Well, I believe I've finall found the problem: Hot processor.
I determined this by noticing that the powerdowns happened primarily during
processor-intensive activities, such as unpacking a rarball. I was able
to reproduce spontaneous shutdown four times by unpacking a rarball.
It also appears that my proc temp is being mis-reported by "AsusProbe",
which is reporting the SOCKET temperature, not the DIODE temperature.
Diode temperature for the CPU is a steady 77.
I was able to determine this by installing Mother Board Monitor 5, which
gave far higher temperature readings for my CPU. At first, I thought it
may have been a bad-seating of the heatsink on the CPU, but touching the
heatsink, it is BLAZING hot... Thus, suggesting that it is conducting
properly. My processor (Barton 2500) is not overclocked
I've worked around the situation by underclocking my CPU. I'm now running
at a FSB of 100, instead of 166, which seems to be allowing my system to run
stable.
I still don't understand why my proc is suddenly generating so much heat.
My ambient temp is no hotter than usual (25C), nor have I made any changes
to the comp.
Anyhow, it's working, and I really don't notice the difference in speed...
Although there are still unsolved Q's, it's good enough for me.
--
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"Forced counseling and "sensitivity training" are nothing more than
buzzwords for political re-education"
-Letter in NY Times, Feb 2, 2000
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(e-mail address removed)
http://www.memeticcandiru.com