Spontaneous shutdowns with new AMD64 system.

I recently built a gaming machine for a friend of mine that wanted to play
World of Warcraft without selling a kidney to buy a machine. It worked
fine at first, but lately it's gone south. And I'm out of ideas at this
point as to what might be wrong with it.

Spec:
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, stock retail heatsink.
MSI K8N Neo, nForce 3 250
1GB RAM
WD 80GB SATA
LG CD-RW/DVD-ROM
GeForce FX 5200

Nothing is overclocked, tweaked, modded, or otherwise altered from stock.

Here's the problem. It'll boot just fine, and run for 5-10 minutes.
Everything looks fine, but then it just *stops*. Full system shutdown,
like somebody pulled the plug. Except that the power LED on the front of
the case blinks on and off. And it won't restart until/unless I hit the
cutoff on the PSU or unpug the machine and plug it back in.

My first thought was the power supply, since the case it's built in had a
*very* cheap PSU. So I went and bought the overkill 480W PSU. No change.

I thought it might be heat, but I checked the HW monitor in the BIOS, and
it was only at around 100F when it shutdown.

So I'm stumped, and my friend really wants his game machine back. What
should I check/replace next to get this machine back on its feet?

Brian
--
ICQ#: 68214833 | AIM: LineNoise54
..
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends
will leave footprints in your heart.

Start by taking the mobo out of the case and seeing if
it will post and stay up.

johns

"Brian" wrote in message
...
I recently built a gaming machine for a friend of mine that wanted to play
World of Warcraft without selling a kidney to buy a machine. It worked
fine at first, but lately it's gone south. And I'm out of ideas at this
point as to what might be wrong with it.

Pretty good spec

Nothing is overclocked, tweaked, modded, or otherwise altered from stock.

Here's the problem. It'll boot just fine, and run for 5-10 minutes.
Everything looks fine, but then it just *stops*. Full system shutdown,
like somebody pulled the plug. Except that the power LED on the front of
the case blinks on and off. And it won't restart until/unless I hit the
cutoff on the PSU or unpug the machine and plug it back in.

My first thought was the power supply, since the case it's built in had a
*very* cheap PSU. So I went and bought the overkill 480W PSU. No change.

I thought it might be heat, but I checked the HW monitor in the BIOS, and
it was only at around 100F when it shutdown.

So I'm stumped, and my friend really wants his game machine back. What
should I check/replace next to get this machine back on its feet?

Brian
--
ICQ#: 68214833 | AIM: LineNoise54
.
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends
will leave footprints in your heart.

Why not check the Event log first ?. seems like the easiest first option.

"Brian" wrote in message
...
I recently built a gaming machine for a friend of mine that wanted to play
World of Warcraft without selling a kidney to buy a machine. It worked
fine at first, but lately it's gone south. And I'm out of ideas at this
point as to what might be wrong with it.

Pretty good spec.

Nothing is overclocked, tweaked, modded, or otherwise altered from stock.

Here's the problem. It'll boot just fine, and run for 5-10 minutes.
Everything looks fine, but then it just *stops*. Full system shutdown,
like somebody pulled the plug. Except that the power LED on the front of
the case blinks on and off. And it won't restart until/unless I hit the
cutoff on the PSU or unpug the machine and plug it back in.

My first thought was the power supply, since the case it's built in had a
*very* cheap PSU. So I went and bought the overkill 480W PSU. No change.

I thought it might be heat, but I checked the HW monitor in the BIOS, and
it was only at around 100F when it shutdown.

So I'm stumped, and my friend really wants his game machine back. What
should I check/replace next to get this machine back on its feet?

Brian
--
ICQ#: 68214833 | AIM: LineNoise54
.
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends
will leave footprints in your heart.

Brian wrote:

Spec:
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, stock retail heatsink.
MSI K8N Neo, nForce 3 250
1GB RAM
WD 80GB SATA
LG CD-RW/DVD-ROM
GeForce FX 5200

My first thought was the power supply, since the case it's built in had a
*very* cheap PSU. So I went and bought the overkill 480W PSU. No change.

A good 350W supply is easily enough for that setup. Even a good 300W
supply is probably enough. I've never heard of that brand "overkill".
What makes you think it is not a piece of junk?

Try unplugging the heat-sensor and run the machine for a half-hour wit
the case closed. Pull off the side cover and feel the Athlon to see how
hot it's running. Try not to burn yourself too much and, of course, take
off any ring or watch before shoving a (one only) hand into a hot
chassis. Maybe the sensor is defective.

ps: some heat-sensors may be embedded and MSI used something called a
tubular-sensor. I see I'm responding to an old thread but that's ok.