The problem started a month ago. whenever I run the PC for 30-45 min continuously with 100% CPU utilization, it will crash. I will have to take to power cord off wait for a minute or so and put it back and then it would run normally.

I have a 150 watt power supply and I know it's not sufficient for p4 1.3G but I didn't have any problems for one full year!

if that is the problem, how much should I go up? if you could give me the best place to buy it, that would be great.

Thanx.

Dear friend,
If your system hangs after 30-35min then may be inadequate cooling can also cause the problem,so look out for CPU and Graphics card temperature
Power supply should be of 350watt bare minimum and goes to 450-500watt max,prefer
CPU manufacture's recommended supply.

amit_nine03@yahoo.co.in

Thanx for the post.

does making it 450 watt account for inadequate cooling also? or should I do something else?

If your system is just a bare bones Pentium 4 system with just one or two Hard Disk Drives and a CD/DVD Drive (plus usual extras like AGP, modem, etc) you won't need 450W by any means!!!
300W oe 350W will easily suffice!

But NO...that won't cure your heating issue if there is one.
Intel CPUs are usually pretty good in that they don't normally run hot enough to crash (under the right conditions).

Ask yourself these...

1)Is your case of adequite size to allow suitable circulation of air? (Midi Tower, etc).

2)Do you have an internal cooling fan mounted in your case as well as the one on your CPU? (if not get one)

3)Is your current fan spinning at an optimum rate to give proper heat extraction? (if it's getting old the bearings may have gone making it run more slowly and therefore less efficiently). (replace if the case)>

Think about adding custom fans to your RAM, HDDs, and Graphics Card (assuming it doesn't already have one).