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Power suddenly turning off

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Name: Sarial
Date: June 25, 2009 at 20:03:45 Pacific
OS: Windows XP
Subcategory: General
Comment:

This has happened a few times in the past, but I've shrugged it off and unplugged/plugged back in my power supply and rebooted.

I'm playing a game (Final Fantasy 11) and my computer turned off. No warning or anything--complete shut down. When it does this, the green power light in the front of the case blinks, and the computer will not start. This could mean overheating, but neither the gfx card nor the CPU are overheating (tested by touch--no numbers). It kept happening at the same moment, looking at the same thing. I thought it could be software related, as when I turned around it would be stable, and crash within five seconds of facing the other direction again, but it has since happened somewhere else, and is very consistent in these areas. It seems to be in graphics-intensive situations.

Any ideas?

Custom PC, running XP
MSI MS-7309 Motherboard
450W power supply
2.81 GHz dual core AMD X2 processor
1GB ram
260 GB HD
Nvidia 9800 GTX video card

One problem is that my mother board is micro ATX and too small for the video card. The heatsink on the card presses against the SATA jack on the mother board, bending the jack slightly and pinching the cable against its plug.

Thanks for the advice in advance.



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Response Number 1
Name: jarvis1906
Date: June 25, 2009 at 20:14:27 Pacific
Reply:

what is the make and model of your power supply (or is it generic)?

Jarvis-Technician
TekTime
www.time4tech.com


0

Response Number 2
Name: Sarial
Date: June 25, 2009 at 20:15:10 Pacific
Reply:

It came with my $50 case.


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Response Number 3
Name: Sarial
Date: June 25, 2009 at 20:21:22 Pacific
Reply:

TRICOD


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Response Number 4
Name: Sarial
Date: June 26, 2009 at 10:40:19 Pacific
Reply:

Bump? ;_;


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Response Number 5
Name: Rayburn
Date: June 26, 2009 at 12:01:58 Pacific
Reply:

Power supplies that come with cases generally aren't good, but not in every case. What's the brand of the case?

WinSimple Software
CompTIA A+ Certified


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Response Number 6
Name: Sarial
Date: June 26, 2009 at 12:45:43 Pacific
Reply:

I haven't got a clue. Does it sound like it could be to do with the power supply? It's started happening more frequently, including this morning, when for a while the PC wouldn't even boot up


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Response Number 7
Name: Rayburn
Date: June 26, 2009 at 13:01:40 Pacific
Reply:

Yeah it's highly likely because you confirmed that the graphics card and CPU aren't overheating. And if you've got an off-brand case, then that makes the power supply more of a suspect.

You might be able to isolate it more if you removed all PCI cards, USB devices, and card readers. That also though may take load off the power supply and prevent the problem from showing up again, it also may not if the problem is bad enough.

WinSimple Software
CompTIA A+ Certified


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Response Number 8
Name: Sarial
Date: June 26, 2009 at 13:03:56 Pacific
Reply:

All I have hooked up is a bluetooth device, a mouse, a webcam, and a controller. No PCI cards or anything--just the nvidia 9800 graphics card which requires an extra power supply itself.

Could it be the motherboard?


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Response Number 9
Name: Rayburn
Date: June 26, 2009 at 13:09:18 Pacific
Reply:

That's another possibility. Another possibility is that sometimes the motherboard will shut itself off to prevent damage when it senses that the power isn't good coming from the power supply (a voltage out of whack or something).

WinSimple Software
CompTIA A+ Certified


0

Response Number 10
Name: Sarial
Date: June 26, 2009 at 13:14:51 Pacific
Reply:

I also have a problem with room in the case. A SATA cable jack pinched by the video card, bending it. This shouldn't shut the whole PC down though like it does, should it? Preventing it from coming back on? It's obviously not good, but not this problem?


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Response Number 11
Name: Rayburn
Date: June 27, 2009 at 10:35:42 Pacific
Reply:

Nah I doubt it, the worst that problem could cause is maybe your hard drive not showing up in the BIOS or something.

WinSimple Software
CompTIA A+ Certified


0

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