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General discussion

P4/Gigabyte MBrd system SHUTS OFF all of a sudden

Feb 28, 2004 12:27AM PST

I built a 3 Ghz P4 system @ 800Fsb, 400W power supply, with a Gigabyte GA-8S648FX motherboard, 512MB PC3200 RAM, and a Radeon 9600 graphics card.

It's been running fine, but NOW, without warning, it blacks out and shuts off in the middle of working. I try to click the power button to turn it back on.. and NOTHING! dead.

if I remove the battery on the Mboard, and reinstall it, the BIOS is reset and the system powers up again. until a few hours/days later, out of the blue.. it will do the same thing and I need to uninstall and reinstall the battery to reset the BIOS. ???????

there seems to be no performance issues before the comp shorts out, so I do not think it's my MB/RAM/or CPU. Power is still supplied to my optical mouse even when it blacks out, so I am skeptical if it's my power supply, but I have heard of crappy PSs being shipped with custom cases.

any one experienced this? any thoughts?

Discussion is locked

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Re:P4/Gigabyte MBrd system SHUTS OFF all of a sudden
Feb 28, 2004 12:34AM PST

The power supply is a suspect.

But before you try anything else, you need to prove that the problem is not "overheating".

Remove the side panel from the computer and set a house fan where it will blow into the computer. Run the computer with the side removed (external fan blowing) and see it the problem changes or reoccurs.

..

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Re:P4/Gigabyte MBrd system SHUTS OFF all of a sudden
Feb 28, 2004 1:07AM PST

Some motherboards do that if the temperature rises too high. EASY to figure out by just leaving the cover off.

400 Watts can be very slim. http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/ documented some 9 out of 21 supplies didn't meet there own specifications. Hint! Yours probably doesn't either.

Read http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/ to see if you have enough Watts and factor in you need 50 to 100 more for generic supplies since the first article showed they fib.

Bob

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Re:Re:P4/Gigabyte MBrd system SHUTS OFF all of a sudden
Feb 28, 2004 2:29AM PST

my system idles at about 40 degrees C, pretty normal. when I render (I do a lot of 3D work) out some projects (this is when it seems to black out on me) it rides upwards of 50+ deg C.

400W, even if it proved to be 300 or 350 should be adequate, since I only have 1 HD, 1 Video Card, 1 fan, and modem card hooked up to it. Not many perephrials, and I don't overclock.

get this though, maybe this will shed some light in on the subject: the machine doens't shut down.. when i shut it off from Windows XP Pro, it goes through the shutting down process, and then REBOOTS! never completely powers off, depsite BIOS configurations. It worked fine the first 2 months. But know, I have to hold down the power button to get the power to shut off the system. Is this supporting a power supply problem?

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Re:Re:Re:P4/Gigabyte MBrd system SHUTS OFF all of a sudden
Feb 28, 2004 3:52AM PST

"my system idles at about 40 degrees C, pretty normal. when I render (I do a lot of 3D work) out some projects (this is when it seems to black out on me) it rides upwards of 50+ deg C."

Which is a measurement of ONE component. The test for this issue is simple. Have you removed the case cover to find out?

"400W, even if it proved to be 300 or 350 should be adequate, since I only have 1 HD, 1 Video Card, 1 fan, and modem card hooked up to it. Not many perephrials, and I don't overclock."

This is an area that confounds many. It's not only the Watts that matter, but how well a supply responds to an increase in demand. Links supplied for your review and a simple issue to look into.

"get this though, maybe this will shed some light in on the subject: the machine doens't shut down.. when i shut it off from Windows XP Pro, it goes through the shutting down process, and then REBOOTS! never completely powers off, depsite BIOS configurations. It worked fine the first 2 months. But know, I have to hold down the power button to get the power to shut off the system. Is this supporting a power supply problem?"

I see two issues plus the original. To number them..

1. Pull the case cover. Video cards and other parts can get too hot. Do this test.

2. The PSU rating is always suspect. Links supplied.

3. Review the XP Shutdown article two clicks from http://www.aumha.org/articles.htm

4. A 3 GHz P4 would have a warranty. Why not make it the vendors problem?

Bob