I'm not sure where to begin with this, but my computer is completely randomly crashing. There is no BSOD or anything. It goes straight from me clicking something and watching a video to gone and dead.
Then when I reboot the computer the bios speaker doesn't beep and my cd drive will not open, but all the other powered stuff like lights and fans come on. Takes a few tries, but it will eventually turn back on properly.
To me it seems like the system is overheating, does anyone else out there agree. I blew all the dust out to help, but it still seems to occur. None of the parts are overly warm to touch, feels very cool inside.
Everest says:
GPU Mem:56c (this seems quite high, maybe why no display?)
GPU Amb:49c
CPU:34c
Mobo:42c
I think it is also possible that my power supply has a problem as some things turn on and others do not when I boot up?
Any help appreciated!

It seems the temperatures are not so critical. So overheating may not be your problem except that there may be sudden temperature increases.

Is this a new home-built PC or has it started to crash only recently ?

Have you checked the Event Log to see if anything is recorded to it that may lead to a clue to your problem ?

What components do you have installed in the PC and can you calculate the power requirements of those components to see if your PSU is up to par ?

Do you suspect of driver conflicts, bad RAM sticks, maybe a short in the M/B ?

Have you seated all components properly and made all power connections securely ? Does your graphics card have a separate power connector to which you connected power ?

Regards

SuatCINI

Yes the power goes to a direct graphics slot, I failed to mention that it was connected to the same wire that runs my cd drive (which didn't open).

Are there any good resources for calculating power resources?

The computer is home built and worked fine for 6 months, other than a macaffee error which gives me a bsod on startup sometime.

A power calculator can be found at:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/...

Select your components and press Calculate button at Recommended PSU Wattage box close to top right corner and compare the calculated value to that of your PSU specification.

Some PSUs may have misleading power rating figures. Please just compare watts to watts and not watts to VAs (Volt-Amperes). They mean different things.

Other than that, if your CD-ROM drive tray does not open, which may mean it does not get power or it is a defective component, then you must make certain which.

If it does not get power, then your graphics card does not get power, either, resulting in a possible system crash. You can connect the graphics card power cable ( and CD-ROM drive ) to a different power socket from your PSU.

Regards

SuatCINI

Thank you for the help. Now it's just a matter of deduction and prevention.

A follow up.... According to that site which was very helpfull, I have more than enough power. It even showed I could go to SLI if I wanted to. I took what it recommended and added 100W and I still had enough.
ATM I'm failing to remember exactly my Wattage, but it is just above 500W I believe.

You might could try 1 RAM stick at a time. If your PC doesn't crash with just 1 stick installed clean the contacts of the other stick with a pencil eraser and try again. One of your RAM sticks might be bad too, but some experts here don't agree that RAM can go bad.

56 C (132.8 F) sounds way too high for your graphics card temperature, especially when you're only watching video. But since you say that all components feel cool to the touch, that reading might be inaccurate.

What is the brand of your power supply? Your wattage might be high enough but you might be using an el-cheapo brand power supply. Those that come with the PC case are nearly always cheapies and fail sooner or later.

Most people don't realize just how wonderful Jesus is. Don't miss His free Gift. The link says it all.

I got an Apevia 520W power supply.
I'll mess with the ram once I finish all thw work i have left to do for school on this computer.

I feel I should mention that I do not use a direct 6 pin to my video card, I use the two 4 pins to one 6 pin adapter (didn't realize at time of purchase that 6 pins were being used on the new 8000 series cards :-/ ). The card is XfX 320mb 8800GTS.

Here are my actual specs:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ AM2
2gb Corsair xms2 (2x1gb)
Abit Nforce 570 SLI Mobo
Apevia 520W P.S.
Seagate SATA 3.0Gb/s HD 320Gb
XFX 8800GTS 320Mb
Sony DVD+R/CDRW
Tv Tuner

I've never heard of Apevia till now, but according to here, they are NO GOOD. There's a big problem with inaccurate wattage ratings on their supplies.

You'd better try a different PS.

Most people don't realize just how wonderful Jesus is. Don't miss His free Gift. The link says it all.

I'll keep that in mind and when I make any changes to the system in the near future I will get a new PS. Problem isn't bothering me too much at the moment.

Thanks again!

You're welcome!

Most people don't realize just how wonderful Jesus is. Don't miss His free Gift. The link says it all.