Computer decides to turn itself "off"... please help, i'm desperate

[Massa]

ok, i'm about to go nuts trying to figure this out... when i arrived at school, my computer began to do what we call "f*cking", which it had NEVER done before... i would be using it like normal and all of a sudden i'd get a black screen, lose signal from my sound card, and the hard drive light would turn on... but my fans would still be running, all 4 mobo lights on my MSI mobo would stay on, and nothing would actually turn off. The only way to recover from this would be to unplug the power cord and plug it back in. well, i thought it was a cooling issue since it was warm and i don't have A/C, so i ordered a thermalright sk6 w/ a delta fan to replace my thermaltake silver orb. that seemed to be working ok, i lowered the CPU temp from about 112F/~45C to around 100F/~38C, and i haven't had any problems in a while... until last night. I was working in Dreamweaver (which seems to be a trigger, although it's not the only trigger), of coures like an idiot i didn't save 4 hours of work, and it f*cked. i had looked at the temp right before the crash, and it was still running at 100F/38C, so i don't think it's a cooling issue anymore. i unplugged it and went to sleep, hoping that would fix it, but in the morning, no dice. So i started taking stuff out, looking for conflicts. before i did that i checked connections on everything and made sure the heatsink was seated correctly on the CPU... it was. So first i took out the realmagic dvd card, then my sblive card, then my backup hard drive, and it kept crashing. right now i'm running with the two cd/dvd drives unplugged, so basically i'm on the processor, video card, network card, and one hard drive... the net card is next to go. I'm beginning to think it's either a "dirty" power issue (i'm in a VERY old dorm, like 1928 old), bad power supply, or a short in some major component, like the motherboard CPU or hard drive. does ANYONE have a clue what's going on, any ideas, anything? i really would rather not buy a new mobo, CPU, or hard drive, but obviously i will if those are the problems. anyways, here's the complete listing of parts:
T-bird 1.2Ghz CPU w/ Thermalright sk6 and delta 6000RPM fan, plugged into MSI k7t-pro2a with latest bios and via 4in1 drivers
Visiontek GeForce 2 (could this be a possible cause as well? like a short or something?) w/ 22.50 dets (but i've tried just about every flavor)
WD 40GB hard drive
WD 20GB hard drive (*uninstalled*)
SBLive! x-gamer 5.1 w/ latest official creative drivers (*uninstalled*)
Netgear network card, generic w/ generic drivers (has worked fine)
Realmagic Hollywood+ w/ beta 2.2 problems (*uninstalled*)
Plextor 16/10/40A w/ 1.03 firmware (*uninstalled*)
Creative Encore 12x DVD-rom (*uninstalled*)
2 80mm case fans (front and back)
pci slot fan
300W Power Supply

 

[Mitzi]

I'd point the finger at a dirty power supply in your dorm. Have you tried removing any other devices (tvs, hairdryers etc) which are on the same curcuit as your PC - could be overloaded.

It could also be your power supply is dying. The only way to tell if its the electricity supply or your PSU would be to try the machine again where it used to work perfectly (at home???) if it still crashes there I'd say PSU problem, if it works okay, I'd say you need a surge protector/UPS in your dorm.

Good luck sorting it out.

 

[compudog]

Check out the thread here.I think this is an issue with the MSI board. I hope it doesn't extend to the MSI KT266Pro2 I just ordered today with my brother-in-law. (Read post here.) Hope this helps.

 

[compudog]

Ooops! I see Massa already saw the post. Duh!