Hello,

I have recently built on my own PC for the first time. It consists of an
Asus P4P800-SE motherboard
2.8 P4 HT chipset +heatsink/fan (board is HT compatible)
3 fans (i haven't hooked up 2 fans yet since i haven't closed up the computer yet and the 2 fans are on the case wall)
Sony Cd Burner
12gig WD HDD
radeon 9000 128MB card
and floppy drive.

Now, for the first time, I powered it on. It loaded the win2k (which was previously installed on hdd), and then auto-shuts off without any warning. I tried it again, this time, it shut off while win2k was loading. I tried starting the computer 2-3 more times. It seems that the computer auto-shuts off during a random point of the boot-up. Always withing the first 6-7 seconds. Because the auto-shut off is some random point, my guess is the problem lies within the hardware. My guess is reinforced by the fact that on my old PC (where the HDD, cd-burner, floppy, and vid card were taken out of), the boot-up was perfectly fine.

Thank you for your time.

-Amit

try rebooting using your old power supply to eliminate the new ps as the problem

Would it be safe to do so? The PSU i have on the recently built system is 350 watts. the PSU on my older system which had a P3 500MHz processor, is only 300 watts. Would 300 watts be sufficient to run the P4 system?

-Amit

could be a problem with the w2k installation. I'd do a clean install.

I can't even do a clean install because I can't get that far into the boot process before it auto-shuts off.

-Amit

does it beep?

could be your heatsink is not on correctly

I'd try resetting the BIOS to default if you haven't done this already.

Well, there is the initial beep of it starting up within the first second or two, but after that, there are nor further beeps. When it randomly shuts off within the first 5 seconds, there is no warning.

If I try getting into the bios, I am maybe able to see the bios for 1-3 seconds before the computer auto-shuts off.

-Amit

300 watt is enough. DO NOT use old power supply if your old computer is a dell.

My old computer is a dell. Just out of curiousity, why not use its psu?

Anyway, I guess it could be that the heatsink is not on properly. Not sure why that would cause the computer to auto shut down only in a few seconds rather than minutes.

When building my PC, i noticed that the heatsink did not fit in properly. I'm pretty sure I put in the CPU correctly since I aligned it and was able to pull down the metal latch with ease. When I was putting in the heatsink and fan, I noticed that I was able to put in the outer case fan in and have it lock. However, the heatsink within it didn't lock. I noticed it and tried to make it lock, but I thought that maybe it was designed so u could move it around a little bit within the confinements of the fan case box.

-Amit

You can reset the BIOS by a jumper on the MOBO or by removing the MOBO battery for a while and then putting it back in.

is the heatsink suppose to fit in a bit loosely when within the retention unit?

I haven't even changed any settings of the bios. Do you think resetting it would make a difference?

-Amit

sounds like your heatsink is not on correctly

Resetting the BIOS is easy and will do no harm.

BIOS corruption would give you the symptoms you describe.

"sounds like your heatsink is not on correctly"

Skip

johnoh and Skip are right. The heatsink has to be snug to the processor or the asus bios will cause the shut down to protect their motherboard

LOL Johnoh, I think the message finally got through.

This is crazy, the heat sink is probably on there perfectly fine. And even if it weren’t it wouldn't cause the computer to randomly reboot because P4's run extremely cool when they're running DOS or just doing nothing.

If you were running Windows and this was happening it would be a different story though cause Windows need a little more processing power then just sitting in the BIOS or using DOS!

The problem is, you didn't do a clean install, and now there are drivers conflicting with each other. You have to reinstall. You DO have your CD don't you? Don’t forget to set the first boot device to “CD” in the bios.

Symbios

Oh yeah, and the heat sink within the retention unit is NOT supposed to be loose. Did you lock it down? (By pressing the little gray levers down on either side of the retention unit)

Symbios

"And even if it weren’t it wouldn't cause the computer to randomly reboot"

um, sure it would.

"because P4's run extremely cool when they're running DOS or just doing nothing."

a PC (whether amd or intel) running dos or the bios compares to running in windows exactly like a car at idle compares to a car going at 60mph. In either case, a loose coolant hose will cause an overheat. You are right in pointing out that windows is a stressful environment compared to dos or bios, but a cpu draws a significant amount of static power (static = constant regardless of execution load) at all times, unless Halt on Idle is enabled (but even then, a loose sink can cause an overheat)

Just to add to johnoh's very clear explaination....you probably WILL have to re-install windows unless you loaded standared chipset drivers before you removed the HD from your previous system.
I also agree that thats not the shut down problem because if it were it would try to boot into windows each time and probably would load into a blue screen.
When it almost booted into windows it was probably still cool enough to get that far.

I've noticed Win2K doesn't blue screen if theres a software problem during bootup. If it's a hardware problem it'll blue screen you.

Anyway Johnoh, I was talking about it randomly rebooting at the post screen or in the bios. I know it can happen in Windows.

I have a 2.4G P4 that I ran without a heatsink (I'm a very curious person! lol) while in DOS. It was about 84F according to the BIOS. (72F with heatsink)

runs running a little hotter then a 2.4, I didn't notice he has a 2.8, sorry!

Symbios

Hmm the end of my post got messed up, let's try this again.

But I guess a 2.8 runs running a little hotter then a 2.4, I didn't notice he has a 2.8, sorry!

Symbios

I'm NOT talking about a software problem . I'm talking about the old chipset drivers not recognizing the new chipset (Hardware). When that happens Windows 2K WILL blue screen 8 out of 10 times.

Yes that's what I'm saying, drivers count as software too.

Symbios

I did, the 2 gray levers are compltely down and complacent. The rentiontion unit is completely locked in. The heatsink within it though can move around a tiny bit within the retention unit.

I have trouble modifying the settings in bios (such as boot from CD) because of the problem the computer has of auto shutting down after running for a few seconds. I can barely do anything in bios.

-Amit

"I have a 2.4G P4 that I ran without a heatsink while in DOS. It was about 84F according to the BIOS. (72F with heatsink)"

This cannot happen with a p4 cpu. It will shutdown in seconds with no heatsink. Perhaps you mean no fan on top of the heatsink?

Even then, the F needs to be a C.

Amit,

Well that’s normal ALL heatsinks can move around just a tiny bit.

You didn’t mention it was doing it in the bios as well! That’s something I would’ve liked to know! Lol. Anyway this means it’s definitely a hardware problem, remove everything from the motherboard except the CPU the Graphics card and the RAM and see what happens.

Johnoh,

Nope NO heatsink just the bare chip, it ran fine (I only had it on for 3 minutes though, I started getting a little nervous!).

Symbios

Symbios,

amit's original post

" I tried it again, this time, it shut off while win2k was loading. I tried starting the computer 2-3 more times. It seems that the computer auto-shuts off during a random point of the boot-up. Always withing the first 6-7 seconds."

Responce 4

"I can't even do a clean install because I can't get that far into the boot process before it auto-shuts off."

Responce 8

"If I try getting into the bios, I am maybe able to see the bios for 1-3 seconds before the computer auto-shuts off."

Responce 28

"You didn’t mention it was doing it in the bios as well! That’s something I would’ve liked to know!"

YES! Finally.

It works now. Well, there is now a different problem, but the original problem has now been resolved. It was the heatsink. I installed it correctly, but the levers were in opposite directions. I didn't realize you had to pull the lever to the opposite side after the heatsink/fan has been installed. Well, I did realize it, but it was putting a lot of pressure on the heatsink/fan and i was scared i would break it.

I appreciate your time and honest suggestions that has helped me get through this. Since I now have a second problem, I will post that as a separate thread within the same hardware post (since it is a different hardware problem).

Thank you,

-Amit