Computer occasionaly just shuts off

[crazlunatic]

My computer occasionally just freezes up, and then restarts.

I don't know why this is happening so the first thing I did was reinstall the heatsink. The first thing I noticed was that there was some plastic on the chrome/bronze part of my Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GhZ heatsink. This might be prior to the carelessness in installing the heatsink, so this time I made sure to do a better job and temperatures decreased by 6-12 degrees. But the same problems happen.

My specs:
P4 3.2 GhZ 550 HT
512 MB DDR2 (I think)
80 GB WD HDD
20 GB harddrive
52X32X52 DVD Reader CDRW
24X10X40 CD RW (don't ask why I have two )
128 MB ATI Radeon 9200 SE
Sound blaser E148 Live (sucky sound card)

I check my voltages. They are JUST under the limit I think. So for 12 V voltage, its 11.98. But sometimes it goes over as well as with the 5 Voltage thingy.

I heard this is bad, can I fix it? If this is not the problem, do you guys know what might be and what I should do?

Thanks.

 

[Cobalt]

It sounds like a classic case of overheating, though you have checked your CPU Heatsink. Check the rest of the fans in the case, and that they are spinning freely and aren't clogged with dust.

Also, check your CPU temperator sesnors if possible. A lot of motherboards come with temperature sensors which generally do a good job of making sure your PC doesn't overheat though are known to be faulty, give wrong readings and so forth which can cause random restarts or crashes.

Also, check your RAM modules, and that all components are seated correctly including cables, expansion cards and so forth. Again a loose connection or thermal expansion in the wrong area can have negative effects and cause the problems you are experiencing.

Hope that's of some help, though all I can really suggest is checking everything is plugged in tightly and screwed down.

John

 

[Beyeohazard]

Sounds like a bad venture into overclocking. Reset the voltages to factory specs and see if that solves your problem. If the problem persists, you're looking at replacing the CPU.
Additionally, as the above poster said, it can't hurt to check the internal temps and see if you are within limits.
OC'ing is a nice hobby, but most folks don't have a clue what they're doing when they attempt it. I don't know what your experience level is, I'm just making a generalization here.
Additionally, give the motherboard a good looking at, you didn't specify the model you have so there's no way to determine it's age or who made it.
I wish you luck, and if you do manage to get it fixed, let us know what did the trick.

 

[crazlunatic]

Everything is good.

I don't overclock or fiddle with voltages becasue I don't nkow how to adjust them. Just that they are sometimes higher than what they're supposed to be by like .1 or .2.

THank you for your help btw, but I still am not sure why. Everything is secure.

I heard normal temperature should be around 40 degrees. Why am I getting 60 degrees. I have a PS fan, CPU heatsin / fan, case fan. And the case slider on the left is open.

 

[Beyeohazard]

Heat dissapation is the antagonist here, and somehow, your rig isn't getting cooled enough. Is it located in a desk cabinet with the door closed or is it on the floor or on top of the desk? I moved mine out of the tower cabinet on my desk for the very rasons you state here. The internal heat was way too high, even with high-end fans and heatsinks in place. Mine wasn't freezing or re-starting, but performance was suffering noticeably. Now that it's on the top of my desk, the problem has ceased.
Did you buy this rig from the store or is it something you bought from a previous owner? If it's a pre-owned rig, it may have some after-market tweaking on it.
Whatever the case may be, you need to get the heat controlled in the rig, or that CPU is history, if it isn't already. The high end temp for your CPU is 68-70 degrees celcius, so you're not critical yet, but you're awfully close. Here is a link that gives some specifics on voltages and temps, hope it helps. http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

 

[crazlunatic]

Thank you once again.
It is located below my desk with the side panel off.
It is not hot down there according to the temperature readings I am receiving. No oveheating in motherboard or CPU for now.

By the way, the powersupply is only 300 W for my parts. Maybe thats too low?