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Random shut downs

by NOLAlanning | February 21, 2005 9:49 AM PST

I recently upgraded the motherboard and processor to my rapidly aging eMachines desktop. The hardware store I normally buy from was running a deal. Now I have a Chaintech MPM800-3 with a 2.80 GHz Celeron processor running with my factory standard hard drive, CD-RW and power supply. Things have been running extremely well, except for a recent occurance of random freezes and shut downs. Sometimes whatever I'm doing will hang for a second and then the screen will go black and come back up normal in 1-2 seconds. Other times everything will lock up requiring a forced reboot. Still other times the computer will simply shut down, no error message, nothing. I was thinking that it could be my dinky 250 Watt power supply or possibly a heat issue. If anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful.

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5 Posts
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re Random shut downs
by skippyd333 | February 21, 2005 4:28 PM PST

Although power supply is important and,250 is not enough my first quetion would be what did you upgrade from? Give us those specs. You did not mention new heatsink or cpu fan. What memory are you running? Was this upgraded for your new motherboard? ect.

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Random shut downs
by siusc | February 21, 2005 10:16 PM PST

It maybe due to the system RAM, Try replacing RAM.

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Old system specs and the new RAM
by NOLAlanning | February 21, 2005 10:47 PM PST

The old system specs were an Intel 810e chipset with a 1.4 GHz Celeron processor. I installed a new heatsink (it already had the thermal glue on the bottom so I couldn't have screwed that up) and CPU fan which is running properly and was rated high enough for the 2.8 GHz processor. I now have 256 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM in one slot with another of the same on the way. The RAM is brand new from Office Depot, so it better not be faulty. I was told I could install any 266/333/400 DDR memory and at bootup it says mine is at 333. The graphics card is the same one I had before, an nVidia 5200 128 MB PCI card. The fan seems to be working on that one still. I really appreciate all the help, this problem is starting to get pretty annoying.

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still RAM?
by siusc | February 25, 2005 1:07 AM PST

Hi, Could you try booting up and using the sytem with less stuff? e.g. remove the VGA card, use the on-board one, and use less / one pcs or even old RAM. If it works fine, than re-install RAM, Cards one by one to see the difference. You may also adjust the CL value in the bios to a bigger value (e.g. CL3 or 4)

I have similar problem for my PCs / notebooks at home and work. RAM is usually the source of problem.

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(NT) (NT) Get decent 400W+ P/S & proceed from there, regardless
by Willy | February 21, 2005 10:48 PM PST
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