View Full Version : Ye Computer gurus
KF0RT
01-27-2007, 02:44 AM
Okay... Got the XYL's new machine put together, and it powers up, sorta.
Motherboard is a MSI 945GM3; 2 Gig RAM. Processor is an Intel E6300, "Core 2 Duo." Got a 160 Gig SATA hard drive and a DVD/CD drive connected.
Here's the problem... Power it up and it runs for about a minute and then it shuts down. It sees the drives and seems to work. It will even start to load the Windows XP disk. But, after about a minute or two, it powers off on it's own. Just shuts down in the middle of things.
Ring any bells?
Thx in advance...
73, Rob
kn4ds
01-27-2007, 02:49 AM
Heat. You do have the heat sink and fan installed, right?
Or flaked CPU.
Just off the top of my head.
KD6NIG
01-27-2007, 03:00 AM
Overheat on the power supply or the motherboard, processor or maybe any other area with a heat sensor.
The modern machines have them in a few places. Go over that temprature and it will shut down.
Check the power supply and other fans. Either that or maybe you have a loose motherboard connection, a loose card or something, but usually the main failsafe for a turnoff is heat related.
Or you're exceeding the power supply limits-again highly unlikely. Unless that computer has a bunch of stuff attached to it....
Yikes! Look at heat issues. Look at voltage settings for the CPU too! One may bet set too high causing excess heat or instability in the motherboard or CPU. Check everything against the MB manual! Visually determine if ALL the fans, power supply included, are running and are not clogged up with dust. My guess is heat if it shuts down at much the same interval everytime. Good luck!
Let us know!
wb7dmx
01-27-2007, 06:27 AM
go into the bios at boot up and then to hardware in the bios and you will see where you can monitor the temp of the cpu, leave it there a while and see if it is constantly climbing up.
if it is steady then the cpu is not overheating.
if it goes up while your watching it,
shut down and re-seat the heatsink and fan assembly.
KF0RT
01-27-2007, 12:50 PM
Quote[/b] (wb7dmx @ Jan. 26 2007,23:27)]go into the bios at boot up and then to hardware in the bios and you will see where you can monitor the temp of the cpu, leave it there a while and see if it is constantly climbing up.
if it is steady then the cpu is not overheating.
if it goes up while your watching it,
shut down and re-seat the heatsink and fan assembly.
I think you guys are right! I went into the H/W Monitor in the BIOS and watched the CPU temp climb to 200 degrees plus. I'll pull the fan and reseat it.
What should the max temp be? The motherboard manual shows 77 degrees F in the screen shot, but doesn't say anything about it.
73, Rob
KF0RT
01-27-2007, 01:58 PM
Yup, that was it...
My mistake was in following the arrows on the plastic fasteners on the cooling fan. If you turn the fasteners towards the arrows, it releases things instead of locking (d-oh!). Would have never guessed that.
Seems to have stabilized at about 120 degrees after sitting powered-up for an hour or so with all the covers off the box.
Thanks and a tip o' the hat to the QRZ geeks. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
73, Rob
wb7dmx
01-27-2007, 05:49 PM
thank you for posting back that you got it fixed.
its a good feeling to know we have helped another ham find the problem.
bob
WB7DMX
Quote[/b] ]Seems to have stabilized at about 120 degrees after sitting powered-up for an hour or so with all the covers off the box.
That's not bad for that processor family and I assume a stock heat sink. You did put heat sink compund on the processor didn't you? First thing I do when I build one is carefully scrape off the silicone pad that comes on a lot of heat sinks and apply some arctic silver heat sink compound.
KF0RT
01-27-2007, 09:37 PM
Quote[/b] (AC0H @ Jan. 27 2007,10:51)]Quote[/b] ]Seems to have stabilized at about 120 degrees after sitting powered-up for an hour or so with all the covers off the box.
That's not bad for that processor family and I assume a stock heat sink. You did put heat sink compund on the processor didn't you? First thing I do when I build one is carefully scrape off the silicone pad that comes on a lot of heat sinks and apply some arctic silver heat sink compound.
No heat sink compound (mostly because I didn't have any handy). It's all "Intel spec" though -- the fan and heatsink came with the processor in a sealed Intel box. The few times I checked it, it was running between 110 and 120 degrees. I'll check it again later and see how it looks with all the covers on.
All up and running and moved out of the shack. XYL is doing the grueling WoW install on it now. A couple more half gig downloads and it should be ready to "play." http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Man, her "old" machine is filthy. Four years of sitting on the floor...
73, Rob
Quote[/b] ]Man, her "old" machine is filthy. Four years of sitting on the floor...
Yeah, that killed my mother's first computer.
If anybody ever asks why you shouldn't put computers on the floor just open up the vacuum cleaner bag and show them.