[Claptonman]

I got this computer from my brother and this has always happened. I just wanna know possible causes of it. It will restart randomly, whether I am playing a game, surfing the web, or just starting it up. It's a custom built computer. Not sure of the specs, but I can get them if it will help. What I think it might be is the CPU overheating.

When my brother built his new computer, he had a really cheap $50 CPU on it (He was waiting for the Qu950) and when he had it running, he used the fan that came with the CPU. He turned it on and then it restarted right away. He then replaced the fan with the giant, expensive one he ordered and it worked. Could this be the problem with mine? Thanks.

[gusdotcom]

Temperature problems generally don't show up when you just started it. If it's hardware related my guess is the power supply. How powerfull is it and what's your hardware?

[igorski]

Temperature problems generally don't show up when you just started it. If it's hardware related my guess is the power supply. How powerfull is it and what's your hardware?

Depends, I once had a computer that would overheat in a manner of minutes during particularly hot, humid summers, it actually ran 15 ° (C!) hotter than usual during these periods, altough I didn't have much choice as to where to place the desktop.

However, it could indeed be the power supply, but I would deem that unlikely as the problem occurs just after booting up. When there's a lot of processes running and the strain on the components get higher, it's possible. Are there a lot of peripherals installed in the slots ?

[mantra]

Recently one of my computers got its video card fried during an thunderstorm. It would start up fine and work for about a minute, and then shut down by itself as a protection from overheating.

[Claptonman]

Ok, this is really becoming a problem so I'll bring up this thread again...

My specs are:

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Motherboard: PCchips P25G Ver:1.0A
Memory: 2 gigs
Video Card: Radeon X1950 Pro
Power Supply: Antec Neo HE 550 watt output

Any ideas?

[igorski]

I'll restate my previous post...

[Claptonman]

Are there a lot of peripherals installed in the slots ?

What does this mean...

[igorski]

I mean if there are a lot of cards installed inside the system.

You mentioned you have a 550W power supply, and possess twin CPU's and a videocard, which should hog some power, if you have more devices (which aren't on the motherboard) wether it's internal modems, extra network cards, soundcards, etc. if they start being used extensively, their power consumption increases, and if it exceeds the power supply's capacity, your computer might turn itself off and reboot.

Heat could be the same issue with the same result.

OR you could have mad spyware / trojan horses, it's a bit hard to narrow it down to a single cause

[AcousticSmash]

Intel P4's are not "twin core" processors by any means, I do not know why they are listed as such, it is the same with the Intel Atom which according to SRL (System Requirements Lab) is two processors. Anyway, open the case with a non magnetic screw driver and blast out all the dust inside with a compressed air canister, do it in an open environment, outdoors would be best so as not to make your room a mess. Take the cooling fan off your processor which usually has 4 screws, clean that as well as every heat sink and fan in the case. Make sure everything is dusted off and try starting it up, odds are if you don't clean it on a regular basis, it will build up mounds of dust and just shut off from overheating because the cooling components are clogged up.

Igor, I am pretty sure you get a message on start up if you have insufficient power on a computer, and those specs can be run on a 250 watt system with room for upgrades.

This post has been edited by AcousticSmash: 16 September 2009 - 02:20 PM

[Claptonman]

Well, I have to leave the case open or else it will overheat faster. And I do dust everything out every now and then. Right now the power supply is running the motherboard, CPUs, video card, sound card, DVD drive, harddrive, and 3 8 cm fans.

[AcousticSmash]

Take the cooling fan off the CPU, I am willing to bet that the contact has dissolved completely from the processor and you need it to help keep it cool. Usually after a few years you need to reapply the stuff to the processor, it's pretty cheap and you don't need a lot of it either, one tube lasts about 5 applications or so and they sell for 8 bucks.

[Claptonman]

Ok, since it's my brother's computer originally, I will ask him about that.

This post has been edited by Claptonman: 19 September 2009 - 11:06 AM