Pc switches itself off and wont turn back on unless i pull out the plug and wait before plugging in

[chemicalplay]

Whenever i start playing a game my pc will, after about 10mins, just switch off but i have to pull the plug from the back and wait till the power goes, then plug it back in or it wont turn on.

WHY!

I have had this problem for so long, even after fresh formats of HDD.

Also, i have discovered that games crash the pc, if i have my multiplyer above 133mhz, this is a pain as i am getting less power than i paid for.

Please guys, any ideas?

AMD Athlon Xp 1800+ (running as 1700+)
Gigabyte GA-7DXE
384mb DDR Ram
Seagate 20gb HDD
Geforce 4 mx 440 64mb

 

[boshuter]

Are you sure you actually have to pull the power plug? It sounds like a marginal psu to me. I had one a while back that would run fine for days if you didn't do anything intensive with it, if you tried to game or do any audio/video editing it would shut down and I would have to wait a few minutes before it would power back on. I swapped the psu for another, not more watts, just a different one, and everything was fine.

 

[chemicalplay]

for some reason, when the pc switches off, the lights on the keyboard are still on, indicating that there is power somewhere. The power button on my pc doesnt respond, and seeing as my power pack has no on/off switch, i have to pull out the plug, wait 3 or 4 seconds then plug it in and the pc starts instantly without hitting the on button.

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: chemicalplay
for some reason, when the pc switches off, the lights on the keyboard are still on, indicating that there is power somewhere. The power button on my pc doesnt respond, and seeing as my power pack has no on/off switch, i have to pull out the plug, wait 3 or 4 seconds then plug it in and the pc starts instantly without hitting the on button.

Thats all good that there are lights on but what he is trying to explain that not all 300 power supplies are created equal. What power supply are you using? You could also have some bad sticks of memory, what kind are you using? Try running memtest86 on the memory.

 

[Matthias99]

Could also be a bad motherboard (which might be why you can't shut it off with the power switch when it locks up). But I suspect the PSU here.

 

[chemicalplay]

Thanks guys!

Just let you know...

I have a Q-Tech 400w PSU Dual Fan Gold.

I will try and run memtest on my ram, but the problem has arisen since i got my new motherboard cpu and psu. Its one of the three, maybe the motherboard, as i have to underclock my cpu to get it to run stable.

What does everyone think?

 

[Locutus3691]

Hey,I have posted before about this topic,trying to figure out how to fix it.Well,it turned out to be that the cpu wasn't getting enough cooling.I have a little house fan blowing into my pc at the cpu and it's doing better-won't shut down in games,etc.This is just temporary,the new processor is coming tomorrow.-(Hence,try cooling it better.)