Computer switching off

I have a A8N SLI SE with a AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diago Core, 1GB
of Hynix PC3200 memory, Leadtek Nvidia 6800GS 256mb, two ide 160mb hard
drives (samsung) and two DVD writers.This is housed in a Jeantech Apollo
case with a Jeantech 400W power supply.

My problem is I can install windows xp (home or professional) but when I
laod the drivers for the motherboard and video I get intermittent problems
with the computer shutting itself down, sometimes rebooting/sometimes
complete shutdown. I proble is that I can start the computer get to the iser
logon screen, select the user, the desktop starts and as soon as I click or
move the mouse the computer reboots. This happens two or three times in a
row and then the computer will start properly and stay on for a couple of
days.

Also when I load Paintshop pro 10 the problem seems worse.

I don't appear to get any problems when I use SUSE 10 64 bit.


Any help would be appreciated.

David Hester wrote:

I have a A8N SLI SE with a AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diago Core, 1GB
of Hynix PC3200 memory, Leadtek Nvidia 6800GS 256mb, two ide 160mb hard
drives (samsung) and two DVD writers.This is housed in a Jeantech Apollo
case with a Jeantech 400W power supply.

My problem is I can install windows xp (home or professional) but when I
laod the drivers for the motherboard and video I get intermittent problems
with the computer shutting itself down, sometimes rebooting/sometimes
complete shutdown. I proble is that I can start the computer get to the
iser logon screen, select the user, the desktop starts and as soon as I
click or move the mouse the computer reboots. This happens two or three
times in a row and then the computer will start properly and stay on for a
couple of days.

Also when I load Paintshop pro 10 the problem seems worse.

I don't appear to get any problems when I use SUSE 10 64 bit.


Any help would be appreciated.

run a memory testing software like memtest86
and see if you have a memory problem
http://www.memtest86.com/

I had a problem with a bad simm, the computer would
act ok until I'd do some random event usually related to
video processing. Simply clicking the mouse on
the desktop, moving a window, sliding a scroll bar,
and the PC would instantly die. I didn't get any
warning at all it would just black screen and the
motherboard was powered down instantly. It was as
fast as if you pulled the cord out of the wall.

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 22:40:25 +0000, David Hester wrote:

I have a A8N SLI SE with a AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diago Core, 1GB
of Hynix PC3200 memory, Leadtek Nvidia 6800GS 256mb, two ide 160mb hard
drives (samsung) and two DVD writers.This is housed in a Jeantech Apollo
case with a Jeantech 400W power supply.

My problem is I can install windows xp (home or professional) but when I
laod the drivers for the motherboard and video I get intermittent problems
with the computer shutting itself down, sometimes rebooting/sometimes
complete shutdown. I proble is that I can start the computer get to the iser
logon screen, select the user, the desktop starts and as soon as I click or
move the mouse the computer reboots. This happens two or three times in a
row and then the computer will start properly and stay on for a couple of
days.

Also when I load Paintshop pro 10 the problem seems worse.

I don't appear to get any problems when I use SUSE 10 64 bit.


Any help would be appreciated.

I suspect you have an inadequate or bad power supply, 400W is a little on
the light side for a box with two drives and a 6800 graphics card. Linux
does a good job of using the cool and quiet features of the A64 processors
so chances are when you run Linux it has the CPU set to the minimum clock
speed which might be the reason the system is stable when you run SUSE.
Also are you using the Nvidia drivers or the NV driver under Linux? If you
are using the open source nv driver then you aren't using the 3D
acceleration section of your graphics chip which would also serve to
reduce your power usage under Linux.

Have you tried a cpu intensive program on SUSE? A CPU intensive program
will bump the CPU clock speed up to the maximum and increase the load on
your power supply.

One more thing, what are your CPU temperatures? Under Linux you can read
them using lmsensors, under Windows you would want to use Motherboard
monitor. You can also check the temperature in the BIOS which would be a
good idea to try after your next crash.