PC Pals Forum

Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: elessm on February 19, 2004, 10:34

Title: Power Failure
Post by: elessm on February 19, 2004, 10:34

I have just purchased a new Shuttle system running an Athlon 2400 with Windows XP Home and I keep getting power cut offs which entail unplugging at the mains, putting plug back and then rebooting. Anyone have any suggestions?

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Sandra on February 19, 2004, 11:17

Do you get any warning beeps before it cuts out or any message ?
Is there a pattern to when it does it, playing games or anything thats taking a lot of the CPU to do something etc ?
I know of someone else who says she has to unplug the pc and plug it back in to be able to restart it sometimes  ???
I wonder if its just the PSU overheating and its just a coincidence that it takes so long to reset the thermal cut out that it coincides with the time it takes to unplug the mains supply and reconnect ?
Or may its got some kind of "latching" bit that wont reset it until the powers been disconnected  ???

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: elessm on February 19, 2004, 12:13

No warning, it is just like when the the power for the whole house goes. It usually happens when I am carrying out some process or other like downloading on the net disc defragging or some other normal process nothing too taxing. I didn,t have this problem with my previous computer.

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Simon on February 19, 2004, 12:31

Does the whole of the power go off, including the monitor?  Is the monitor (power) connected to the PSU on the PC, or does it have a separate mains power supply?  Also, do you have a surge protector?  Just wondering if your PSU might be tripping out for some reason.  If your monitor is connected to it, how about trying the monitor connected to the mains instead?

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: elessm on February 19, 2004, 16:56

The Monitor is powered separately. Yes I do have a surge protector.

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Sandra on February 20, 2004, 19:08

Maybe its the surge protector tripping out and that may need resetting by unplugging and re connecting ?
Possibly its too sensative, have you used it on a different PC or is it new along with this PC  ???
Can you try running direct from a normal socket or extension and seeing if it still cuts out ?

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: elessm on February 21, 2004, 07:54

The surge socket was used with my previous computer with no problem. This weekend I am reloading Windows XP and if that doesn't work the system is going back. Watch this space!

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Tony on February 21, 2004, 19:35

does the CPU run hot ?

I would have thought it was either down to PSU thermal safety cut-out, or the system is shutting down due to the CPU overheat protection setup triggering the PSU power cut-out.

I had probs with a HeatSink not sitting on the thermal pad, but that cut the power off in a matter of seconds, before boot up finished.But it soon cooled down [ten seconds about] Plus you could hear the "trip" reset in the PSU unit when you switched the power switch on at the back of the tower.

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: TR on February 21, 2004, 19:41

I think the best bet is to down load a small prog to determine what temps you are running at 1st, before any drastic action is taken.

There must be a logical explanation on all this  8)

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Robotochan on February 21, 2004, 20:26

Deffo sounds like the temp of the CPU, either that or the battery on the board is duff  ::)

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: elessm on February 26, 2004, 16:46

It turned out to be a faulty processor. This has now been replaced and so far so good. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions

Title: Re:Power Failure
Post by: Sandra on February 26, 2004, 17:32

Glad you let us know and that its ok now.
I was just saying this afternoon to someone that I was wondering how youd got on with it  :)