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my PC keeps on restartng/shutting down on irregular intervals without any apparent reason,


the intervals at which the computer restarts or just shuts down are very random sometimes it restarts just when windows starts to boot and sometimes it restarts after running for many hours without any problem


sometimes I also hear a twisting and turning sound before the computer restarts ,, it seems that the sound
comes form the hard disk


sometimes the PC just shuts down and sometimes it also
tries to restart it self

when it only shuts down i have to 1st turn off and than turn on the power from the mains as without this pressing the power or reset button on the CPU does not have any effect


I have reinstalled windows many times but the problem persists , so this is most likely a hardware problem , however I am unable to pin point the device which might be causing the problem


i got this PC about 3 months back and this problem started appearing only about 15 days ago

the specs are

Pentium 4 3.06 processor
Kingston 1 gb ddr2 ram
Seagate 80 gb hd
Intel d102 ddc mother board

any help is appreciated


thanks:idea:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Chaky

Dani AI

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Short summary tied to the thread: has already tried unplugging the drive and powering the HDD from another supply, and pointed toward power/cabling. The symptoms that matter most are: (a) the motherboard fan slows right before a shutdown, (b) the system sometimes needs the mains to be cycled before it will power on again, and (c) failures are random (from boot to many hours running). Those signs point to an intermittent power-delivery or protection-latch problem rather than a simple IDE cable or OS issue.

Why that points to the PSU / power circuitry
A fan slowing then an immediate shutdown usually means a rail is collapsing or the PSU is going into a protection mode (overcurrent/overtemp). The need to remove mains power to get the machine to power on again matches a PSU latch/protection condition. HDD noises can be a side effect of voltage dips, not a failed platter mechanism.

Actionable troubleshooting (in order)

  1. Stop normal use until tested — intermittent power faults can damage drives, CPU, or board.
  2. Do a minimal-boot (bench) test: remove all nonessential devices, leave only CPU, one RAM stick, and onboard video. See if it still fails.
  3. Swap in a known-good PSU. This is the single most conclusive test. If stable with a different PSU, replace the original.
  4. If you can measure safely, check ATX rail voltages at the 20/24-pin connector (+12, +5, +3.3 and 5VSB) with a DMM; large deviations or collapse under light load confirm a bad PSU. Typical ATX rails should be close to their nominal values.
  5. Inspect the motherboard for bulging or leaking capacitors and burnt connectors, and reseat cables and RAM.

If swapping the PSU fixes it, buy a quality replacement with adequate +12V capacity. If the problem persists with a known-good PSU, the motherboard’s power circuitry is suspect and should be inspected or replaced.

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Member Avatar for Chaky

Your problem is with HD power cable. Poor contacts make unrecoverable error with windows and they shut down (with or without BSOD). You can disable the "automatic shutdown while booting" feature, but that would be useful only with /SOS boot comand ("msconfig" in the "run" menu item).

I suggest that (if this is retail PC) you use the waranty. Some retail PC's has waranty sticker on the casing, so if you open it up, you will tear the sticker and void your waranty.

If this is a custom-built PC, try changing the power and ide/sata cables on your HD.

Member Avatar for ide

/\
thanks .. to narrow down the problem i unplugged the hard disk cable and kept the pc running .... the problme still appeared .. computer hung for a while and than got shutdown ...so we can say that the problme isn't with the hd

what else can be the reason ?

thanks

Member Avatar for ide

I have also noticed that .. when there is noise from the hd than the motherboard fan also seems to slow down and than after a few sec the computer stops ..

Now i hav given seperate power to the hard disk from another old P3 power supply , computer has restarted once after that ... but there was no noise from hard disk before the computer restarted .. only the hard disk has been given the new powersupply rest of the things are still on the p4 power supply

to me it looks like a issue of an unstable power supply

any comments are welcome

thanks

Member Avatar for Chaky

I believe that you are on the right track.

Getting new PSU would be the cheapest remedy. You don't have to wait until something like CPU ($$$) dies because of it.

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