For awhile now, my computer has been suddenly turning off whenever I watch movies. I am getting a brand new comp in a couple of months or so, therefore I decided that I'd just avoid watching movies on here until then. However, now it's shutting down even when I'm just browsing the internet and not doing anything specific.
When I say it shuts down, the screen will go to standby, and you can still hear the fan but nothing's on. Also, a couple of weeks ago I put on my computer, and the fan was making a loud droning noise. I had to switch it off/on a couple of times before the noise stopped.
I'm afraid hardware is a weak point of mine, but I'm convinced this must be a hardware problem though. I don't really want to splash out money for new parts (because I'm saving up for a new comp), so I hope I'll be able to at least keep it going until then.
BRIEF COMP INFO
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 1.92GHz RAM: 256MB H/D: 80GB
Which fan? Problems like yours are often caused by overheating issues. Check the CPU and environment temperature in the BIOS. Droning fans on CPU heatsinks are a bad thing because a overheating CPU can catch up damage easily. Failing case fans can overheat all the rest (memory, chipset), too.
That's way too hot and just before shutting down or dying, depending on your mobo's features. A typical healthy temperature under full load for that CPU is between 45°C and 60°C, depending on heatsink and airflow in the case.
You were faster, Charky :mrgreen: And I'm afraid that's the idle temp. he measured, that means that thing really shut off all the time... ~4000 rpm, that could really be the stock / boxed cooler.
Last edited by Xpenetrator; Nov 22nd, 2006 at 8:05 pm.
I put it on just now, and the CPU TEMP reads at 49°C. However, it was going up one digit at a time.
Is there anything I can do, besides purchasing a new piece of hardware? I opened the case to have a look, and nothing really stands out, such as a disconnection. But I don't have much of a clue when it comes to hardware, as I already said.
You can clean the heatsink (remove the dust that deposited over time).
Also you can check if the heatsink is seated properly. It has to be tight on the CPU. Any slack would result in heat not being spread to the heatsink, therefore CPU isn't getting cooled.
If you have thermal paste, best action would be to take off the heatsink (it's real simple - no screws), clean it from the dust and remove the old thermal paste from heatsink and from CPU, and apply thin layer of new thermal paste.
At the present state, it is not advised to you that you use the PC before it is taken care of.
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