Power supply or CPU fan?

[r00ster]

Hey there. Lately I have had this issue with my PC. It usually occurs when my pc are doing heavy processing.

I have had the previous issue of my computer restarting all the time which I got sorted out... well sortof. The thing there was, my CPU (Pentium 4 3.0GHz prescott 1mb) was idling at 82 degrees celcius. I put on some new thermal paste and it is idling at around 50 degrees. Well some say this is still too high, but high enough for my pc to just turn off?

Well yeah, that's my new problem, not the restarting of my computer but it just turns off now... completely. This doesn't happen as often as the restarting happened but it is till hits at the most crucial times.

My power supply some said could also be and issue. The PSU fan was very loud and sometimes gave some problems. I also realized, someone who worked with it before made the fan suck in from the outside and not the other way around. Well, I replaced the PSU fan and the noise was gone. The PSU felt cooler as well.

I thought my problems were gone, untill today, when I needed to recover some files on an old hard drive. While in the process of this, my computer just turned of again (see what I mean by "crucial times").

So there, I hope this gives you a good enough idea. For some reason my bet is on the the PSU being faulty or having some bad capicitors or something. I will try and send you some pics of the inside if needed.

Can someone please give me some idea of what they think could be the problem??

 

[Yami]

What's the make+model of the power supply? And how old is it? That will give us a good idea on if it's likely to be dead.

And yes, definitely looks like a PSU issue.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Remember the prescott cores ran rather hot for a CPU, IMO, check the temps when doing this sort of thing, to make sure they aren't going to high causing a shutdown. Download HWMonitor from CPUid.com to see what your temps are. But it sounds as if its the PSU, but remember, processor gets hot, the psu which usualy in a prebuilt machine will be exhausting that hot air, and can make it go out prematurely do to the extra hot air.

 

[HAVOC]

If my memory serves me correctly the P4 3.0 Prescott has a Thermal Throttle at 67.7C to 70C. This will lower the clock speed of your CPU to prevent damaging from high heats. If it doesn't cool off, it will just shut off. It will not restart until the CPU has fallen under the thermal limit.

EDIT: lol, idling at 82C? Did you have no heatsink and fan on the CPU? Was the fan not running? Was the heatsink completely buried in dust? I can't believe it was 82C at idle. no way.

 

[r00ster]

Well now since the power supply fan has been replaced it seems my CPU has cooled down a lot now. This is great! I guess the problem must lie with the PSU (some other way I can comfirm this?). It is a little older than 4 years and it is an AOpen Z300-A.

Here is a screenshot of the Hardware Mon:

 

[r00ster]

Those nice 40ish temps I have in the screenshot up there moves up to around 62 degrees after only a few seconds of running the Data Recovery Wizard... that can't be good!

So I mean, this must be the processor fan or heatsink right? The fan runs fine, if you look at the screenshot, so it must be the heatsink? Can it still be the PSU?

 

[CustomPCMAX]

This is great! I guess the problem must lie with the PSU (some other way I can comfirm this?). It is a little older than 4 years and it is an AOpen Z300-A.

Your proof is in the results...

A 4 year old, modded Aopen PSU is the exact problem. All PSUs, regardless of quality degrade in performance after time. The cheaper, the quicker that happens. If your system isn't getting the right amount of "juice" it can do all sorts of crazy things, from crashing, overheating, turning off.

It isn't until you have a PSU problem that you realize how important a component it is.

NM... I stopped at your post before that

What kind of heatsink are you using? 62 C is hot... but it is possible that if your using a stock or cheap HSF and/or your case ventalation isn't good, that is going to be your temp. What sort of case are you using and what is the ventelation like?

 

[r00ster]

Well, the stock fan runs faster than the cooler master I just tested on the CPU. So yeah, there you have it... the new fan didn't help so it must me the PSU.

I will let you know as soon as I tested the new PSU... **** I hope it helps!