I worked on a computer with a similar problem. I checked the obvious culprits only to find out that the owner kept his computer in a slot "made for the computer" in his desk. The desk was pushed up against a wall and wasn't allowing enough circulation to the computer and his CPU was overheating causing the unit to shut down. Once he moved it out of the slot, it stopped shutting down.

does it shut down under heavy load???

or at anytime?

*

First thing one would suspect at random shut down is Power Supply and overheated CPU. But somehow I suspected NVIDIA nForce Networking controler randomly shuts my machine down. It is HP Slimline desktop and when I disconnect network cable and enable wireless everything is OK for days. Plug network cable in it shuts down at about 30-45 minutes and more often later,
Anyone else having similar issue. Network adapter is built into the motherboard. Can it be faulty Netgear Router, but I have another PC connected with no problems. Yes, I have tried to use different cable, pluging into 3 different router ports.
I need 100 on this machine for quick data transfers.
Any suggestions?? Thanks!


I found this board board searching Nvidia NIC shuts off

Do you know if Thermal Grease was used when the CPU was installed? If you know how then removed the alloy heat shield holding the CPU in place and check. If there isn't any thermal grease, then go to a large PC store and buy a stick of it. Read carefully howto apply it and then refit the shield over the cpu.
(you may have to remove your moboard if you are unlucky. Don't try this unless you know what you're doing as one good slip of a screwdriver (unhooking the heat shield or refitting it) and you may damage the moboard.
It's unlikely that the ram's location is a major factor but the slot nearest the CPU is usually marked "O" and should be used if you have only one ram unit.
If the motherboard is a professionally built unit then the ram will be correctly installed but check anyway. (Friday night special syndrome)
The other factor and I don't see why unless you played around in the bios is the CPU run speed is set too high. Read up on how to set up the bios before trying anything.

Does the pc freezes up just before it shutsdown, I mean, does the last bit of sound from a game maybe repeat itself just before shutting down?
If so, you have an overheating problem, probably CPU. If you encounter visual abnormalities, check the temp of the heatsink on your Radeon to feel how hot it is.

Also try removing the memory dimm closest to the CPU, and reboot.

Hope this helps

>BstrucT<

I had the same type of problem. It seemed to have crept up over time and just got worse.

I took the CPU heatsink off and cleaned it thoroughly. It was bad. I replaced the thermal compund, make shure not to use more than a light smear. Its just there to fill microscopic gaps between the metals. Too much of this stuff is worse.

I took the video card out. NVIDIA with a large shroud over the heatsink. It was plugged. It was running hot. Too hot to keep a finger on. I changed the thermal compound.

My son cleaned the inside of the power supply. He's 20 by the way.

The unit works much better and the CPU is within temperature specs. I checked the AMD site and the AMD Athelon 64 +3800 can run at 2.4Ghz and up to 67 deg. C. Its being run at 2.01 Ghz and keeps a max of 42 deg. C The alarm is set for 50 deg. C

Everytime I access the DVD drive the computer wants to shut down. Usually in a very short time. I changed the drive and get the same result. I can run for hours otherwise. Still shuts down on rare occasion even when I don't use the DVD drive.

I kept looking once I left the site and look at what I found on motherboards.

http:////www.theinquirer.net/inquire...ndom-shutdowns

I'll try the UDMA mode change first and then look for the capacitor C565. An electrolitic capacitor would explain the problem creeping up slowly. They tend to dry up with time and some runs had bad paste in them that dried prematurely. My motherboard is about 3 or 4 years old.

Later
Pokearoo

As far as I can see is that this might be a RAM problem just check it out yourself if you have some hardware knowledge or get it to some computer/ laptop repair expert.

Regards
"gamemaniac"