More than just random restarts

[thodinc]

OK, here's the scene. My PC kept restarting and shutting down on its own over and over and over again. After I would turn it on there would be these two beeps and ä message about overheating, press F4 to continue, blah blah blah... And sometimes it would say, memory timings reset to automatic. So naturally, I opened up the CPU and gave it a cleaning, getting rid of all specks of dust. Turned it back on, same problem. Temperatures go to a low of 47 C, but they average around 53.

So this time I took off the one thing I should've checked first: the fan. Found out the thermal compound had melted and was stuck all over the processor. Scrubbed that off.

Went out the next day to buy a new processor fan. Couldn't find anything but Intel and a cheap fan. Since the Intel one melted on me I decided to try the other one because it had the paste thing instead of the block. That didn't help much either.

Now the thing is the PC's still messed up with the whole random restart thing, but sometimes it locks up during operation. The monitor goes into standby mode, hard disk light goes to full tilt, and the casing fan turns off. Weird thing is the processor fan's still running. In these situations, pressing the reset or power buttons does NOTHING. You have to reach back and turn off the main switch. Also, sometimes when I turn it back on, the PC goes back into that state. Then I have to power it down and try again till it works.

I ran memtest-86 for 4 passes (around 40 minutes) and it couldn't find anything, so I guess the RAM's alright. Other than that I can only figure the processor, motherboard or power supply being messed up.

Whaddya think?

And here are the system specs (some of them pulled off Intel Active Monitor):

Board model Genuine Intel(R) D865PERL system board
OS version Windows* XP Service Pack 2
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Bus speed 800 MHz
Form factor Socket 478
Physical memory 512 MB RAM
Memory speed DDR400
Memory type DDR, Synchronous
Form factor DIMM

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600
Two HDD: 40 GB Seagate and 30GB Quantum Fireball (both 5400rpm)
LG CD-Writer and Benq CD-ROM
and a Creative modem and network card that aren't really in use

And then the sensors (all temps in Celsius):

Sensor Name System Fan 1
Current Value 3624

Sensor Name Processor Zone
Current Value 51

Sensor Name System Zone 1
Current Value 35

Sensor Name System Zone 2
Current Value 34

Sensor Name +12 V
Nominal Value 12.000
Current Value 11.875

Sensor Name +5 V
Nominal Value 5.000
Current Value 5.052

Sensor Name +3.3 V
Nominal Value 3.300
Current Value 3.266

Sensor Name CPU Core
Current Value 1.341

Sensor Name CPU I/O (+1.5 V)
Nominal Value 1.500
Current Value 1.432

 

[timmer]

52C is really hot to be idleing at. But i would have to say its the PSU. You probably baught a case and used that psu and its garbage. But if thats not the case and you have a good PSU then i would have to say some new cooling.

 

[thodinc]

So you think it's the PSU? What about the voltage levels? They're all close their required values. Does that mean there's something else messed up? Could it be the motherboard or processor? Is their any way to check? I have an old AMD K-7 casing lying around somewhere. Could it's supply work?



OK, just followed up on your PSU lead and I think you may be right. Turned on the PC, it finally made it to Windows after 3 tries. Sat there just watching the power levels. The +12V thing was fluctuating between 11.6 and 12 at first, but then that stabilized. All of sudden, it's like WHAM! The voltage suddenly starts dropping like a kamikaze worm. The last I saw it was at 11.4 before the system turned off. So any recommedations? Maybe some good PSUs?

 

[thodinc]

Supposing it IS the PSU, should I be looking for one in particular, anything special?

 

[ben_1001]

try unpluging the power from your things you dont need to run, ie cd roms, ffd, this will give the fans cpu more power to use if its needed0, if it doesnt restart once you done this well then its obvious just a suggestion any way
seeya

 

[thodinc]

I pulled everything out except the motherboard, processor, its fan, the graphics card and the two hdds, but to no avail. Sucks to be me It still went into that suspended state right when it reached windows.

 

[ben_1001]

if its not the psu, hmmm cooling could be it but it says the cpu running at 50c, thats not that bad, iave had mine running hotter than that with no problems , do u have a temp that the chipset is running at ? maybe a fan for that, but then agian iam still a virgan techie

 

[thodinc]

What's the normal temp this is supposed to be running at? Even now it's idleing at 47. Don't know how long it'll be before it resets. In the middle, around 3 days ago, the system was working perfectly, games and all that. It only restarted once at the very end of the day. Then it messed up again.

 

[ben_1001]

a quick fix for most of my problems i cant work out, (software ones) format and re install windows ! as long as you backed everything up,

 

[uzi9mm]

how did your thermal compound melt. That stuff is in a liquid type state even before you apply it.