XP Box shutting down randomly

[Guest]

I have XP Home - 2.1G AMD chip, 1 GIG of RAM, just installed new power supply
(to fix this problem....) which didn't fix the problem.

the computer will just completly shut off - no warning, no shutdown dialog
box nothing - just poof. Nothing written in the even logs - no dumps
written. I though perhaps CPU core temp was to blame - but CPU utilization
has been at a minimum - and it doesn't always happen during intense opps (I
ran defrag for several hours and no shut down).

Any ideas or suggestions? I'm getting ready to just reload the box - but
hate to spend days reconfiguring and reloading all my software.

thanks!!

 

[JS]

Some trouble shooting utilities:
Try running Memtest86+, this runs from a boot disk and should eliminate or
confirm if your ram is bad.
See: http://www.memtest.org/

Also PassMark's BurnIn Test:
http://www.passmark.com/

JS

 

[Guest]

JS,

Perfect -just what I was looking for - some util's to assist me.

Thank you Sir/Ma'am!!


Wes

 

[Ron Martell]

I have XP Home - 2.1G AMD chip, 1 GIG of RAM, just installed new power supply
(to fix this problem....) which didn't fix the problem.

the computer will just completly shut off - no warning, no shutdown dialog
box nothing - just poof. Nothing written in the even logs - no dumps
written. I though perhaps CPU core temp was to blame - but CPU utilization
has been at a minimum - and it doesn't always happen during intense opps (I
ran defrag for several hours and no shut down).

Any ideas or suggestions? I'm getting ready to just reload the box - but
hate to spend days reconfiguring and reloading all my software.

thanks!!

This type of behaviour definitely puts a hardware problem at the top
of the suspect list. Overheating would be the first thing that needs
to be investigated.

Even with a minimal processing load a modern CPU can still overheat
quite quickly if there is a problem with the heat sink and fan.

Check your BIOS settings for temperature alarms and shutdowns values.
Some BIOS versions have an overheat warning setting which can be set
to appear at a slightly lower temperature that the shudown value.

Also see if your motherboard manufacturer provides a monitoring
utility that you can install and run to keep track of motherboard
voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. If not then there are third
party utilities which you can download and install such as
http://mbm.livewiredev.com/download.html

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."