Random Powerdowns

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Guest

Guest
I have a weird problem. My system powers itself down automatically after about 30 seconds, sometimes 5 minutes. Then sometimes it works for hours without a problem.
My system :
Abit BP6 dual Celeron 500 (not overclocked)
Memory 196MB
HD : IBM Deskstar 18GB, Maxtor 8 GB, WD 4 GB
CD : Creative 36+Plexwriter 12speed
TV-Tuner : ATI TV Wonder VE
Soundcard : AWE64
Network : Intel 21140
GPU : MSI Geforce2MX

At first I thought it was a heat problem, but my fans work OK, and average temperature is about 44 degrees (celsius). The power supply is 300W, so that shouldn't be an issue. I tried taking the cards out one by one, which doesn't help.
What do you think it might be ?

Yves
 

Flyboy

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Dec 31, 2007
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Just thought I would try help, although I know only half as much as most of the users in this forum.

1. I would make sure you have the latest BIOS revision. There's one dated May 2000 I believe.
2. Driver updates?
3. If you are running Windows 98, I'd upgrade to the 2nd edition if you haven't already. That helped one of my problems in my system.

Did you just build this system? Or did it just now begin misbehaving after owning it for some time?

One more thing. Will the system boot and run in SAFE mode? If it does, you probably just need to update some of your drivers.

Good luck!
 
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Guest

Guest
Thanks for the help. The problem doesn't relate to the OS though, since I run Windows 2000 most of the time, but also Linux and 98 and it sometimes even powers down before the OS starts booting.

It might have to do something with BIOS drivers though. I'll check that out. Good point. I've used this system for about 2 months now and it's only lately doijng this. Since that time, I got the TV card, cable-internet, new memory and the CDWriter. But taking any of them out doesn't solve the problem...

Yves
 

Dravic

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Being that its OS independent I can only assume its hardware or Bios. See if there is a more current version of the bios available. But even beore that, check the bios settings for power managament, you may have accidently activated a power management feature while tooling thru the bios for optimizations.... I have done this in the past myself.

When you mean power down, is it sending a signal to the OS to go though shutdown, or are you just experiencing the loss of power. The 1st would indicate power management software from the mainboard. The second could be power supply..

All PSU are not created equal, 300W isnt any good if the power coming from the PSU isnt clean/steady. Maybe trying a PSU unit off the AMD approved list would be a good thing to try.

Abit KT7 RAID
Duron 650@896
128MB pc133@149cas2
Geforce2mx(205/215)
Antect s1030/sblive+
 
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Guest

Guest
I have checked the BIOS, did the BIOS update, and the same thing still happens. I guess it must be the power supply then. It's really random though. I have the system running for 2 days stright now without problems. I guess if I never shut down, it's OK ;-)

Thanks for the help,

Yves
 
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Guest

Guest
You ether have a bad power supply, or a bad cpu fan. Intel cpu's shut down if the fan goes out. AMD cpu's burn up.
 

Ncogneto

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Dec 31, 2007
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Interesting and frusterating it can be several things, I suggest pinpointing in in the following order.
1) Make sure you have the most current bios
2) Disable advance power managment in your bios
3) Try replaceing your vidoe card temporarily with a cheap 2 meg pci card, some mobo's have problems supplying enough power to the agp slot and it is not always the fault of the PS.
4) Disconnect your secondary HDD, this will decrease the load on your PS
5)If all else has failed have your power supply checked out and replace if neccesary.

One thing you failed to mention do you get shutdown error's upon reboot after this happens and have to run thru scandisk?
 
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Guest

Guest
I vote for the ATX power supply as the culprit.

Whenever I have dealt with this type of problem (it has happened more than a few times at my office), switching the power supply has always fixxed the problem.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by RingingHell on 11/22/00 03:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
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Guest

Guest
Dear all,

I have fixed the problem now. It was indeed the power supply. I got a new 300W one, and it works just fine.

Thanks,
Yves