hi all ,

system configuration :

CPU : AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Motherboard : ECS RS482-m 1.0A
RAM : Kingston 512MB KVR400 DDR
OS : WinXPSP2 and WinXP 64 bit

Problem :

My computer runs fine under normal conditions, but shuts down
when any CPU intensive activity is performed.

what could be the reasons ???

I have checked the RAM but it is OK !

Other considerations that might help :

1> there is no thermal paste on my heat sink, could it be the reason
2> my SMPS is only 400W it could be the reason ??

regards,

~rd

- "nothing's impossible"

You will need to narrow this down abit further weather this is hardware or software issue are you running any software that monitors system temps? What do you consider CPU intensive? What temp is the cpu at sitting idle and under load? Have you cleaned the cpu heat sink of any dust build up? are the case fans clean and not blocked? that should get us started.

Will

1. you MUST have some sort of thermal transfer material between the CPU & heatsink. Most heatsinks come with a thermal pad preinstalled...if this is what you have, no paste is necessary. If you're sure there is nothing there, you will need to apply some paste.

2. 400W *may* be sufficient, it all depends on the amperage on the +12v line(s) & the quality of the power supply. If it's a $20 piece of crap or one that came pre-installed in a $50 case, you're just asking for trouble.

well replying in the order i revceived them :

for polizi :

1> i think this is a hardware issue since if it would have been a software issue i could have tracked it down easily !

2> another thing is that my temperature sensor isnt working so i cant tell u the tempearatures.

3> now coming to the cpu intensive tasks, they are :

1>> opening a dos windows that consumes 90% of cpu shuts down the pc

2>> running any benchmarks that test cpu shuts down the pc

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for jam :

1> some thermal material came with my heatsink but that was cleaned accidently, so i shall be re-applying it asap.

2> i have heard that AMD cpu's need more power than 400W like 550W or more is it true ??

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~rd

- "nothing's impossible"

"i have heard that AMD cpu's need more power than 400W like 550W or more is it true ??"

Not true. Like I said above, it's the amperage on the +12v line(s) & quality of the PSU that's important. A decent quality 350W PSU is better than "El Cheapo" 550W. When it comes to PSUs, you get what you pay for. You should plan on spending at least $50 (unless its on sale).

I have to disagree with jam on this one. Though he's right about PSUs and quality, I would say you should spend more than $50 on a good PSU. Look on newegg.com, and just see how much the SLI-ready PSUs that conform to ATX 2.01 are going for. Most are near or over $100!

And on the subject of this post, put some freakin' thermal paste on your HSF and that should fix it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104953

Touche... (blush)

Where are you reading the temps at, I use both my bios temps and the temp on Everest home edition to monitor temps. but thermal paste is a must have and if you dont have any it can be optained from any local pc shop or best buy the shack might have it as well.

You can run your system with a 300watt PSU. Gateway does on their GT4016 series running an AMD Athlon 64 3700+. So the watts on your PSU isn't the problem. It maybe the amps anything lower then 16/a on a ATX 1.0 12v rail is asking for trouble.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7800GT
SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI