PC Turns Off Totaly

[[MenaceMovies]]

Hey there,

 

Recently I have been creating my own mod for San Andreas (Iraq In San Andreas) and it requires retexturing which then requires a good program like Photoshop. I ran Photoshop and then about 5 minutes later, the PC turns off unexpetedly without any warning. I cannot switch the PC back on, I have to unplug the PC and wait 30 seconds then plug it back in and then turn it back on. I just thought it was a bug in Photoshop. I then went to my very large Sony Vegas project. I start to render the project and then BAM, the pc turns off again.

 

Whenever I run a big program like them, my PC turns off. I expect that it is overheating. A couple of days ago my PC blew as a result. Luckily there hasn't been any real visible damage. But does anyone here know why this is happening, and is there a way to fix it?

 

Here are my Specs:

 

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer American Megatrends Inc.

System Type X86-based PC

Processor x86 Family 6 Model 10 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1666 Mhz

BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P1.80, 16/12/2003

SMBIOS Version 2.3

Locale United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"

Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB

Available Physical Memory 116.20 MB

Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB

Page File Space 1.88 GB

 

I removed some personal information like usernames ect...

 

[Naseem Srour]

I had this problem before.

And yes, when you run a big programs, there'll be overheating .. and that's what is causing the "turning off".

 

Don't ever format your PC, it won't fix it. I'v tried.

 

I solved my by problem by giving my PC to a professional, and changed the computers fans. They were dusty, but I cleaned them very will, but it didn't work. So just replace a your fans with new ones.

[Saget]

Overheating is the most likely cause...

Could be the processor overheating, or the video card. Get a program like Everest or whatever to check the temperatures =)

[Crokey]

Agreed on the overheating aspect, the best thing to do is to give your PC a damned good clean out of dust.

 

First get yourself a can of compressed air, they can be brought from decent PC shops or electronic component stores (not your average Best Buy/PC World) or a Camera shop, then the next step is to open up your PC and give it a good clean with the compressed air. I would advise you to take off the fan and heatsink to your processor to give that good clean and also give any other fans (as in Graphics card etc) in your setup a good clean with the air, the PSU should also be given a good clean out. Don't use any solvents and don't use a vacuum cleaner either as it can cause a slight static build-up.

 

Cleaning out the dust will drastically improve the performance of your PC. I would also get a program to test your RAM just to be on the safe side as RAM can be a problem for the restart issues. Then I would then do a good tidy up of your drive as well, as in updates (Windows and Drivers), Anti-Virus/Malware/Spyware, a Defrag, Disk Cleanup, deleting any old programs you don't use, registry cleaner, defrag again and then try it again.

[lpgunit]

Well, you said that your PC doesn't seem to show any visible signs of damage, but I guess you need to double-check on the mobo or any other vital components and check if there are any popped, bulging or deformed capacitors...

[Democrab]

Download CoreTemp and tell us what it says for CORE temperature, Then run Photoshop, do a few things and watch the temperature, see how high it goes and post it here.

 

It also could be a bad PSU.

 

And whats with people who don't know much about PC's posting "help" in here recently? or at least, people who are overreacting to what could be a simple problem. (Not really visible in this topic though.)

[Wolf68k]

I've had something like this twice.

First time the mobo fried; some capacitors blew until finally it wouldn't start up at all.

Second wasn't quite as bad but it turned out to be the PSU was dying.