Unexplained shutdowns

[Bobatea]

Hello,

Here's my comp hardware:

MOBO: ABIT IS7
PROC: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
VID: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
HDD: Seagate SATA 120 GB
SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
MEMORY: 2 x 512 MB Samsung
MONITOR: Samsung 172T
OTHER: Pioneer DVD-RW/+RW 106D, LiteOn DVD-ROM, Samsung Floppy, Altec Lansing 5.1 surround sound

My problem is that my computer just shuts down after an inconsistent amount of time. Usually when it happens it's when I go to sleep and just leave the comp on with the monitor off. When I turn the monitor back on in the morning, there's no video feed. When it happens while I'm using the comp, the computer freezes for a few seconds, and then the feed just dies. I have 3 case fans in my computer, and I don't think it's overheating... Can anyone help me ^^;?

 

[jlr69t]

What size is your power supply, and what is your system temp and cpu temp?

 

[SemperFi]

I'd start with power supply. I had a situation with a friends box (original pentium) that would do the same thing. Shut down at no certain interval. Although it would shutdown not lock up. Anyhow a good bit of blasting with canned air in the power supply fixed for a while. I really doubt that would work as well with todays machines.

If you are using 2000 or xp check the event viewer in administrative tools for some clues.

 

[jlr69t]

Usually when a computer just shuts down it?s a heat problem. Like SemperFi said dust off the heatsink of the power supply and pross fans, hell everything else for that matter.

 

[tiggersbowl1]

I have read that the blaster worm will shut down your pc with a warning once in a while.

I also have a cheap network card in my system, can't remember the name of it, that will shut down the computer according to some threads that I have read.

I am not highly technical, but thought I might share some stuff that I think I might know.

 

[Bobatea]

The computer doesn't really... shut down. It's still running. It's just that I get no video feed to my monitor...

[edit]

My psu is a Antec 420W

[edit2]

CPU Temp: 44.0
System Temp: 33.0
PWM Temp: 37.5

 

[amdskip]

Do you have an updated virus program on your computer?

 

[Bobatea]

I reformatted my computer last Thurs and the first thing I did once it was up was install Norton and let it update itself. After that I used windows update and I received 5 warnings saying that Norton found the same Welch worm 5 times in a row and it said it isolated it, deleted it, then said access to file denied or something.

[edit]

Would a virus just freeze up the computer for a few sec and then shut off the vid feed to my monitor? My computer just freezes because I have to manually restart the computer. Before I reformatted the error it showed sometimes was that it was a driver issue and said that it was most likely related to my video card. But I've updated my vid card using windows update and the ati website.

 

[SemperFi]

I would go to nortons website and look up that worm and see what it says. You may be able to do a search for certain files. Maybe how to manually clean it etc.

The potential of this being a virus is good. worth checking into anyhow.

Well I will check in in about a week off on my vacation. I still haven't figured out how not to go crazy without computer though.