computer randomly shutting down

[arbol99]

my computer is having issues with random system crashing where the computer just shuts down. The light on the MoBo remains on so i know there is at least power going to it. My first guess was power leakage or bad powersupply so i took it to a shop (against my will) took them a week to even look at it and they came up with the problem being a too low of a power supply and put in a heavier load and thats all they did. I brought it home and its still doing it, pluss i noticed vibrating noise assumingly coming from the power supply fan.

the perdicament is that it works fine when the case is laying on its side, but when upright it randomly decides to fail. my sound card took some damage with the fails and had to purchase a new one due to static and id like to figure out what the problem is before more damage occurs.

as an added problem now when gaming it seems like my video card is freezing, the audio does loops and then goes back to normal but the screen is frozen or goes blank and i cant alt or task manager out of the freeze.

i got a message awhile back saying my overclocking setting failed and gave me an option to go back to normal, then i had lots of problems with drivers, i reinstalled all of them and everyhting seems fine now except when gaming or with that blackout problem when the tower is upright.

 

[FlashDude]

Have you tryed a format and a fresh install of windows? Is the cpu hsf clean and the video card fan and cooler as well?

 

[arbol99]

when i tried to reinstall windows it did not accept the xp disk the computer came with telling me that i have a newer version on the computer, i am assuming due to service pack 2. so i didnt want to risk reformatting.

 

[FlashDude]

It is because of sp2 but what are you risking? If you format it all your files will be gone. There are two ways to get past this. One uninstall sp2 from add/remove programs. Or Two (the way you should do it) boot from your xp cd and delete the partitions and reformat.

 

[bengance]

I don't know, this doesn't sound like an OS problem to me. It sounds like something is getting messed with hardware. You could try this to cut your list of potential perpetrators in half:

Load your computer with a Linux Live boot disk or Bart's PE. If your computer still acts weird you know its hardware. If not, then its software or perhaps your harddrive (since you're using a boot disk).

If its hardware, you can remove components done to the minimum, reseat cards/ram, dust it out and try to isolate components.

If its software, you can try updates, different drivers, system restore points, etc. Any other suggestions anyone?

p.s., you can always reinstall windows if you boot off the Windows disk. You can reformat your harddrive once the installer is loaded.