Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Computer keeps crashing

Feb 23, 2006 2:39PM PST

Here is my system

Asus p4p800e-deluxe motherboard 865pe chipset
intel p4 3.4
ATI Radeon x850 pro video card
1.5 gb ram

All I have to do is run virus scan and get on the internet and it crashes/reboots. Or try to play any game with decent graphics. My daughter gets on to play her sims game and it reboots 5 min into it. It actually crashed while running the screen saver. If im just browsing the internet or doing everyday stuff it is fine, but the second I do anything that puts any sort of pressure on the cpu and or video card it crashes. Maybe a video card problem or a overheating cpu. It gets to about 60c and then dies. Help Help. Any ideas? I have updated the drivers on the video card and updated the chipset drivers on the mobo.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
not enough juice or failing fan
Feb 23, 2006 3:53PM PST

Possible overtaxed Power Supply Unit. What is the brand and Wattage of your PSU?

What case fans do you have? Rear exhaust? Front intake? Others?

Run computer with case panel removed. Run a temperature and fan speed monitoring utility. Observe which fans don't work or fail under heavy load. What are the temps like when you have a household fan blow into it?

It's possible that the CPU fan needs to be replaced. You might need to install a better heatsink and fan combination with a good thermal compound properly applied to the CPU.

- Collapse -
help my computer keeps crashing
Feb 23, 2006 11:07PM PST

I actually just purchased a new heatsink thinking that is what it might be. I have not installed it yet but it is a zalman all copper heat sink. I have a brand new Lantec Lanboy case that has two 120mm fans one intake and one exhaust. The power supply runs at 2220 not sure if this is good or bad. My power supply is a raidmax 450 watt power supply. I run asus probe and none of the values ever get past the default range before it shuts down

- Collapse -
computer keeps crashing
Feb 24, 2006 3:38AM PST

I have the exact same motherboard as you, but I have a P4 3G cpu and a nVidia 6800GT graphics card. I have found that it could crash when running games, in other words when it is stressed. I fitted a heatpipe cooler to the cpu (Silverstone NT01) and an 80mm case fan next to it. This solved the problem, although I think the real issue was more likely a lack of airflow - it's possible that the case fan alone could have solved the problem. At least it's quieter now. The direction of the case fan was critical - extraction was the answer.