rashad554

Lately my PC just seems to power off for no reason whatsoever. It was on today for practically the the whole day plus minus 14 hours. I powered off to go somewhere, came back, powered up, PC was on for about 2 minutes and it shut down. waited a few minutes, powered up and it is still running. This has happened several times lately. Please help, as I do not know where to start. Fairly new PC about 3 months old.
My system is as follows:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8400
Memory: 3326MB
System Type: 32Bit Operating System - Vista Ultimate

Tumbleweed36

Download and run SensorviewPro and post what the temps and voltages when you first turn it on. Then, do something stressful and check the temps while the computer is working hard. Post back with data, questions, concerns.

rashad554

First of all, the whole day today my PC ran without any powering off. Maybe tomorrow or the day after it will play a trick on me again.

Anyway, I did as you asked by running the SensorView Pro Software and what follows is the result:

TEMPERATURES

CPU: 37C/108F
SYS: 32C/99F
AUX: 23C/74F
HD0: 23C/74F
HD1: 34C/94F
CPU CLOCK: 3089MHz
CPU USAGE: 0%

FANS

CPU FAN: 844RPM
SYS FAN: 0RPM
AUX FAN: 0RPM

VOLTAGES

VCoreA: 1.10V
VCoreB: 1.92V
+3.3V: 3.31V
+5V: 4.84V
+12V: 12.90V
+5VSB: 5.05V
+VBAT: 3.10V

***********

The only way I could think of loading some stress was to do the following all at the same time:
1) Playing music on Windows Media Player 11
2) Playing a movie via Power DVD8
3) Playing the same movie via Cine Player by opening Easy Media Creator 10
4) Surfing with Internet Browser Mozilla Firefox
5) Opening My Computer
6) Opening Control Panel
7) Opening Nero 8

TEMPERATURES

CPU: 45C/113F (Fluctuated from 42C to 47C)
SYS: 32C/90F
AUX: 27C/81F (Fluctuated from 27C to 30C
HD0: 29/85F
HD1: 35C/95F
CPU CLOCK: 3001MHz
CPU USAGE: Fluctuated from 44% sometimes 71% down to 14%

FANS

CPU FAN: 844RPM (Fluctuated up to 861RPM)
SYS FAN: 0RPM
AUX FAN: 0RPM

VOLTAGES

VCoreA: 1.10V
VCoreB: 1.92V
+3.3V: 3.30V
+5V: 4.84V
+12V: 12.90V (Fluctuated from 9.27V to 13.00V
+5VSB: 5.05V
+VBAT: 3.10V

Once again, thanks.

meknowlittle

What size power supply do you have and do you have any PCI cards or graphic cards plugged in?

Tumbleweed36

What is the brand name and wattage of your power supply? (located on the side of the power supply). While looking at that, look what it says about the +12 volt rail for the amperage.

My real concern is that your +12 rail is way out of specs. The lowest should be +11.4 (and I think that is too low), and the highest should not be above +12.6. Anyhow, this is a concern at first glance.

I also want you to look in the bios and see what it says about your voltages and temperatures.

Post back with any questions/concerns.

rashad554

Hi

Thanks for making contact.

Flashed up this morning. PC started OK. Opened Email account and was just about to start reading emails when PC shut off.

Pushed power button - it would not flash. Pushed power button again - still it would not flash. Pulled out the power cord at the back - pushed it in - pushed the power button and it flashed. It stayed on for about 2 hours without any mishaps until I powered off.

Regarding the power supply:

BESTA
BEST POWER SUPPLY
Tri COOLER
Three Cooling Fan
600W

ATX 12V 2.2
EPS 12V
12 OUTPUT 52A
PCI EXPRESS X2
S-ATA X2
AMD/INTEL Dual Core Support
SLI/Cross fire Ready

PT – 600AR – T
AC INPUT 115/230v 50-60Hz 6/4A Fuse Rating: T5AH.250V-
DC OUTPUT +3.3V +5V +12V -5V -12V +5Vsb
MAX.A 32A 45A 20A 0.5A 0.8A 3.5A

Regarding BIOS Temps:

Reset Case Open Status (Disabled
Case Opened Yes
VCore OK
DDR 18V OK
+3.3V OK
+12V OK

Current System Temperature 33C
Current CPU Temperature 38C
Current CPU Fan Speed 908RPM went down to 902RPM
Current System Fan1 Speed 0RPM
Current System Fan2 Speed 0RPM
Current Power Fan Speed 0RPM

Once again, thanks. I do hope this info will be of help.

Rashad Nash

rashad554

Hi

Regarding PCI Cards:

1) 512 MB Leadtek Extreme 9600gt Graphics Card.
2) Creative Extreme Music Card.
3) Winfast DTV2000 TV Capture Card.

Thanks.

Rashad Nash

Tumbleweed36

Your particular power supply only has 20 amps on the +12 rail and you NEED a minimum of 26 amps for a pci-e video card. I don't think this brand power supply is up to the job of pulling this video card and therefore shuts down when challenged with the heavy load. The video card you are using is rather power hungry, so that is a real issue for you.

rashad554

Hi

Thanks for the info.

Tell me, what sort of power supply do you suggest I use?

Would a Cooler Master 650Watt Extreme Power do the trick?

Thanks.

Rashad Nash.

Tumbleweed36

Here is a list of great power supplies that you can count on:

Seasonic – Any Model
Corsair – Any Model
PC Power & Cooling – Any Model
Thermaltake – “Toughpower” Series Only
Coolermaster – “Real Power Pro” Series Only
Silverstone – Any Model

rashad554

Hi,

First of all, I know it is rather a bit late, but they say rather late than never. I would like to thank all those who assisted me with my problem of my PC powering off , especially Tumbleweed36. I thank you for the effort you supplied. In the end it all worked out by getting a 'Thermaltake Toughpower' power supply. Once again thanks.

However, I was running on 4G of memory and I thought I would upgrade to 8G seeing that Vista 64 Bit is so memory hungry. So, I went out and bought two sets of 4G Kingston HyperX memory sticks and inserted it. On starting my PC it would not go past reading the memory at startup, it just froze. But if I take out one set of 4G and run only off 4G, then everything runs just fine.

Any suggestions on how I can make Vista 64 Bit run off and recognise 8G of memory?

Thanks

meknowlittle

Hi

Check your motherboard specs. Certain motherboards can only handle up to 4 gigs of ram.

Tumbleweed36

I agree to check the motherboard specs. I simply can't see a need for over 4 gigs of memory for the applications you see today, however, that is your choice. If your board is set up to support 8 gigs, then send this memory back with an RMA and make sure what they send you is a matched pair.

BTW, glad things worked out with the power supply. That is the heart of your computer and so important. Hope you get the memory issue sorted out.

rashad554

Hi,

Thanks for making contact. Believe me, you are so supportive and it is deeply appreciated.

However, I did as you suggested and checked my motherboard specs and unfortunately for me I discovered that it only supports up to 4G of system memory.

Once again, thanks ever so much.

Tumbleweed36

You are most welcome and thanks to meknowlittle for his helpful post. Have a great week.