[Fabienne]

Last night my PC started randomly shutting down. I an trying to type this fast as I dont know how long it has to stay on.

Sometimes its on for 15 minutes, sometimes 5.

I built the PC last year - specs are above in profile.

Opened the side of the case, its very cool in there. Lots of fans and all of them are working, checked CPU, video fans too and they are all running.

When it shuts down, there is no error msg or anything, it just shuts completely off as if they power went out.

I checked all cables, they are secure and look good.

Where do I go from here? I dont have an extra PSU to try out... so its not like I can even check that easily with another PSU.

How would you go about diagnosing the problem?

Thank You

[Fabienne]

As a side note, it doenst matter what application I have open. Can be a game, a webpage or nothing at all... just the desktop.

Also, no BSOD.

[Fabienne]

no one ? =(

[win2kpro]

Access BIOS and post the temperature of your CPU at idle.

[Alex Ethridge]

Afetr eliminating heat (cooling) issue, the power supply is the next most likely cause. If the computer were older than a year, I would suspect bad capacitors; but, it is still a possibility.

I had a power supply several years ago that gave sporadic spontaneous shutdown/reboot problems. It would happen maybe once a day and then sometimes several times a day. I opened the case, attached a volt meter and set it up so I could see it at all times, right next to my monitor. Finally, I happened to see it was shutting down as the voltage spontaneously dropped on the power supply.

Check your capacitors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDGjWOabJ2E

Capacitors should have perfectly flat tops, not swollen, "bleeding" or corroded.

[hmns]

Yep, I'd check the power supply. Swap it out with one from another machine if you can to verify that that is the problem. 9 times out of 10 the power supply going bad has been the cause when I've seen this problem.

Bulgy or swollen capacitors mean the motherboard is about done for. Hopefully it's not that!

Good luck, and please post your results when you can!

[vlad1984]

if your power supply has a fan make sure it is actually spinning, check for excessive dust on the heatsink, and power supply.

try booting the computer into safe mode and see if it runs longer in that environment

if you are clear from the above i have seen this issue caused by bad sectors on the hard disk, try running check disk

boot into safe mode
start > run
type cmd, then type chkdsk c: /r

[Fabienne]

hi all. I got so frustrated trying to figure out the problem that I dropped it off at a PC shop.
When I had it at home still, the capacitors looked fine. I didnt have a PSU to swap out.

I ran a defrag about a week or two before the random shutdowns.

So - as of now, my PC has been in the shop for 4 days. They still dont know whats wrong with it. They reseated the RAM, reset the BIOS, checked all fans, cleaned up everything (it was not dirty to begin with though as I keep it clean). They tried to run a diagnostic program but it shuts down before it can complete. They said that from what the program got through before the shut down, the mobo is fine but that the overall heat (i think he said overall - maybe it was the CPU's heat!?!?!?) was high. He said it was 44 celcius. Is that high??

His thoughts at the moment are - the gel/silver stuff between the CPU and Mobo is either not there or flaked away? I can swear I remember adding it though when I built it.
He said that might cause heat and cause it to shut down.

Any thoughts on this?

[vlad1984]

it may be a cpu issue and not a heat issue, but that is fairly difficult to diagnose in order to know if 44 celcius is too high look up the normal idle temp for your cpu online,

[Fabienne]

This is my CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
The best I could find, not sure where to look, was that it should run about 5 - 60.1 temp range. When I look at the reviews on newegg though, the people say it runs a bit hot.
I wonder if I should get some other thermal paste and try to reseat the heatsink?

[ron6962]

Hello Fabienne. I am working on the same problem with the same processor. I have swapped out the Power Supply and disconnected everything else that might contribute, I even removed the processor, cleaned it, and reapplied new thermal paste. Still have the problem. It is definitely either a processor issue or a motherboard issue. I am still working on mine and will let you know if I figure it out. If you get a solution, please share as well.

[Fabienne]

I will, thank you! What mobo do you have?

[ron6962]

The motherboard is stamped with ABN-LA where there is usually a motherboard ID, so not sure if that is it or not. The processor is AMD Athlon 64 2.4Ghz.

[win2kpro]

Fabienne, an E6600 in a chassis with good thermal design should idle in the 38-42C range. Are you using the standard Intel cooler? What is the EXACT make, model and revision of your motherboard? What is the EXACT make and model of your power supply? Please provide a link to both the motherboard and the power supply.

[Fabienne]

My PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341002

My CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

My mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188013

My case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

I am using the heatsink/fan that came with the CPU