Let me start by saying this is not a temperature issue. I've checked all the temps on my varios intruments after this happens, and everytime they're well under what would cause this to happen.
So, for the last 3 weeks i've been having an odd issue. Sometimes its when zoning, sometimes its when i'm just in a party, but my computer just turns itself off when i'm playing FFXI. It doesn't do it with any other game, just with FFXI. And sometimes its a hard crash too, i've had entire macro sets dissapear after restarting.
I've got a 450-500(not at home right now, i'll update later) power supply, an N-force II chipset with an ATI 9800 pro. The CPU is a Barton 2800 w/half a gig of ram.
Nothings overheating, and i'm not getting any errors before it happens. It just turns off, no warning.
This sound like anything specific with hardware, or could it be format time?
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FFXI and the magically restarting computerFollow
It is most likely the power supply.
If it was the RAM, it would certaintly not restart.
If it was the CPU, it would crash the system. It would not restart.
If it was the video card, it would also crash the system. Try using ATItool and overclocking it too much. It will crash, not reboot.
It is definitely not the motherboard or anything else except the power supply. Did you use a brandname power supply? How old is it? If you sued a PSU that came with the case, it is probably ****. Be thankful it didn't fry your board. Also, sometimes the wattage is not what determines how well the PSU operates. If its votages are not stable it can also cause bad things, fry the board, or cause the processor/motherboard to go into Post. If even for a tiny amount of time there is no power to the computer and suddenly there is, it will reboot and go into posts. Chances are that if it is not a heat thing, it is definitely a power supply thing. make sure the voltages are fine. use Everest, which is available at http://www.lavalys.com . Use the Home edition. It is free.
Post back.
If it was the RAM, it would certaintly not restart.
If it was the CPU, it would crash the system. It would not restart.
If it was the video card, it would also crash the system. Try using ATItool and overclocking it too much. It will crash, not reboot.
It is definitely not the motherboard or anything else except the power supply. Did you use a brandname power supply? How old is it? If you sued a PSU that came with the case, it is probably ****. Be thankful it didn't fry your board. Also, sometimes the wattage is not what determines how well the PSU operates. If its votages are not stable it can also cause bad things, fry the board, or cause the processor/motherboard to go into Post. If even for a tiny amount of time there is no power to the computer and suddenly there is, it will reboot and go into posts. Chances are that if it is not a heat thing, it is definitely a power supply thing. make sure the voltages are fine. use Everest, which is available at http://www.lavalys.com . Use the Home edition. It is free.
Post back.
Thanks for the input. The power supply is less than a year old, so I didn't think that could possibly be the issue, but I guess my suspicion may be correct.y
As I said before, sometimes it is not how OLD the power supply is, but which brand it is. Some brands are better. Antec and Thermaltake are the names that come to mind first.
If you buy a case somewhere or if you don't know what brand your power supply is, chances are it is crap. One way you CAN tell is by the weight of it. A good power supply is usually noticeably heavier than a ************* PSU. As I previously said, if the current fluctuates under a load, you are lucky it did not fry your motherboard. I know people who build computers for a second/third job, and this is one large problem with the generic PSU. Spend the extra buck and it will work better.
If you buy a case somewhere or if you don't know what brand your power supply is, chances are it is crap. One way you CAN tell is by the weight of it. A good power supply is usually noticeably heavier than a ************* PSU. As I previously said, if the current fluctuates under a load, you are lucky it did not fry your motherboard. I know people who build computers for a second/third job, and this is one large problem with the generic PSU. Spend the extra buck and it will work better.
Quote:
It is most likely the power supply.
Correct, or motherboard, look for leaking transistors on the board. Pretty easy to spot, if you see any of the larger cylinder shaped thingys on you board (there should be plenty of them) leaking orage goo then your motherboard is at fault.
Quote:
If it was the RAM, it would certaintly not restart.
Not true, you'll find that RAM errors will indeed cause a restart. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that you have bodgy RAM. Just less likely than PSU and Motherboard. Test it with THIS.
Quote:
If it was the CPU, it would crash the system. It would not restart.
Same scenario as RAM, the system will restart all by itself sometimes.
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Please be a bit more careful with advice like that Bagira, I've been working on PC maintenence for 3+ years now, and some of that stuff is just not that true.
-Bad CPU's, RAM, motherboards, and Hard Disks will cause programs to crash and windows to restart itself frequently. %99 of systems with these problems exhibit symptoms where they DO NOT HANG, progams just crash or the machine gets re-booted cold. The only way to tell which part is faulty is by trial and error.
Seeing as you can't really test the motherboard (except by looking at it) you have to test HDD, CPU and RAM to make sure they are OK before you can reach any conclusion. That beiong said one of the first things we do to badly behaving machines is try the test power supply in them. It's an easy thing to test and doesn't take much time.
-Bad PSU's usually just shut off, or refuse to power up properly or at all. You may get the occasional restart.
-Bad graphics cards are usually recognisable by on screen artifacts initially or in game system hangs.
Hope all that clears a few things up.
Quote:
Correct, or motherboard, look for leaking transistors on the board. Pretty easy to spot, if you see any of the larger cylinder shaped thingys on you board (there should be plenty of them) leaking orage goo then your motherboard is at fault.
Sorry, but I just have to point out that those cylindical thingies are actually capacitors. Theres plenty in various electronics. For example, I know a guy who overclocked his TI-83 by removing a few and adding others of different values.
My mistake, leaky caps not transistors. Besides if you couldn't find what I'd described back there then you have no business putting your head inside a PC anyway.
Regarding misinformation:
If someone posts horribly wrong information such as the stuff that was put above (regarding system restarts) then i'm going to feel obliged to let the thread know that the information is wrong. So in future i'm going to do the same if people post BS on these threads. We are trying to provide decent tech-support are we not?
We woulnd't want you going out and buying a new PSU only to find out that it wasn't the problem would we?
Check your;
RAM (run for an hour or so)
Hard Disk (run a full media scan)
CPU (run this for a few hours)
Before you jump to any conculsions.
Over and out. Misinformation such as that can lead to costly mistakes.
Edited, Tue Jun 21 03:01:28 2005 by blowfin
Regarding misinformation:
If someone posts horribly wrong information such as the stuff that was put above (regarding system restarts) then i'm going to feel obliged to let the thread know that the information is wrong. So in future i'm going to do the same if people post BS on these threads. We are trying to provide decent tech-support are we not?
We woulnd't want you going out and buying a new PSU only to find out that it wasn't the problem would we?
Check your;
RAM (run for an hour or so)
Hard Disk (run a full media scan)
CPU (run this for a few hours)
Before you jump to any conculsions.
Over and out. Misinformation such as that can lead to costly mistakes.
Edited, Tue Jun 21 03:01:28 2005 by blowfin
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