PC keeps powering off

Tackle

My pc has powered off out of the blue 3 times today. After being on it for a few minutes it just cut out. I stuck a new PSU in it this morning after it happened twice. Everything seemed fine for about an hour or two but then it happened again. It happened a few days ago too.
So, it doesn't seem like the PSU is the problem, any ideas what it could be?

BTW, I upped the resolution of the monitor recently, could that have anything to do with it, draining more power for example? Although the monitor itself doesn't cut out.

egan007

sounds like it could be over heating - check the temp in the bios
check if all fans are running - run it with side panel off

astec123

What is the spec of the system? Most will say this has no bearing but in most cases older computers are more liable to overheat.

stevenmu

I agree that it sounds like overheating, the time you took to swap the PSU probably let it cool down enough to run for a while again before temps built back up. If it's been running ok for a while before today, check that all the heatsinks and fans are free of dust, it can build up and act as an insulator trapping in the heat.

Tackle

Thanks, for the advice, I'll check out the fans and the temperature.

Webmonkey

Yeah and if it isn't that its a failing PSU

Raz

I had a similar situation myself when I put in a new PSU a short while ago.
I connected to HSF to a PSU connector that said 'Fan only' thinking this would be fine.
The fan was had a speed controller that was set to low which usually would run on a 12V connector from the PSU.
The 'Fan only' connection was on 5V and so the HSF was spinning way too slow and the CPU repeatedly overheated causing the same kind of crashes you're seeing.

quaalude

I had the same problem a couple months ago - I advise downloading Motherboard Monitor 5 from here. http://www.3degs.net/index.php?page=webfile&dsn1=nav_webfiles&file=9
MBM5 helped me to troubleshoot that it was an overheating CPU, and I got a new heatsink and fan for like 30 bucks and it was sorted.

Sgtshaft

Download Prime95 and run a torture test, its number-crunching algorithms exercise the computer's processor and memory to their limits.

Normally any problems with prime95 either comes down to a bad memory module or overheating, If prime95 fails on your rig then underclock the CPU and run it again to see is it a heat related issue.

Tackle

Well, it's not the PSU cos I just put a new one in this morning and the problem still exists. I've opened it up and cleaned the heatsink and fan, there was a fair bit of dust in there. Hopefully that'll do the trick, if not I'll download one of those analysers yee mentioned.

Rollo Tamasi

Tackle wrote:

Well, it's not the PSU cos I just put a new one in this morning and the problem still exists. I've opened it up and cleaned the heatsink and fan, there was a fair bit of dust in there. Hopefully that'll do the trick, if not I'll download one of those analysers yee mentioned.

What voltage is the new psu? Is it the same as the previous one?

Webmonkey

I take it you mean the wattage, yes good question. Is it the same as previous? Maybe your lacking power

Tackle

Yeah, it's the same watt but it doesn't matter now. It seems to be running fine since I cleaned out the dust. Thanks again.