive	WDC WD1600BB-56RDA0 (149 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive	TGBCJW TYJ856Z SCSI CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status	OK

Partitions	
C: (NTFS)	152617 MB (6717 MB free)

Input	
Keyboard	HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard	HID Keyboard Device
Mouse	HID-compliant mouse
Mouse	HID-compliant mouse
Mouse	Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
Game Controller	Microsoft PC-joystick driver

Network	
Network Adapter	D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G122 Wireless USB Adapter
Network Adapter	Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

Peripherals	
Printer	Lexmark 3400 Series
Printer	Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
Printer	Microsoft XPS Document Writer
USB1 Controller	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Controller [A-2/A-3]
USB1 Controller	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Controller [A-2/A-3]
USB1 Controller	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Controller [A-2/A-3]
USB1 Controller	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Controller [A-2/A-3]
USB2 Controller	Intel 82801EB ICH5 - Enhanced USB2 Controller [A-2/A-3]
USB Device	D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G122 Wireless USB Adapter(rev.C)
USB Device	Saitek P2600 Rumble Force Pad (USB)
USB Device	USB Composite Device
USB Device	USB Human Interface Device
USB Device	USB Human Interface Device

Problems & Suggestions	
Problem	Disk free space is only 4% on drive C:.

Normally I have a 500gb external HD connected as well with aproximately 27GB of space left, but for now I am leaving it unplugged.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!


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## Mikhalkov (Jan 23, 2009)

How old is your power supply? I think intermittent shutdowns that don't involve overheating point to failing power supplies.


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## Darknesscyshado (Nov 3, 2006)

I think I got this computer back in 2005..So about 4 years give or take. Is there any test I could conduct to test out this theory, besides replacing the power supply? Some way to strain the power supply to the point that would induce a shutdown if it was faulty, but not if it was not? Also, why would the PSU's cutouts be random?


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## Mikhalkov (Jan 23, 2009)

You can get a fairly cheap power supply tester and try it out. Here's a link of some diagnoses: http://www.wikihow.com/Diagnose-and-Replace-a-Failed-PC-Power-Supply

Power supplies aren't stable by nature (it's electricity we're talking about after all). Power supplies manufacturers put in all sorts of things to get the flow of electricity as stable as they can, but when things go wrong and something wears out or burns out, the PSU gets less efficient and causes problems such as system crashes (I think entropy would be an appropriate term).

Another interesting article: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=31105&seqNum=12


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## Darknesscyshado (Nov 3, 2006)

Bah, power entrophy! (laughs)

Ok so a friend of mine and I just finished poking the power supply of the machine I'll dub "Mr Spontanious", voltages seem to be within normal ranges according to that second article you sent me, and I only have the spontanious rebooting symptom- the fan seems to be working fine, all the connectors are in place (I checked that last time, but I checked again just to be sure) and nothing is clogged with dust and/or fluff...

I guess the only thing I can try after this is testing it with an alternative power supply- but as I have absolutely no idea when a random reboot is going to occur, I'm not sure how I'll be able to test it properly...


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## Mikhalkov (Jan 23, 2009)

You may be able to go to Event Viewer and check if any logs were made as to the reason of a system crash. Also, you may want to try reseating your memory, and downloading/burning/running Memtest86 to see if that's the culprit. If you're still having doubts about your CPU, you can try downloading/burning/running Prime95 to check it's stability. 
It may eventually come down to having to remove/disable one device at a time in order to find what's causing the problem, but check the system logs first.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

redo the paste on the cpu with some arctic silver

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

upgrade your psu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004&Tpk=corsair+550w


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