New Computer Shutting Down Automatically

I am currently building a computer and it is up and running, but 2 days after i got it running it started to shut down on its own. I know that usually this means that there is an overheating problem, but I dont think so. I cant really explain it but it dosent seem like an overheating problem.......I could be wrong......but thats why im here, so.....

The system I built is comprised of the following:

ASUS Crosshair "Republic of Gamers" Socket AM2 Mother Board
AMD Athelon 64 x2
ASUS Supreme FX sound card
Crucial 1GB 240-pin DDR2 667mhz x2 Memory
Western Digital Caviar "Green" 500GB Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar "Green" 1TB Hard Drive
1 DVD/CD Drive
ASUS 128MB DDR2 Video Card
2 120mm Fans
and
Coolmax 700Watt Power Supply

One thing I noticed is that the Power Supply's exaust fan is pointed inside the CPU rather than outside of the CPU which doesent seem right.

Sometimes it will run for 2 hrs without any problem and sometimes it will immediatly turn off right after pushing the power button. The power supply is the newest piece of hardware, its only been 2 weeks since i've installed it. Mabe its a faulty power supply??? Dunno.........If anyone can help, please let me know.

Thank you!

 

Hi Luciancorvinus, welcome to CHF.

Just as you stated, this sort of problem is often heat related. A free software program called Speccy should be able to help you establish what the temperatures are inside your tower. You can download Speccy via the link below.

http://download.cnet.com/Speccy/3000-2094_4-11595443.html

Warning!
Although CNET is a safe site to download software from, they do have advertising on their site. So DO NOT click on anything other than the download link for Speccy. The link you need should read Download the lastest version. And also when installing the software, be sure to uncheck (Remove the tick) any boxes that ask you to install toolbars or browsers. (Read the small print)

Once installed, please check the temps and report back here with your findings.

Another course of action you can take is to remove the side panel from your tower while the computer is off and disconnected from the power. Then with the computer in a position where you can easily see the fans inside, start the computer and visually check to see if all the fans are spinning. Pay special attention to the heatsink fan.

Warning!
DO NOT!! under any circumstances place your hands or anything else inside the tower while running it with the side panel off. And if you are not confident of doing this and have a full understanding of my instructions, then DO NOT remove the side panel in the first place.

If you find that any of the fans are not spinning as they should, then check and make sure that they have power connected to them. Once again, only do this with the computer off and disconnected from the power supply at the wall socket.

Please get back to us if you have any questions, and also to let us know how you get on.

 

It says that My CPU is running at 20 degrees celsius on idle and my motherboard is running 40 degrees C

Both of my hard drives are not S.M.A.R.T. supported, so I dont have any info on them.

 

It shut off on me again and I had trouble getting it back on. I finally got it running and ran Speccy and the CPU was at 28 degrees C. Im watching it now and its around 25-26 degrees. I checked all my fans and they are running correctly. Could the heat sink fan be the problem, mabe it is not running at the speed it needs to be.

 

Assuming that those temp readings are correct (and I assume they are as I personally trust speccy) and there are no huge spikes in the readings I doubt that it is a heatsink problem. The purpose of the heatsink fan is to draw hot air away from the CPU.

 

Then it leads me to the only other heat problem.......my Hard Drives.....They wont run S.M.A.R.T. so I cannot moniter them, unless there is a way to change something to enable it to do so.

 

Have can enable or disable S.M.A.R.T in the Bios?

 

Good advice. just turned it on, but......speccy still says "S.M.A.R.T. not supported". Maybe my HD's are just crap?

Should I look into HD cooling systems just in case?

 

I think it is highly unlikely it's your HD's causing the problem.
Check all your PSU connections again, especially the PSU 4Pin to your Motherboard.
Failing that I would be looking at getting your PSU checked.

 

ok, I was hoping that it wasent the PSU, I just bought it and installed it like 3 weeks ago.

 

Who built the PC?
Are you sure that nothing has come loose and is touching anything (common under the MOBO with standoffs and wayward screws etc)
2GB of RAM just isnt enough with W7 by the way (granted you don't mention which version you have)

When you installed the OS did you install the chipset drivers? right GPU drivers etc?

I personally NEVER use 3rd party software to diagnose critical temperatures, check in the BIOS and it will give you a CPU heat reading

Other than that leave a gap between the 2 HDDs in whatever cage they are in and check all the cables inside the case

 

Hi Dalo.We recommend "Speccy" to those members with "Some Experience" under their Avatar.
They may have had no experience navigating the Bios and mess up.

 

If you have some experience you should know what a BIOS is and how to at least flick through the screens, you cant really mess a BIOS up because you get asked when you exit if you want to save the changes, people not knowing what they are doing would by common sense select do not save

The BIOS is more accurate than a 3rd party software program for both the CPU temps and the Voltages from the PSU

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

I can navigate through the bios and I understand about 1/3 of whats in it, which means I dont touch anything I dont understand.

Dalo, I was the one who built the computer, I made sure to leave a gap between the HD's and I made sure to keep all of the wires out of the way of the airflow. I have been thinking of getting more GB's for my ram, in a week or two i was going to upgrade to 8GBs, and I am running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

The computer has been running well for the last day and a half, but this morning my girlfriend told me it shut off on her. I just tried to turn it on (after 4hrs that it has been shut down) and it immediatly shut off on me.....thats why I wonder if it is an overheating thing, because the computer is just sitting there not heating up, yet when turned on it shuts right down.....???

 

I'll further the suggestion to test/try another PSU if possible, it can't be overheating if it shuts down immediately, I doubt the CPU would have time to heat up that much.

The randomness of the shut downs could also mean a RAM problem, try taking one RAM stick out and using just one for a while, I know Windows will perform terribly with 1GB but it's the quickest way to check the RAM. Probably best to do this before you look at the PSU.

EDIT: Also could you tell us the readings from the BIOS, in regards to Temperatures and Voltage readings if any?

 

Ill check those readings for you guys, and i have been noticing that the log on screen looks distorted/pixelated and that as of recently the boarder around the windows are also distorted and pixelated......could this be due to too little RAM? or could this be some sort of virus?

Ive ran several checks with my virus removal program which is up to date on its updates and found nothing, but you never know.

 

Distortion of the picture could mean a faulty monitor, graphics card, cable from monitor to computer (HDMI, DVI etc), graphic card drivers could do with updating and possibly a few others that I can't think of right now.
But it would unlikely for it to be too little RAM causing distortion, or even a virus from what I know.

We'll leave it for checking the PSU for now.

 

when you get distortion it is normally from the GPU RAM overheating (most are passively cooled, with heatsinks and they are not ideal) if you look under the card and cant see any RAM then it is often covered by the shroud which makes them actively cooled (via the fan)

If it is shutting down right away then you have something causing a short, check all the standoffs and any screws loose :snckr:

Failing no metal touching the underside of the board you are looking at a dodgy PSU or MOBO

 

Do you have onboard video ?

if so you could try taking the Video Card off the m./board and use the onboard.
This will at least eliminate the Video Card from the equation.

Failing that - do you have another video card that you can swap ?

Try running on just one RAM module.
Swap modules if the problem is replicated.

1GB is probably just enough to test out your system.