New machine keeps shutting down after 5 min of use

[diablo900t]

I just built a new PC with the following specs:

Intel E6300 Core Duo
ASUS P5N-SLI mobo
2 GB Corsair TWIN6400 RAM
34 GB Raptor
250 GB Barracuda
eVGA Geforce 8800GTS
Creative X-Fi Fatality
500 w Power Supply
Antec Sonata II

The problem is that the PC shuts down after 3-5 minutes of use. I'm not sure where to start here, but is it possible that the motherboard is the problem? I checked all connections to the power supply, and opened up the case, there doesn't seem to be anything over heating.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[crispy2010]

Its is prob a heat issue. Is the cpu fan running? Boot into bios and keep a eye on temps for a few minutes. Prob need to reseat your hsf on cpu!

 

[goobernoodles]

+1 on the heat issue.

Check all connections for the fans. 1st priority is the CPU fan, 2nd priority is the video card fan.

Make sure both are running. Double check all case fans also.

If this isn't it, it could be a heatsink that isn't mounted correctly, once the system has been on for a few minutes, feel the heatsinks for an abnormally hot one. Remount if necessary.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: goobernoodles
+1 on the heat issue.

Check all connections for the fans. 1st priority is the CPU fan, 2nd priority is the video card fan.

Make sure both are running. Double check all case fans also.

If this isn't it, it could be a heatsink that isn't mounted correctly, once the system has been on for a few minutes, feel the heatsinks for an abnormally hot one. Remount if necessary.

Alternately, feel for one that is very close to room temperature.
A really really hot heatsink means that it's absorbing heat from the chip like it's supposed to, but for some reason is not dissipating that heat. A heatsink close to room temperature means that 1) the chip beneath isn't doing much of anything at all, or 2) the heatsink isn't absorbing heat from the chip because of poor or no contact.

 

[Jiggz]

After checking the CPU HS for proper seating, and the problem persists, check the fan on the PSU to make sure it works.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Either heat or power supply.

Run Intel Thermal Analysis Tool while in Windows, and record the idle processor temperature ASAP. See what it is when you start, and see what it is when it crashes.

If it's staying below 50C at idle (it can actually go up to 85C before you'll hit major problems, but it shouldn't be above 50C anyway...), check your Northbridge and GPU temperatures using your favorite program. Again, look for things above the 40-60C range (Northbridge) or 50-70C range (GPU) at idle.

If everything seems to be in order, check your PSU voltages in the BIOS. Remember that they should be in a 5-10% tolerance of the rated voltage (I.E. the 12v rails should be around 11.90-12.10 volts). If they still seem stable, use a digital multimeter to get a more accurate reading.

If everything still seems to be fine, reseat your memory, all PCI / PCI-E devices, SATA and IDE cables, and possibly processor. If it STILL works, remove everything except the essentials (processor, one stick of memory, graphics card, hard drive, keyboard, mouse, fans) and see how long it runs for without crashing.

If it STILL crashes, reformat.

It's a long, drawn-out process, but it should definately find the problem. TRUST me, it's worth it.

 

[diablo900t]

I sat and watched the BIOS hardware monitor for a few minutes. The CPU temperature was going up and up, I watched it go up to 70 degrees C (abnormal for Core Duo?) and it didn't reboot. If i tried to load up linux or install an OS it would turn off - at this point I have no OS installed on the system.

At this point I think it has something to do with the heatsink (as mentioned above), i had some trouble mounting it to begin with, so its likely its not seated correctly. I guess it would make sense if it doesn't reboot it the bios, CPU is not being stressed at all.

I'll check the heatsink and report back, whats the normal temperature operating range for a Core 2 duo?

 

[oldman420]

If you are seeing 70 deg at idle in the bios it must get really hot once you get it under load.
I would first reset the bios to safe default settings. Then remove the HSF and get some good arctic silver and re-apply the HSF. If you are running the original pad type of thermal pad this could be the problem.
Overall be glad that your system shut down without burning up your new CPU.

 

[diablo900t]

Originally posted by: oldman420
If you are seeing 70 deg at idle in the bios it must get really hot once you get it under load.
I would first reset the bios to safe default settings. Then remove the HSF and get some good arctic silver and re-apply the HSF. If you are running the original pad type of thermal pad this could be the problem.
Overall be glad that your system shut down without burning up your new CPU.

Could it be possible that the CPU is not seated correctly? I'm not using any thermal grease, but the pad on the heatsink, i'll try reseating and if not apply thermal grease to it, thanks for the advice!

 

[gerwen]

Ultimately you'll get better results if you go get some good thermal grease now, clean and reseat it. Save yourself the step of trying to re-use the pad. It may or may not work, but new grease will almost certainly work better.

 

[crispy2010]

70c in bios, def a cpu heat prob. The hsf is not seated properly. The cpu will get much hotter while loading system and other work, this is why it is restarting. Either cpu fan is not running or heatsink is not on properly.

 

[diablo900t]

Thanks to everyone for all the help, i'm finally up and running!

I removed the heat sink and CPU, scraped off and applied new thermal paste - everything is running fine now, 38 degree idle temperature.

The heatsink likely was not seated properly, and some of the thermal paste on the heatsink looked dried up to me. The core duo 2 heatsink design is a real pain, the push-pin mechanism is horrendous.

 

[mozirry]

I accidentally had my HDD LED light switch attached to the RESET switch on my motherboard on my last build.

I couldn't figure out wtf was going on, because my computer would reboot everytime it started up and tried installing windows.

Turns out, once the HDD LED kicks in during installation, it was sparking the reset switch instead of the little green LED on the front of the computer.

Talk about ridiculous

 

[crispy2010]

Originally posted by: mozirry
I accidentally had my HDD LED light switch attached to the RESET switch on my motherboard on my last build.

I couldn't figure out wtf was going on, because my computer would reboot everytime it started up and tried installing windows.

Turns out, once the HDD LED kicks in during installation, it was sparking the reset switch instead of the little green LED on the front of the computer.

Talk about ridiculous

Wow thats some "murphys law" stuff there!

As far as the the stock hsf goes, get a after market one. One that screws on, the stock hsf are crap!

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: crispy2010

Originally posted by: mozirry
I accidentally had my HDD LED light switch attached to the RESET switch on my motherboard on my last build.

I couldn't figure out wtf was going on, because my computer would reboot everytime it started up and tried installing windows.

Turns out, once the HDD LED kicks in during installation, it was sparking the reset switch instead of the little green LED on the front of the computer.

Talk about ridiculous

Wow thats some "murphys law" stuff there!

""As far as the the stock hsf goes, get a after market one. One that screws on, the stock hsf are crap!

""

I fully agree get a zalman copper flower type they are the best and quietest IMO