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New Computer Turns Off After A Few Minutes?

Kromis

Kromis

Diamond Member
Okay so, my friend recently built his computer and now he has a problem...

Whenever he turns it on, his computer shuts down a few minutes later. Just now when I told him to check out what version BIOS he has, it shut down after a minute or two of looking at the BIOS. WTF?

Anyways, his specs are as follows:

Zalman ZM600
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC-6400 (2 x 512MB)
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
XFX 7900GS
Seagate 400GB 7200.9

And...I'm not sure if this matters but...

Aspire (Apevia) X-Discovery (or Dreamer)
 
Most likely culprit is the power supply. Get another one and try it. If it doesn't fix the problem, return it and keep the original PSU. Next culprit is the motherboard.

Before we go pointing fingers, though, make sure a power connector from the PSU is plugged into every power connector on the motherboard, video card, etc. Don't simply assume that it's unnecessary. There should be a 4-pin or 8-pin ATX12V connector to the motherboard, and there may be a 4-pin Molex connection on the motherboard to supply power to the PCI Express bus. In addition, there will probably be a power connector on the video card.
 
Originally posted by: taterworks
Most likely culprit is the power supply. Get another one and try it. If it doesn't fix the problem, return it and keep the original PSU. Next culprit is the motherboard.

Before we go pointing fingers, though, make sure a power connector from the PSU is plugged into every power connector on the motherboard, video card, etc. Don't simply assume that it's unnecessary. There should be a 4-pin or 8-pin ATX12V connector to the motherboard, and there may be a 4-pin Molex connection on the motherboard to supply power to the PCI Express bus. In addition, there will probably be a power connector on the video card.
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Alright, thanks. I'll make sure to tell my friend to plug in everything. I know the power supply is okay because my other friend took it home to test it out on his computer and it worked so I don't think that's the problem.
 
Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Pull, clean and reset the CPU's heat sink. Sounds like heat to me.
Junk PSU BTW.
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I agree on both counts.

Typically PSU's will fail to POST as that requires a lot of power as they have to overcome the inertia of the startionary HDD platters. If they post, they usually will not shut off - they will produce flaky behavior and crashing.

To me, this sounds like heat. I bet your friend's CPU fan has siezed - a very common problem. Once you've saturated the aluminum's heatsink's heat capacity and can't expel heat fast enough (due to an absence of a spinning fan), his machine will overheat and turn off. This might take a couple of minutes.

Or - as Galv posted, his HS/F might not be making proper contact with the CPU heat spreader. Or, he could have way way way too much thermal paste installed. Regardless - I would bet this is heat.



 
Someone's laptop was doing this. It had been brought to me for a dying hard drive and overheating. The hard drive's bearings sounded like they were made of sand, and the area around the processor was scorchingly hot. After about 10 minutes, the laptop just turned off. I opened it up and removed a 1/4" thick mat of dust from the heatsink. It was completely preventing any airflow from getting from the fan to the heatsink fins, very effectively insulating the processor.

Feel the heatsink (carefully). If it's hot (possibly really hot), then the interface between the processor and heatsink is good, and the heat is being transferred to the heatsink. If that's the case, check the fan.
 
Ah! More info! Thanks! I'll be sure to tell my friend all these things and update this thread later!
 
Okay, its the heatsink. I told my friend to touch it while the computer was running and he said that it wasn't even hot, let alone a little warm. 😛

He's using the Intel stock cooler for the Core 2 Duo, too. So...should I tell him to get some Arctic Silver 5 or...a new heatsink and some AS5?

Any recommendation for heatsink? He doesn't want to spend too much just to fix the heat issue!
 
ALOT of people are having problems with seating Core 2 Duo processors. Make sure the clips are pushed in all the way.
 
Originally posted by: Kromis
Okay, its the heatsink. I told my friend to touch it while the computer was running and he said that it wasn't even hot, let alone a little warm. 😛

He's using the Intel stock cooler for the Core 2 Duo, too. So...should I tell him to get some Arctic Silver 5 or...a new heatsink and some AS5?

Any recommendation for heatsink? He doesn't want to spend too much just to fix the heat issue!
Click to expand...

Make sure too that he touches near the base of the heatsink.
It should definitely be warm though.

I was testing some hard drives on someone else's hardware once. It was with a P4. The heatsink wasn't properly attached, so the system powered down within a few seconds of being turned on. The heatsink was cold, but the side of the board opposite where the CPU was mounted was quite toasty.

Was the fan spinning?


Has he removed the heatsink before this problem came up? I think that the thermal interface stuff that comes with retail heatsinks is good for one use, and if the heatsink is removed, the thermal material must be replaced, either with a fresh pad or grease.


Originally posted by: henryay
ALOT of people are having problems with seating Core 2 Duo processors. Make sure the clips are pushed in all the way.
Click to expand...
Mine makes me worried, and I hope this is normal - mounting the CPU was quite easy, and I attached the heatsink as per the retail instructions. The board is bowed out quite noticably due to the insane pressure put on it by the heatsink.
 
Originally posted by: tcG
Originally posted by: Kromis
Originally posted by: tcG
It's not the heatsink.

It's the PSU.
Click to expand...

Uhh...what makes you so sure? Everyone else is suggesting heat? 😕
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Mark my words, it's the PSU.
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Why yes, of course! I'll help him change the PSU then, just to make sure.

And no, that was not sarcasm.
 
Originally posted by: bwatson283
He said the friend had another friend test the PSU and it worked fine. Mark my words it is NOT the PSU.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it worked flawlessly on my friend's friend's (who is also my friend too) computer. But you know...just want to make sure its not some sort of incompatibility issue or anything.
 
Back. So uhh...is acetone the same as isopropyl alcohol? And what about hydrogen peroxide? There's some left over residue on the CPU and heatsink.
 
Originally posted by: Kromis
Originally posted by: bwatson283
He said the friend had another friend test the PSU and it worked fine. Mark my words it is NOT the PSU.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it worked flawlessly on my friend's friend's (who is also my friend too) computer. But you know...just want to make sure its not some sort of incompatibility issue or anything.
Click to expand...

Does your friend's friend's computer have the same beefy graphics card and processor as your friend's computer? Perhaps your friend's computer is drawing too much power.

But, like the others have said. I'm thinking this is a heat related issue.

Oh... and don't use hydrogen peroxide. Use high 90% isopropyl alcohol.
 
Alrighty, everything is done now. So...

What's a good program to test the temp of the CPU? Coretemp? Or what?
 
Woot, problem solved!

Thanks y'all. It was just a heat issue. To be more specific, the heatsink wasn't really properly placed because my friend placed it while the motherboard was in the case! 😱

So...it was NOT the power supply!
 
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