Hello and thanks for reading. I have an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ on a MSI K7N2G-L, with 512 RAM DDR 266 and 3 hard drives. The GPU is the one of the motherboard, a GeForce MX 400, 32 MB. I use Windows XP Professional. This PC has been running for almost 3 years now. I had no major problems until a few days ago it suddenly shut down, with no apparent reason, while I was playing (using ePSXe). I tried to turn it on, but it wouldn't start. I had to disconnect and reconnect the PSU cable. It shut down again shortly after Windows loaded. I checked every connection, removed dust, but everything was OK. I read in forums about a similar problem happening to some people, they had bad RAM or a disfunctional PSU. I tried using CPU Burn, a program that heavily loads your CPU to test it. It only lasted for three seconds, then it shut down. This alone is weird: it should last a lot longer according to the readme file. I ran memtest for windows. It would shut the PC down too. I didn't think it would be a RAM problem: it would have hung up instead, wouldn't it? I think it shut down mainly because it used too much CPU (even if I didn't see the red light ticking for that minute before it hung up). I tried booting the PC with one of my 2 ram sticks and then with the other one, and it would shut down too when running CPU Burn. All that lead me to thinking it was the PSU. I bought a new, 400w one (I had one with 300w). It happened again! It shut down when I ran CPU Burn. (And then would keep on, like before, on shutting down randomly). I don't know what it may be. Oh, and it isn't a temperature issue. Both fans (CPU and rear fan) are working well, and I've checked the temperature from the BIOS and with Motherboard Monitor even in those 3 seconds the CPU Burn lasts. I should also note two things. The first one, is that two weeks ago I changed my CPU heatsink (because the fan broke down). But the PC has been running smoothly until this incident, nevertheless. And the other one is that the game I'm running on ePSXe ran perfectly, and since these problems, I don't know why, it runs really slowly (I tested it). Before changing the PSU and afterwards. It's really weird. Thank you.

Sounds to me like some harware is interfering with the MotherBoard, Try disconnecting your CD-ROM units (both power and Bus cables) also Diskette and extra peripheria you might have and try again... also If you have at least two Memory modules, try working with only one, switching slots and modules and see if that helps...

I've tried with one of the ramsticks on the free slot and then with the other one but the problem persists. I've also cleaned thoroughly the CPU core which had remnants of the old thermal paste which might have been the source of the problem but it didn't work either. I can't try another CPU or RAM since I don't own some more. The computer doesn't shut down suddenly anymore. The only real problem I have left is that the games still run slowly (another problem would be that it still shuts itself down when running CPU burn), the computer's been on for days without other problems. There's another peculiar detail: when I lower down graphic details and such in ePSXe, the game runs smoothly, but CPU is still at 100%!! That isn't normal at all. I've also tried disabling audio, but to no avail. Thank you.