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Computer shuts off for no reason

E

enwar3

Golden Member
What happens is my computer will be running fine, then BOOM it shuts off. No reason at all. I start it back up again, CPU temp is about 45C, so shouldn't be too big of a deal. Normally it keeps shutting off when I try to restart it, but after I let it sit for 5-10 minutes, it's fine. I'm not running anything stress-intensive either; it's happened during some 3d rendering and Halo, but it's also happened while I'm just surfing the internet.

Does it make a difference that I have the computer plugged into a power bar? It's sharing power with a 5.1 speaker system, printer, lights, two monitors, etc.

It's really frustrating. =( Happened to anybody before? Is this hardware failure, and will I have to inspect every piece of hardware in the box?
 
Yup, looks like the PSU.

Make sure that it has enough power for all of your hardware, especially the Video Card.

Try another PSU if necessary.
 
I've also had similar problems with a bad stick of ram before. If you've got two sticks or a spare, try changing out or running one stick at a time to check.
 
Aw man... let's see. I didn't bother listing out specs cuz it's an old computer and I don't know if people remember any of the componenets.

From what I remember/see:
Antec Neopower 480W
AMD X2 3800+
2x512mb OCZ Platinum Edition (or some kind of matched OCZ)
Gigabyte Radeon X800
Audigy 2 ZS
Toshiba 160g 3G Sata HD (came OEM, can't quite remember)
Floppy Drive
DVD Burner
Few case fans

Everything is running stock, nothing special. I don't have a serious graphics card or anything, so I don't see how my PSU can't handle it. What do you guys think?
 
I had a Antec Neopower 480W that was more power than my setup needed but it exhibited the same symptoms. I had to RMA it. Apparently Antec's initial Neopowers used some cheap components that didn't last. I'd RMA that Neopower and get a replacement. I'm nearly 100% sure that's what's going on here since it happened to me too.
 
I bought the PSU like a year and a half ago though... can I still RMA it? And by RMA you mean straight back to Antec right?

EDIT: For another Neopower?
 
Originally posted by: enwar3
I bought the PSU like a year and a half ago though... can I still RMA it? And by RMA you mean straight back to Antec right?

EDIT: For another Neopower?
Click to expand...
* Where did you buy your Neopower PS? Antec B-stock only carries a 90 day warranty.
* Have you actually done any testing to determine that the Antec PS is bad?
* What is Antec's procedure for RMA one of their PS?


 
Originally posted by: enwar3
I bought the PSU like a year and a half ago though... can I still RMA it? And by RMA you mean straight back to Antec right?

EDIT: For another Neopower?
Click to expand...

If you bought it new retail, the Warranty is 3 years. The new NeoPower PSUs use better components and won't give you trouble like the older ones. That's what I've gathered from some NeoPower posts on various forums.

When I RMA'ed my Neopower 480, they sent back a brand new NeopowerHE 500W. It's not going to be some refurb Neopower 480 they send back to you.
 
I would run a memory test with Memtest86
Then a Hard Drive Diagnostic in case the drive is going
Next would be to look at the Motherboard for Bad Capacitors (leaking) ... badcaps.net
And if you have a spare power supply, try swapping it and see what happens

Did you check Device Manager ? ? .. You may have a corrupt driver (video) in there


 
Memory gives bsods, not randomn shutdowns every 10 minutes, harddrive isn't gonna shut of the PC either. Bad caps 'could' be the problem but will usually result into instability, and more blue screens and the likes. Corrupt video driver would also not cause a sudden shutdown. He should try replacing the PSU to make sure it's the PSU though.
 
Problem is, I don't have any replacement PSU lying around. Come to think of it, I've got no replacement parts except for a monitor. I stopped building a couple years ago, but was going to buy some parts to fix it up for my family before I left for college. So I figured I might as well go all the way and fix everything, including this bug.

Originally posted by: PepperBreath
Originally posted by: enwar3
I bought the PSU like a year and a half ago though... can I still RMA it? And by RMA you mean straight back to Antec right?

EDIT: For another Neopower?
Click to expand...

If you bought it new retail, the Warranty is 3 years. The new NeoPower PSUs use better components and won't give you trouble like the older ones. That's what I've gathered from some NeoPower posts on various forums.

When I RMA'ed my Neopower 480, they sent back a brand new NeopowerHE 500W. It's not going to be some refurb Neopower 480 they send back to you.
Click to expand...

Yea I bought the Neopower new, I'll be calling them Monday.

When I get home today, I can run some Prime95 (edit: I have memtest86 too), but CPU and ram have never been a problem; never errored, nor overheated. I bought my HDD OEM so I'll have to look for another diagnostic. As for my graphics card, it's never errored before, but I will check that as well. Honestly though, I suspect a power-related issue. I thought for a while it was power surges on a surge protector, but I will look into the PSU issue too. I just don't want to call Antec unprepared and not have an answer to "What else have you done to diagnose this problem?"
 
The hdd diagnostics can be downloaded from whoever made the drive
be it Seagate, Western Digital, etc .. and they are usually no charge
 
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