Hai all, We have a custom made computer with following specifications: Pentium 4 processor 2.40 Ghz 2x256 mb RAM 4 equally partitioned 80 GB Seagate HDD Intel mother board D845 WN AAA 64179 – 209 Sony DVD rom Sony CD writer Nvidia G force4 MX 440 display card with TV out Creative 56K modem with dial up connection & Internet Explorer Scanjet 3500c HP scaner E 70 View sonic monitor Generic floppy drive Windows 98 SE OS 300 Watt power supply Norton 2003 Anti virus protection This computer shuts off whenever we click the browse tab in display properties ( right click on blank desktop > properties> display properties> background>browse) The same thing happens but once in a while clicking the dial up connection short cut tab in the desktop especially when we click first time in a day. This computer is not on always. We switch on this computer in the morning and switch off in the afternoon then again on in the evening and off at night. During this on period we dial internet connection five or six time in a day. Opening more than 10 windows ( mouse right click and click open in new window) while surfing the internet also causes the shutdown. This peculiar shutdown shows certain symptoms. When we click the browse tab in display properties it freezes for just two or three seconds and the monitor goes blank with two second message ‘OFF MODE IN 5 SEC’ and monitor on green LED indicator turns orange. But in the tower unit power on green indicator is on and hdd red LED is off. Power supply fan, exhaust fan cpu fan and display card fan is on! In the key board, num lock indicator is on and it goes off and on while pressing the num lock key. Caps lock key indicator is off and no response while pressing the caps lock key. CD writer door opens in this status but not the DVD rom. Repeated pressing of alt+ctrl+delete buttons make no response at all. There is one on-off switch in the tower unit. (which controls the DC triggering of power supply, not 230 volt mains) If it is pressed momentrly nothing happens but keep holding it for five seconds all the fans and on – off indicator in the tower unit shuts off and a two second (during this two seconds monitor turns on ie, orange colour on-off LED turns green for two seconds and goes back to orange again) message of OFF MODE IN 5 SEC appears. If this on-off button pressed again for a moment the computer starts normaly. During this unexpected shutdown, computer restarts if reset button or 230 volt mains switch operates and a message ‘windows was not shutdown properly…. Scandisk is checking drive C for errors’. (During the normal shutdown, OFF MODE IN 5 SEC message comes and all the lights and fans stops in the tower unit) This creates lot of inconvenience to us. We tried different mains power socket but no difference. Can this be a power supply problem? There is no marks(!?) in the device manager. Except this problem, system works fine. Kindly help us to solve this problem. We have no idea where to check and what to do. Many thanks. Jacob

1. Has the System allways done this or is this something new (you have done a thourough virus scan with an updated virus log) 2. Did it start doing this after something happened(IE: electrical storm ... trip to the shop ... child insert's jam sandwich in C-D tray [don't laugh it happened]etc.) 3. Did you download and/or remove anything before it started acting up 4. Does it act up in safe mode or try running with all background running program's shut off and see if it still act's up 5. Try removing your video card drivers and then reinstalling them ( I had a similar problem once fought for about a week with the system then I tried updating all my drivers and when i did my video VIOLA it was working normal again p.s. I have the same video card )for that matter try all your drivers 1 at a time and be sure to make a backup or at least get the drivers before you start and don't just install over the old drivers and don't forget your motherboard and hard drive drivers 6. restore your registry to a point before this started 7. how old is the hard drive ... never mind does it make any weird noises open the case and listen there are hard drive utilities on the net you can obtain to test your hard drive for early sign's of failure I've had them bad right off the shelf new in a box if it is old remember they don't last forever 8. I assume a thourough Scandisk for errors never revealed anything 9. Remember when the system is acting up like that your top priority is BACK UP ALL INFO YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE sorry to shout but if you don't want to lose it then burn it or back it up to another computer in the network 10. Too much RAM ... read this http://infoprosjoint.net/ij5/archive/topic/686-1.html

Hai M6 Thank you very much for your ten commandments. Since the problematic pc is placed in an office and the two days weekend holiday in this part of the world (middle east), I couldn’t try your solutions. Today I started the pc in safe mode. When I click the browse tab in safe mode it is not switching off. Restarted again in normal mode and it switches off while clicking the browse tab. Tried closing (alt+control+delete>end task) all the background programs, pc is not switching off. Restarted pc again in normal mode and it is not switching off either while clicking the browse tab in display properties and dial up short cut in desktop. All background/taskbar programs are running. PS: This problem is there almost from the beginning and not started after a specific incident like download/removal. System is six months old ,all parts are newly bought including hdd which is not noisy. Once again thank you and we shall post if anything comes up. Jacob