[UsernameX]

OS: Windows XP Pro w/ SP2
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2GHz w/ HTT
MOBO: Intel PERL865 (latest firmware update)
Video Card: Nvidia 7800GS (AGP 8x)
Sound Card: Creative EMU 1212m
RAM: 2GB DDR-333 (generic)
Power Supply: Antec True Power 450W
Hard Drive: 150GB Seagate SATA (8MB Cache)

I've worked on computers for about 6 years so I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about them, however this problem perplexes me. While I think I may have solved my issue, I want to hear what you guys think.

Recently within the last few days, my computer has reset itself randomly. When the computer resets a BIOS message appears and tells me it was due to an overheating issue. So I went online, found these forums, and saw a link to a website that displayed the maximum operating temperatures for CPU's. For mine it said about 70c. I went into my BIOS and it displayed mine running at 49c (well within the max temp). I physically touched the CPU's heatsink and it was lukewarm at best. My system fans (including the CPU's) are all clean and running. My video card, north bridge, and hard drives all felt the same way... so I can't really understand why it would be due to a overheating issue. (mind you my motherboard has the latest firmware update as well, and has had so for several months before this started happening) So the day this started happening I disconnected myself from my network, reformatted and reinstalled windows xp/SP2 (I only have one hard drive in this computer), installed a virus scanner (Trend Micro Internet Security 2007), reconnected myself to the network and installed all updates for the virus scanner and windows immediately. So I can conclude it's not a virus causing the issue.

I recently just purchased (about a month ago) a new Mixer (Alesis MultiMix16 FireWire) for my band. It connects to my computer via firewire (which this is the first firewire device I've owned). I have had it plugged into my sound card's firewire port. I had a problem where my computer sound would intermittently cut out and stop working. I then found out that plugging this mixer into my sound card's firewire port will cause this issue. So, just a couple days ago I plugged it into my motherboard's firewire port. And that's when this issue started occurring. As I'm writing this my computer has yet to reset (crosses fingers) and everything seems to be operating normally. But now I'm back to maybe having to purchase a firewire card for my computer. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know!!

To whoever reads this... THANK YOU! You're time is well appreciated.

Brandon

 

[<SKATER]]

have you tried changing or cleaning your CPU heatsink and fan? have you tried cleaning the inside of your computer lately? has to be done on a 4-6month basis.

 

[dai]

put your system specs into here
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
based on a quality supply and add 30% to the end result
i have a similar setup cept mine is pcie and i had to replace the 550w antec with a 650w silverstone

 

[UsernameX]

I just received another restart. So I went through replaced my thermal paste with arctic silver thermal paste, double checked my system cleanliness and everything seems good there. I took a look at the powersupply calculator website and the total came up to 303 Watts. I added 30% which boosted it up to 393.9. With a 450W powersupply... I should be covered there, right?

 

[dai]

added to what you posted i added a dvdrw 1 pci card,2 80mil fans and came out a bit higher than your calc
see if the paste cures the problem it takes a couple days to bed in and drop a few more degrees

 

[Tumbleweed36]

Hi,

Actually, you are very close to the line with a 450 supply. Remember this, even after adding the 30%, this is telling you the bare minimum for your power supply. Therefore, you only have a little over 50 watts to spare for extreme usage. When a unit is running hot, the efficiency of the power supply drops so that is another issue that might be causing part of your problem.

If this were my rig, I would want to have a 600 to 650 watt (brand name) power supply to pull the load.

My advice is to let it run a few days like dai advised you and if that does not solve the problem, we need to talk about:

> Case cooling to get that temperature more under control. LIke what fans do you have where and how are they blowing. (including the direction the heatsink fan is blowing)

>Possibly a stronger power supply IF the cooling does not solve the issue.