XP shutting down for no reason

[Bruce Leavitt]

Seems it has happened a few times of late.
Did a complete scan for virusus(NAV), with no problems
cleaned cookies and temps.

I was doing something and noticed it restart all of a sudden, didn't notice
any messages.
Restarts alright, run a scan on the c: drive, with no problems?

Suggestions on what to check?
thanks
Bruce

 

[Mark Adams]

Seems it has happened a few times of late.
Did a complete scan for virusus(NAV), with no problems
cleaned cookies and temps.

I was doing something and noticed it restart all of a sudden, didn't notice
any messages.
Restarts alright, run a scan on the c: drive, with no problems?

Suggestions on what to check?
thanks
Bruce

Overheating. Open the case and check all the fans and the heatsink on the
processor. Vacuum out the case with a brush attachment. Be careful not to
bang around in there too much; you don't want to break things. Use one of the
"Air in a can" products to blow off dust in tight places. Use a monitoring
program like Speed Fan to monitor the temperature of the processor, temps
over 60 C are too high.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Monday, March 23, 2009 3:33:48 PM, and on a whim,
Bruce Leavitt pounded out on the keyboard:

Seems it has happened a few times of late.
Did a complete scan for virusus(NAV), with no problems
cleaned cookies and temps.

I was doing something and noticed it restart all of a sudden, didn't notice
any messages.
Restarts alright, run a scan on the c: drive, with no problems?

Suggestions on what to check?
thanks
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

First turn off auto-restart. Right click on My Computer and select
Properties, Advanced tab, Startup & Recovery Settings button. Uncheck
"Automatically restart". Now when your computer fails you will get a
blue screen so you can write down what failed and the STOP codes to
reference. Then report back with the info.


Terry R.

 

[Paul]

Seems it has happened a few times of late.
Did a complete scan for virusus(NAV), with no problems
cleaned cookies and temps.

I was doing something and noticed it restart all of a sudden, didn't notice
any messages.
Restarts alright, run a scan on the c: drive, with no problems?

Suggestions on what to check?
thanks
Bruce

Overheating ?

Try a copy of Speedfan from almico.com .

http://www.almico.com/speedfan437.exe

That has a temperature readout for the SuperI/O chip
hardware monitor. That can measure things like the CPU
temperature and motherboard temperature. If the hard drive
is SMART capable, the hard drive temperature may be reported
as well. On pre-built computers, ones where the fan speed
is under automated control, they need sensors like the
ones mentioned, to tell the fans when to speed up.

A reasonable upper operating temperature for the processor is 65C.

Modern processors have over-temperature protection, and they'll
turn off the power on the computer without warning,
if the trip temperature is exceeded. For example, my
current processor turns off the computer without any
announcement, at 90C. It is currently running at 40-43C.

Other possibilities, would be a problem with the
power supply, or with the motherboard itself.

Paul

 

[Bruce Leavitt]

On running speed fan I get.
GPU 60 shows a fire icon
CPU 40 + goes up, sometimes the red arrow
Internal 28+/-
Remont temp 45 +/-
HD0 32+/-
Core 60C shows a fire icon
Ambient 0c

Fans1 800 RPM +/-
Fan 2 0RPM
Fan 3 0 RPM
Fan 4 727 RPM +/-

Speed 01 40
Speed 02 33
Spead 03 33 %

+2.5v 1.50v
vcore 1.21v
+3.3v 3.27V
+5v 4.94v
+12v: 11.75v

open it up and clean it tomorrow.
Where fan 2 and 3 are 0 RPM's does that mean there are no fans or they have
not kicked in?
thanks Bruce

 

[Paul]

On running speed fan I get.
GPU 60 shows a fire icon
CPU 40 + goes up, sometimes the red arrow
Internal 28+/-
Remont temp 45 +/-
HD0 32+/-
Core 60C shows a fire icon
Ambient 0c

Fans1 800 RPM +/-
Fan 2 0RPM
Fan 3 0 RPM
Fan 4 727 RPM +/-

Speed 01 40
Speed 02 33
Spead 03 33 %

+2.5v 1.50v
vcore 1.21v
+3.3v 3.27V
+5v 4.94v
+12v: 11.75v

open it up and clean it tomorrow.
Where fan 2 and 3 are 0 RPM's does that mean there are no fans or they have
not kicked in?
thanks Bruce

Fans read zero, when the dynamic range of the readout is exceeded.
The fan measurement method, measures the time between two fan
tachometer signal pulses. A counter is used to measure the time
interval, as shown here.
__ __
____| |________| |___
<----------->

If the counter measuring time overflows, because the pulses
are too far apart, the software interprets that as "0 RPM".
If the pulses were missing entirely, the same thing would happen -
the counter would overflow, and the software wouldn't know if the
pulse was missing, or merely late.

It could be, that the fan measurement only goes down to 500RPM, and
anything below 500RPM is read out as zero.

With regard to your temps, you generally verify them with a computing
load present. If the cooling system is not able to cope with the
heat under load, then your computer needs some work done on it
(cleaning, reseating CPU, new paste or whatever). It is hard to
judge just what is normal/acceptable, because an automated fan
controller can have a relative high set point for temperature.
So the temps listed above, at idle, may be with the CPU fan
switched off to reduce noise. They could, for example, be
attempting to thermoregulate to 60C.

(Prime95 will load a computer to 100%. The "Torture Test" also
verifies the correctness of the calculations it is doing, and this
test is a favorite of overclockers, as a means of seeing whether
their adjustments are correct or not. If one of my computers will
run this for four hours, with zero errors detected, then it is
ready to be used for real work. This will make the CPU warm.
If your computer shuts off, in say 30 seconds, then you know
your cooling needs work.)

http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime95

HTH,
Paul

 

[Mark Adams]

On running speed fan I get.
GPU 60 shows a fire icon
CPU 40 + goes up, sometimes the red arrow
Internal 28+/-
Remont temp 45 +/-
HD0 32+/-
Core 60C shows a fire icon
Ambient 0c

Fans1 800 RPM +/-
Fan 2 0RPM
Fan 3 0 RPM
Fan 4 727 RPM +/-

Speed 01 40
Speed 02 33
Spead 03 33 %

+2.5v 1.50v
vcore 1.21v
+3.3v 3.27V
+5v 4.94v
+12v: 11.75v

open it up and clean it tomorrow.
Where fan 2 and 3 are 0 RPM's does that mean there are no fans or they have
not kicked in?

It means there are headers on the mainboard where no fan is attached. Fans
attached here would be controlled by the onboard temp monitors. Many cases
have fans attached directly to the power supply and are not monitored or
controlled by the board. Fans are cheap, you may be able to attach extra fans
to vents on the case. Use an unused pigtail on the power supply to provide
power. Cleaning the dust may solve your problem.