PC shutting down

I have a 775Twins-HDTV mobo with 1gb ram, p4 d dual core 3ghz cpu, one dvdrw, one 200gb sata hdd, one fdd, one 400w psu, one silverstone tj08 case. I was experiencing random shut downs and stop errors when running windows xp pro so i decided to try a fresh install, i formatted then started the install. The text based pasrt of setup completed successfully but after rebooting to start the gui part of setup it shut down again. Ive tried setup with the standard hal (pressing f7 at beginning of install) but no difference. Ive tried unplugging the two case fans from the psu and any other devices i could power off but this also hasnt made a difference. Im fairly sure this is a hardware issue but im led to believe it could also be a bios problem. Im using version 1.4 of the bios and the latest version is 2.10. Can anyone shed any light as to what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance

Try a different video card... is it on board.???

Why not update the BIOS???

Do you remember any of the stop codes you were getting before you formatted...this would help in pin pointing the faulty hardware

MLF

Sounds like it could be a memory issue, bad stick of ram or some such.

Yeah, I'll second memory.. Or (CPU) heat problems..

Sorry dont remember the stop codes. Would the video cause it to shut down? I was thinking memory myself. When the system was running the cpu temp was around 50c so i think this is ok. Ill try a new memory stick see if this cures. Thanks for the advice guys

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SirDice

Yeah, I'll second memory.. Or (CPU) heat problems..

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Heat, now there is another likely canditate.

Here is a free tool to check for faulty RAM:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/M...agnostic.shtml

IMHO

Heat issues cause freeze ups...not restarts

In 10 years of tech support I have had 1 bad stick of RAM...3 bad MB

several bad video cards and loads of failed harddrives...

Yes run a memory test to rule that out.

MLF

Try booting into setup and take a look at the BIOS settings. There might be something under "PC Health" or whatever that lets you set shutdown values.

Actually I think that 50C is rather hot. Whilst it is true that overheating is frequently associated with the system stalling, modern boards have more protection than in the past and will actually shut down. If you have your protection set on the low side and rapid boot and auto restart on crash turned on you won't see very much of the problem messages.

I would be inclined to turn them off until you have resolved the problem.

:)

I had this problem on an older machine, and I ended up having to go through the Bios options, and had to mess with the advanced features ( i believe it ended up being a ram setting) turning them off one by one in the bios. My shutdowns happened fairly quickly so this was easy for me to notice when it was fixed.

Still not sure why a newer bios option like that would not be compatable with XP, but whatever, solved my problem.

Ive had a look in the bios and tried changing various different values to no avail. Ive a spare heatsink and fan at home which ill try before i go out and buy more ram. Thanks again for the help, appreciated.

Yes, you could get that sort of reaction if your CPU heatsink and fan weren't working properly. Most modern MoBos will protect the processor at the very least.

I had a problem with one of my other machines recently. It would give me random shut downs, but mostly quite soon after it was booted. Turned out to be the power supply fan wouldn't start properly sometimes.

Be sure to clean off the old thermal paste and use the silver stuff (antec, artic or whatever) .......... like I said 50c is on the high side unless you are overclocking ;)

Thank you all, you have made good points. The problem was in fact HEAT. The CPU temp according to the BIOS was around 70C! I replaced the heatsink and fan and everything seems to working fine now (apart from failed spanned volumes 8( ), still a little on the hot side but im guessing this is because i havent replaced the thermal paste yet?

Thanks again all.

Replace that paste old chap! ;)

Cheers