Computer shutdown- thought the dreaded day had come

the watchman

Desktop/windows xp/ 5 years old.

I thought the day had come!
My computer just stopped running completely as if there was a power outage. Had been on it for about ten minutes this morning. I waited about ten minutes and 'nervously' pressed the boot up button. Relief:D it started again.

Background: Located in spare room. Computer runs 24hrs/ my virus scans during the night etc. All other equipment screen etc still on and ok.
Computer opened and cleaned and both cooling fans serviced about two years ago.
My thinking: its not the power pack as it wouldn't start again like it has done. Its not the hard drive or a general software problem as I wouldn't be typing this now.
So either it was a sort of overheat shut down (why I don't know the room is freezing this morning) or perhaps there is some mechanism which does a shut if it senses that the computer has been running too long ( again doubtful as it was in use at the time).

Any thoughts most welcome. Have a good Sunday.:pac:

snappieT

My money is on loose power cable or genuine half-second blackout that you didn't notice.

As for the temperature thing, it's entirely possible the CPU is way warmer than the room is, indicating that the heatsink/CPU fan is not connected correctly. It could be that the thermal paste used to bond the CPU and heatsink is no longer effective, and needs to be reapplied (all you need is cleaning alcohol and some more paste, but you want to know what you're doing). You can usually check your CPU temperature in the BIOS right before Windows starts - do that immediately after the next forced shutdown to see what temperature the CPU is at.

yoyo

Yeah the thermal paste may have dried up completely, it could also have been some software/update installed itself and auto shut down the computer, usually you'd expect a restart, but some may do a standard shut down. Check hardware monitor in the bios and see what the temps are at!

Nick

the watchman

Thanks for the replies.
Have ruled out any power outage and no loose power cables.
Will try and look into the other suggestions. More learning to do :cool:.
Will give an update at some stage.
Thanks again.

fionny

I wouldnt rule out the Power Supply, when they are on the way out they can do funny things...

I had one a while back which used to shut down the computer like you described.. it would come back on and could stay going for any length of time then bang gone again... it gradually got worse and worse and after ruling everything else out I swopped out the PSU and problem eliminated.

the watchman

Thought I'd have a quick peek at temperature and fan speeds...

Never been in BIOS before.
Found bios and recorded these:

system temp 31c
cpu temp 44c
system fan 2220rpm
cpu fan 2265rpm
....
target temp 50 ?
tolerance value 2.

Then I decided to leave BIOS
I didn't know how to leave!:eek:
If I press ESC button red box comes up and says 'quit without saving (y/n) with an n flashing after it.

If I press F10, I think that was 'save and exit setup' in a similar red box.
For 20 mins my heart was in my mouth. I'd no idea what to choose:eek:.

I didn't tinker or change anything in BIOS.

I thought if I chose the first may be it might undo a setting that was made in the factory before shipping.
so I figured if I chose the second (save and exit setup) whatever settings are now it can't do harm if I save them.

I chose the second. So I am here and computer 'seems' normal' maybe its early days?........

When time allows I will open and clean and look at cpu heat sink.

yoyo

the watchman wrote: »

Thought I'd have a quick peek at temperature and fan speeds...

Never been in BIOS before.
Found bios and recorded these:

system temp 31c
cpu temp 44c
system fan 2220rpm
cpu fan 2265rpm
....
target temp 50 ?
tolerance value 2.

Then I decided to leave BIOS
I didn't know how to leave!:eek:
If I press ESC button red box comes up and says 'quit without saving (y/n) with an n flashing after it.

If I press F10, I think that was 'save and exit setup' in a similar red box.
For 20 mins my heart was in my mouth. I'd no idea what to choose:eek:.

I didn't tinker or change anything in BIOS.

I thought if I chose the first may be it might undo a setting that was made in the factory before shipping.
so I figured if I chose the second (save and exit setup) whatever settings are now it can't do harm if I save them.

I chose the second. So I am here and computer 'seems' normal' maybe its early days?........

When time allows I will open and clean and look at cpu heat sink.

Don't panic with the bios, if you screwed any setting up (be very rare) you can just clear the cmos data anyways. You can't 'brick' a computer by messing in the bios, unless you are trying to actually flash it.
As mentioned above the issue could be PSU related. Keep an eye on the machine, and if it happens again that could be the culprit.
Those temperatures are normal, I wouldn't be concerned about overheating

Nick

Skerries

i'd just forget about it and don't worry as it may have just been one of those things
just keep working on it and if it happens again then get into more investigative mode, but do a back up of important data just to be sure
check the event viewer as well to see if it recorded anything funny

the watchman

Just checked the event viewer:
Under 'application' there was a security centre event 1800

under 'system' there was a remote access event 14204 involving a xpsp2res.dll file.
and a wmpnetworkSvc event 14204

I can see that above events have occurred on a number of other dates and guess this is normal. Probably me conecting to net via '3' network.

However I'm in the mood today to open her up and nosey around a bit with a hurley stick:D. have a look at that psu and cpu heatsink just to see whats involved. I like to be ready.......bet I'll have to buy a soldering iron:(.
Will update later.

the watchman

Well I opened her up and had a bit of a clean. There was some gunk on those heatsink fins but generally not too bad. However I now realize I have never opened that PSU and cleaned in there ever!. I must have a look at that sometime.
Here's a pic of the heatsink, quite a fancy looking round yoke!



There are 4 of those black plastic yokes with the arrows on them which I guess hold the heat sink in place. Its a pentium 4 524 3.06ghz. Ancient huh!

Well thats it I'll leave it at that for now. If it does stop altogether I now have a good idea what to do. Thanks to all.:)

Dude111

I am glad things turned out OK for ya my friend

yoyo

the watchman wrote: »

Well I opened her up and had a bit of a clean. There was some gunk on those heatsink fins but generally not too bad. However I now realize I have never opened that PSU and cleaned in there ever!. I must have a look at that sometime.
Here's a pic of the heatsink, quite a fancy looking round yoke!



There are 4 of those black plastic yokes with the arrows on them which I guess hold the heat sink in place. Its a pentium 4 524 3.06ghz. Ancient huh!

Well thats it I'll leave it at that for now. If it does stop altogether I now have a good idea what to do. Thanks to all.:)

Do not open the PSU unless you know what you're doing. Those things retain lots of electricity (in the capacitors) even if powered down a while and you could get a serious shock from it if unsure. I'd reccomend avoiding opening it tbh

Nick

mark renton

This is Windows - its meant to reboot - power outage prob done you a favour

partyatmygaff

the watchman wrote: »

However I'm in the mood today to open her up and nosey around a bit with a hurley stick:D. have a look at that psu and cpu heatsink just to see whats involved. I like to be ready.......bet I'll have to buy a soldering iron:(.
Will update later.

A bit of compressed air and maybe a fine brushing of the fins in the heatsink is all that's required. The only time you'd ever need to bring a soldering iron to a computer is for some gross repair work (E.g. resoldering a port e.t.c.) or for pinmodding or overvolting.

the watchman wrote: »

Well I opened her up and had a bit of a clean. There was some gunk on those heatsink fins but generally not too bad. However I now realize I have never opened that PSU and cleaned in there ever!. I must have a look at that sometime.

Do not under any circumstances open up a PSU unless you have a good reason to do so and know what you're doing. One wrong touch on a capacitor (Even after the power has been switched off) and you'll electrocute yourself.

the watchman

Thanks for the cpu warnings.
Noticed that pic didn't show up on last post so I try again:





Ah, there it is:) As I said earlier a very fancy looking round heatsink.

I just acquired an even older desktop. I might have got the bug now! :DThinking I might tinker with it and learn with that one. So watch out for another thread when I get started.
Thanks again.

yoyo

the watchman wrote: »

Thanks for the cpu warnings.
Noticed that pic didn't show up on last post so I try again:





Ah, there it is:) As I said earlier a very fancy looking round heatsink.

I just acquired an even older desktop. I might have got the bug now! :DThinking I might tinker with it and learn with that one. So watch out for another thread when I get started.
Thanks again.

Thats a push-pin type heatsink. The arrows point in the direction they need to be turned to remove the heatsink from the motherboard. I wouldn't do this unless you must replace the thermal paste. Those push pins I find you really have to have the motherboard removed as well to get them pushed back in place, very fiddley.
I think you must have them twisted clockwise for removal, and counter-clockwise for installation. Its either that or the other way around

Nick