I am having that pesky random shutdown problem on my PC...?

Question

I have scanned for blaster and sasser, nothing there...I have upgraded my power unit - it was a woeful 170 Watts (thanks Dell) but is now 500W...I thought that last change would do it but I am out of ideas...I have tried to change the fan but have a 478 socket (?) CPU and it is difficult to find a fit and one that isn't just another fan...any ideas would be appreciated..

Answer 1

take it to the tech guys at pc world and just ask there advice before handing over any money.. you know what ure talking about so they cant talk you in to buying or paying anything lol!

Answer 2

If l understand random shut down. Sorry but your motherboard is faulty. Can't be fixed for the price of another computer. Frigin junk this high tech generation is jaming the landfills faster than any other product, mine included. 16mo's old and something went on the mobo just like yours. 800.00 down the drain. Who got that money?Arrrrrrr

Answer 3

If its shutting down it suggests either overheating of the PSU or CPU or a Virus, if it reboots when it shutsdown that suggests hard drive, memory or a virus.

Check in the BIOS (F2 or Del at startup usually) and find the Hardware Monitor option, you should be able to see the CPU temp, board Temp and fan speeds. If the CPU is under 60 it is acceptable, up to 75 is hot, over 75 is likely to cause permanent damage. Fan speeds vary drastically, some as low as 1200 rpm to over 6000 so it is difficult to advise, but around 2000 plus is OK generally, though some are more efficient than others but I would suspect your Dell is around 4000 or greater if it is a socket 478 Pentium CPU.

Try a Cooler Master Fan, generally more efficient than the generic stuff the various manufacturers put in. Make sure you get one suitable for the processor speed, many 478 fans are rated by the MHz of the CPU.

Try a program called spynomore for your Virus search it can be found at http://www.spynomore.com/ (Vista and XP compatible) although the trial version does not automatically remove the spyware and virus files it will show you where the files hide in your system and registry and all you need to do is manually delete them, if you cant be bothered to manually delete then buy the full version and get it to do it for you.

Answer 4

Pesky random shutdown...sorry, someone else may have a better answer, but the only thing I can think of is to take it to a professional.