Random crash

[lizardkid]

Inexplicably, my computer will black out and shut down; the monitor turns off, nothing is processed, no sound. you can even hear the fan turn off.

Oddly, it does it most in games (most in WoW) but it will do it on the desktop. The strangest thing is it seems totally random, i've left Oblivion on for 4 hours at one point, came back and it was fine. then closing it down and leaving again, it crashed on the desktop.

I've run the lot on what it could be, but i've all but ruled out overheating, i dusted it out and it's never happened before a week ago, so i doubt thats it.

other than that, any ideas?

[At0miC]

I had that too once. The PC shutted down for no reason and it went extremer after some time. When I tried to start up the pc, its starting for like 3 secs and then it shuts down again. In my situation there was a disturbance in my motherboard, damaged by overheating or dust. I had to replace the motherboard with a new one because of that.

[hogleg]

that happened to me too. if those voltage regulators on the mobo go above recommended operating temperatures for too long they power up for awhile then fail, when they do its instant off.

how old is your sys?

[bdbodger]

My old cpu was a amd 3800+ that had a couple damaged pins . I had it repaired but after that I could not use amd's cool and quiet because that lowers voltage when you are at idle that caused the computer to all of a sudden cut out and reboot. When not useing cool and quiet it was fine but ran at 100% voltage all the time . That uses more power and wastes electricity . So I would suspect a possible voltage problem as hogleg said . Maybe random voltage drops are the problem .

[lizardkid]

i've upgraded parts of my sys for 3 years, but i've never redone the power supply, could it be having trouble regulating power? power drops sound like that may be the case.

my mobo is fairly new, about 4-6 months.

[tltrude]

There is a built-in program for troubleshooting Windows called "drwatson". It runs in the background, if its turned on, and writes a report if the system crashes. The report is kind of technical, but it should say what caused the shutdown, if it was software based. To turn it on, just type "drwatson" in start > run.

[Rookie One.pl]

Well, when I had this problem, it was my video card's fault. First, it was crashing and switching the comp off, just like yours, then it started producing artifacts, even on desktop. Sometimes the PC wouldn't even start for a minute or two (the screen was completely black for all this time and then suddenly the startup commenced). Replacing the vid card with a new one fixed it.

Try borrowing a video card from someone and seeing if the problem persists.

[lizardkid]

it pained me to do it, but i pulled out my old vid card that i used before, i cant even remember the model of it, installed it (same drivers as my 6600), and it did the same stuff, albeit it took longer to do so.

I'm thinking it MUST be the mobo.. but it still could be the supply. gah this is frusterating.

i'm running drwatson, as soon as it crashes i'll look it up and see what it says.

[hogleg]

you might want to try a new power supply first, their so cheap now. Just go through the process of elimination.

try removing your RAM and reinstall and make sure its showing the amount of ram that you have.

good luck

might try a reg cleaner too

[Jack Ruby]

It might be that your drawing too much from an old power supply, I upgraded a lil over a year ago, I think I got a 550w power supply.

[lizardkid]

i decided to order a new supply/case, only $50 US. mine's only got 350watts and this has 450, so if mine just cant make it with further upgrades this one can.

added bonus it has better cooling, so another future problem eliminated