Random shut down

I built myself a new computer a little less than a year ago and I am experiencing the following problem: It will randomly shut off by itself, with no warning. Its a complete power shut down. AMD CPU DFI LAN-Party board Foxconn nVidia 256mb video I cant for the life of me figure it out. It was on non-stop for three days without a signle problem. Then I shut it down for a night, and the next morning I try to turn it on and it would load windows, let me log on, and then shut down. sometimes it would only stay on for a minute, sometimes it would stay on for 20 minutes. Ive cleaned all of the dust out of the fan parts/heatsinks for the RAM, video, and cpu. I even took the heatsink off of the the cpu, cleaned the grease off, and re-applyed it. I set my bios to disable any of the heat warnings/automatic shut down. I cant for the life of me figure out whats going on. its been running this exact set-up, error free, no heat problems for a little under a year. Thanks

Hi Karamazov,

I googled for you and found Random Shutdowns.

Someone else will come by that knows more, but in the meantime perhaps some of the links there may help you.

kind regards,

I set my bios to disable any of the heat warnings

Why on Earth would you do that? Random shutdowns can be caused by many things, but the first thing I look for is heat problems. You cleaned the interior of dust and that is good, but you also need to look at your temperatures to make sure they are good.

Inspect the motherboard for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors. These failed or failing capacitors are a common cause of sudden, but seemingly random system lock ups and reboots. The capacitors look like tall soda cans, many of which surround the CPU socket.

All older motherboards, and many of today's less expensive motherboards use electrolytic capacitors containing a liquid electrolyte. Failing (including flawed and/or abused/over-heated) capacitors literally bulge at the seams due to excessive internal pressures. Extreme (and very rare) cases result in a firecracker type explosion that can really stink up a room. Typically, electrolyte just oozes from the pressure relief points stamped in the tops of the capacitor casings (seen as a symbol or letter). The electrolyte can be caustic to motherboards and flesh. Look for white to dark-brown, dried liquid or foam on the tops or bottoms of the capacitors. Bulging capacitors are a sign leakage is about to occur.

A motherboard with bulging or leaky capacitors can be repaired, but often it is more cost effective in the long run to replace the motherboard.

Have you scanned for malware?

A failing or over-stressed PSU can cause sudden shutdowns too.

I set my bios to disable any of the heat warnings

Why on Earth would you do that?

agk ! agreed ! It's there to help you, use it !

Random shutdowns can be caused by many things, but the first thing I look for is heat problems.

A failing or over-stressed PSU can cause sudden shutdowns too.

also agreed. Those are the first two things I would look at.

Tallon41

I disabled the heat shut down for the reaosn that I wanted to test to see if it was heat related. The temps weren't reading anything abnormal when I disabled it, and are not now either. Around 25-35 C at most. Iv looked over my mobo thoroughly and have found no bulging, missing, or exploded capacitors. I have a different power supply that my brother has laying around on its way to test that out. PSU seems to be the likely culprit. I had forgotten that I was going to replace it with a higher wattage one when I got the chance. The one in there now is the original one that came with the case and is only rated at around 400 watts. The one I had originally ordered was 700 watts but came DOA..

I replaced my Psu with a brand new, right out of the box 550 watt version and still had the same thing happen. I also replaced the cmos battery too. I cant figure out what could be causing this problem