PC shuts down after some minutes logged

When I log into SL, all is fine for about 5 minutes, then I crash and PC shuts down.
I have a new machine,running Windows XP, 2GB ram, not overheating.

This happened after I downloaded the latest SL version.

Very frustrating indeed, can someone please tell what to do to fix this?


Tks a lot

Bella,

Does the PC just turn off with no warning? It is possibly the power supply failing. I had this problem, replaced the power supply under warranty, and never had the problem again. The new SL version might just be a misleading coincidence.

Thank you Avion, but the problem does not lie there. It happens everytime I log in, and it is not any power failure.
This has been going on for a week now!


keeping my fingers crossed

Mine does that too..but it's happening less, a couple weeks ago it did it a couple times an hour..still a mystery to me too..no warning..just bam..shuts down and restarts my pc..hmm if you find out let me know!!

Sure sounds like a power or heat problem...

Do you get a blue-screen crash or does it just shut off?

I was experiencing the same thing and had my PC checked with my local retailer. I took down what the tech said just in case I need to pass the info on to someone else. ;o) The hardware guy explained it to me that the power supply unit that was in use was able to support the system doing just 'regular' stuff. But whenever there was heavy 3D computation ongoing (like SL demands it) - besides the 'normal' harddisk and cpu actions - the graphics card suddenly draws a lot more power and hence forces the 'psu' down if it is too weak. Once this happens, a so called 'power good' signal would go away and the system performs a reset and you don't even see a blue screen - just if you would press the reset button manually. -- Sounds logical to me although I'm not quite sure about the details, but this reads you (still seem to) have a problem with the psu.

/Mylenne

Your system might be pulling too much watts.......This does occure when the power min is not reached.

Thank you for all the info

No, I do not get any blue error screeen, the PC shuts down and reboots

Since SL has worked for months on the same machine with no change or addition, why should it now behave like this?

Still very puzzled and irritated GRRRRRR

Maybe something gets too hot. Make sure the fans have enough room to breathe. Did they collect lots of dust? I was quite astonished how much of fuzz there was inside the case (when having my PC checked the tech opened it and had me looking at the fans - eeew!). This would explain why it took some time till the 'issue' had arisen.


/Mylenne

Yeah almost definitely a heat/dust build up or dieing PSU - not sure what chip you have but if its compatible it might be worth installing Stargazors tiny S2KCTL chip cooler and monitor from http://www.stargaz0r.nm.ru/

This forces your cpu to execute 'idle' instructions when doing little and also places a handy temp display in the taskbar so you can see your CPU temp.

Most processors have a bail out temp and will shut the sysem down if that is exceeded - look in the BIOS of your computer and see if its been set real low for some reason.

Whip the case off and carefully remove any dust build up around fans, heatsinks, psu vents etc. Dust kills computers and they all fill up

Hope you sort it as errors like this can be real annoying, I had a similar issue in Everquest many moons ago and that was a heat/dust issue so hopefully it will be cureable with a spring clean

Yes, it will be a heat or power problem....

Do you have a normal "desk" fan? If so, take the side of your PC case off and set a desk fan blowing into it to see if that makes a difference... If you dont get the shutdowns, it's a heat problem if you still get the shutdowns it's more likely to be a PSU problem (even brand new ones can fail).

The heat problem could be in the PSU, Processor or graphics card.

If it's a power problem, it could be a bad PSU or one that is not rated highly enough for the PC. A lot of graphics cards these days need a power connector on them, which takes 12v from the PSU. A lot of cheaper PSU's dont provide enough amp's on the 12v rail to power the card and the rest of the PC. Check the sticker on the side of the power supply, and on the chart, look at the 12v row and the output current max column. The higher that figure, the better - and PSU's do vary a lot (it's what sets the more expensive ones apart from the cheap ones).

Gomez

Just help with the diagnosic, can you clarify this:


But then on a later post you said...



Is it new or older?

Gomez

Thank you again

Gomez,clarifying

New machine, I mean 6 months old, not a laptop
SL has always worked on it

Can it be so dusty after only 6 months?

I must explain also that I am writing on behalf of a friend and do not have the specifications, only those I mentionned

He will have to look closer then, and maybe use the vacuum cleaner LOL
Spring cleaning for Halloween

Yep Depends on the environment (not saying your friened has a dusty house) but i've seen machines covered in dust after just a couple of months...

Do try the take the side of the case off and flow a fan in - just for a couple of hours to discount a power problem though. SL is very graphics/CPU intensive and PC's do get hot when running it whilst they may normally seem fine when just browing the web or checking email.

Gomez

Bella,

That's exactly what happened with my machine. It was new, worked fine for a few months, then started acting like this becuase the power supply just went bad. Unfortunately, they don't just stop working all together when they go bad. They run until you try to start up something that is graphics-intensive, and then shut off, misleading you to think that it's a problem with the software you're trying to run.

Mylenne describes it above much better than I could.

One other thing -- don't see it suggested elsewhere here, but make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date (never know, even on a 6-month old machine). Even if that isn't the problem, at least the attempted fix is free.

I've had the power supply gone bad on a PC, too, and it was something that went bad only gradually, until I couldn't switch it on any more.

aye unless they pop a fuse / trip a internal breaker the just slowly die

and firing up your new geforce ultra championship edition's gpu power does dramatically ramp up the wattage use VS just displaying plain ol 2d video

on alot of new processors, using no cpu power while looking at a webpage, it cuts down the power demand, fire up auto cad and let the juice flow, they do that to help save electricity (and is especially dramatic on laptops which you dont have but ...)

also some computers do "dynamic overclocking" same thing as above but when things start getting bogged down the mainboard will boost the cpu (above normal full blast operation) clock speeds and voltage (so the new speeds will work right)

I don't know much about the details there but (believe it or not) since I my RL job is 'semiconductor business' related I do know about the features that recent processors have built in. And Osgeld is right, such things do exist!


/Mylenne

Thank you all for the help. My friend is going to have his machine checked now that he can point out what may be wrong.

Will let you know if and when the problem is solved

Take care

its complex at some level but the end result is a simple concept, cpu usage = 100% and cpu temperature is < safety threshold, over-clock anywhere from 1-10% (set in bios)

its a big hit with nvida nforce chipsets (among others)

good luck!