M.A.M.E. shuts computer *off*

[takumsawsherman]

My System:

A7N8X Deluxe 2.0, with 1008 mod 3 bios (newer SATA firmware)
Athlon XP 2500+, never overclocked
2 x 1GB OCZ 4001024ELPE PC3200 memory, running in Dual channel at 2-3-2-5 at 333mhz FSB
Thermalright 92mm copper heatsink with fan, bolted to the board
Enermax Whisper EG365P-VE
2 x Seagate 250GB SATA drives (ST3250824AS)
WD1200JB IDE drive
Samsung SH-202N DVD-R/W
PowerColor Brand ATI Radeon 9700Pro

Speedfan reports my temps as follows:

Temp1: 42C
Temp2: 28C
Temp3: -1C
Temp4: 25C
Temp5: 49C
Temp: 125C
Temp: 25C
HD0: 42C
HD2: 36C

Temp1 - Temp4 are supposedly the Asus ASB100. The second Temp1 is the Winbond W83L785TS-S. The temp that is 125C and 25C are supposedly the LM75.

I would have liked to upgrade the power supply, but I can't find anything that puts out even as much on the +5v rail (32A) as this one. I tried a Thermaltake 450, and it didn't want me to have more than 2 hard drives without shutting off.

The system temperature hovers around 50 degrees C as read in the BIOS, likely as a result of a less than efficient fan. I don't know if this is part of the problem.

Which brings me to the problem. Any game I try to play in M.A.M.E., no matter how old, will cause the system to shut off in less than 5 minutes. Sometimes 2 minutes.

I can play Oblivion, and everything is OK. Granted, it's in low quality mode, but still should be much more taxing than M.A.M.E. The only other time it seems to do this is occasionally if I have dozens and dozens of tabs open in Firefox. And that's only sometimes.

What are your thoughts? I think the 125C temperature is bogus, as there would be things on fire, but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks! Also, if anyone knows of a good power supply for my system, I would love to know of it.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Strange issue - Oblivion is obviously more demanding than MAME, as you pointed out.

Try running with just 1 stick of RAM - maybe there's some obscure memory error happening.

 

[takumsawsherman]

Well, I had memtested for a while, and didn't find any errors. Also, would bad memory make the computer shut off? As opposed to blue screening or rebooting or locking up?

 

[mindless1]

Bad memory won't cause the computer to shut off. "Maybe" if it were electrically shorted, but if that happened it would be game-over for the system running, it wouldn't start up again.

Take the side panel off and point a large fan inside, see if that makes any difference. Rarely you can find software that does... I don't know what exactly, but calls to the video will shut it down. One case of that came to mind using the wrong application with a Matrox G200 video card (granted it's old but was proof of it happening), every time the app was started the system shut off like the switch had been held in.

See if the system is stable running a prime95 torture test for 30 minutes. Check your software and bios for shutdown temperatures and if they are below 70C, increase them. Note temp while running the prime95 test, if it gets above 70C then figure out which parts of the cooling subsystem is ineffective. If you have had the heatsink mounted for a long time now, not recently remounted, you might take it off and check the state of the thermal compound, especially the generic silicone grease will rot away and turn to islands of solids that don't evenly conduct heat. I've seen a case where CPU temp wasn't excessive but apparently an island of thermal compound was keeping the portion of the CPU with the temperature diode cooler than the rest of the die. That particular CPU also had a dark burnt looking area on the back center. Once fresh thermal compound was applied it ran fine again.

I agree the 125C temp is probably misreported, that's all too common with a generic app like speedfan. You shouldn't have to be concerned about any part that doesn't run hot enough that they put a heatsink on it, which is only CPU and chipset (assuming reasonable case ventilation). If the system temp stays around 50C that is not hot enough to be a problem.

 

[takumsawsherman]

Okay, well, I didn't do the Prime95 yet, but I had to convert a home video to DVD for the parents, and it shut off when the conversion was almost complete. Upon booting the system (immediately afterward) the temperature reported by the BIOS was 53 deg. Celsius.

I used Artic Silver 5 last time I removed the heatsink for cleaning (getting all the dust out) about 2 years ago. I don't know if that degrades as much, but I can redo it. It's just a pain . I am especially interested in your experience with thermal compound that was no longer evenly spread.