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General discussion

Computer just turns it self off.

Feb 4, 2004 9:35AM PST

Yep,

Thats litterally it. The computer just turns its self off. When ever you get into doing something, you will just hear it die. It is mainly when the hard drive is being flogged. I have done some temp readings, normally the hard drive makes it to 38 degrees celcius, and that is where it dies. Both the fans are working. If someone could please give me a hand it would be appreciated.
Cheers.
Withers.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Computer just turns it self off.
Feb 4, 2004 9:41AM PST

It sounds like you have a bad or undersize power supply.

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Re:Re:Computer just turns it self off.
Feb 4, 2004 9:56AM PST

Cheers for the advice.

Just out of interest sake. Is there any way of testing if it is an undersized power supply. I havn't had much experience with them in the past. After testing the computer out, i have discovered that if the computer is sitting near a curtain so there is not much air getting into it, it turns off a lot more then if it is in the middle of the room. I do believe that the power supply is a very possible answer, but it also seems like it is overheating and the computer is turning itself of to protect itself. I am pretty sure that the computer was made from an old computer, and there is a large chance that they kept the origional power supply. So it does make sense. But just trying to think of every option. cheers
Withers

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Re:Computer just turns it self off.
Feb 4, 2004 11:48AM PST

Open case and place household fan to blow into it. If it settles down, you got too much heat build-up. If the damage is already done to the HD, sorry you have to replace, -OR- back-up data, reformat, then rsstore it all when its at its up and running norm. temp.. I would back-up regardless just to be safe. If too close to a CD drive(devices) above or below too little air can recircuate, relocate if possible. There are HD mountable fans to better help cool the HD, look into those. If worst comes, prepare to replace HD, sorry, but it happens. Now, you should also look into a decent power supply as it maybe failing and prolonged HD usage starts degrading its power output. Its not uncommon to replace a p/s with 400W+ units nowadays.

good luck -----Willy

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By "hard drive", do you mean the tower ??? [basically the guts of a computer]
Feb 4, 2004 12:16PM PST

The tower contains the motherboard, CPU, memory, one or more hard drives,circuit cards etc.

If you then mean that 39 C is the interior temp of the case, the issue not being addressed is the temp of the CPU [the little chip with the big heat sink and fan covering it.

Sounds like a cooling problem as Willy says.