Spontanious power downs

[JNorton]

Hi,

I'm having real issues with my machine and have run out of options
Basically my machine will simply turn off (no shutdown just off as if the power was pulled), this will happen if left on the desktop overnight but can be quickly replicated by launching a game such as Battle for Middle Earth.
This just started happening for no reason a couple of weeks ago, there were no hardware changes or software changes of note!
So far I've swapped out the CPU, CPU fan, motherboard, SATA drive (to IDE), motherboard (to a different model - Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro to ASRock K7VT4A). memory, AGP card, PSU, keyboard and mouse!!
I've unplugged everything that wasn't needed so I think the only thing I haven't changed is the monitor!
I've tried the machine on a different wall socket (but on the same ring) and with a different power cable.
I did find that when I was using the SATA setup that it would power off much quicker (including if left in BIOS for 10 minutes) and could be made to power down by just copying files.
I've also updated and downgraded where possible mobo & gfx drivers and bios.

This is driving me nuts, I've contacted Gigabyte support and they have ignored the mail for a week now!

Please help if you can...

John...

 

[JNorton]

Oh yeah, the CPU temp never went above 70C at its hottest (used SpeedFan (I think) to monitor and log).

 

[m3trj]

What CPU is it? It seems that it may be overheating, as 70C is a very high temperature.

 

[JNorton]

AMD 3000+, but I also tried a AMD 2600+ with the same results

 

[m3trj]

I think it is a heat issue. That CPU shouldn't run that high. Did you apply thermal paste on the CPU before placing the heatsink on it?

 

[bobafett573]

i personally don't believe it's a heat issue. yesterday (no joke) my friend told me he was having the exact same problem and that it was triggered when he launched Matrix Online. he did add 512mb RAM to his computer that day. my guess is that it was his RAM that was causing the problem. have you done any overclocking on your RAM or anything? how old is your RAM? I don't think cooling is the issue, although i'm not half as smart as most of the people on here. if i were you, i'd take out one stick of RAM, boot up, see if it happens again, then try the other stick. if that doesn't work, then i'll apologize ahead of time for the inconvienence. let me know how it turns out.

 

[m3trj]

Yeah it could be RAM. You could also try running memtest to test the RAM.

 

[SteveGTA]

get prime95 and run that.

 

[JNorton]

Sorry took a while to get back, oddly after a day of being stable before running Middle Earth it is now somewhat unstable!
Yep theres thermal paste (Arctic Silver 3), I'd swapped out the ram stick by stick.
I did notice something when I was watching the cpu temp just before it turned off last - the temp was at about 34C then it suddenly shot up to 74C!!!
The thing I dont get is that if it is the CPU then why would I get the same issue with two chips?

 

[jolancer]

you cant tell witch reading speedfan is actually giving you unless you compair the senore temp read out with your bios read out. and use Prime95 to load the cpu and make shur its reading the right sensor because temps should rise once Prime starts load the CPU. (note- Prime95 is free so just google for it)

also use 'Motherbourd monitor 5'(its also free) if your bourd is sapported under it, it will work much better. it allows you to name the appropriate sensores, instead of just guessing at witch is your CPU (though it does give you a default guess)

my xp3000 idles at 38c, 44c max load (65F, 19c room temp). only 42c max when running HL2/Doom3.

if the temp program shows your temperature fluctuating a lot, or if it jumps randomely, or if theres huge temp skips. it might not be reading off the correct sensor, or there may also be a delay of readout if something else is hoggin your cpu causing temp program to lag.

and it couldnt hurt to use memtest as mentioned above(its free to)(www.memtest.org) just DL the 'Compile for Floppy' and extract it to a floppy disk, then restart with the floppy in, and it auto runs. pritty easy. let it run fora few hours so it can make multiple passes. (o yea, only test 1 mem stick at a time)

EDIT: o yea, what is your room temperature? when it reads the cpu as 70c?

i think its typical to wont to try and keep cpu bellow 60c prolly somewere around 56MAX