Help, comp shutting itself off..

There is a lithium or lithium ion battery on the motherboard that keeps the cmos charged. They can be faulty for whatever reason and that leads to your bios, sensor, or similar having erroneous information, at least that is what I understand and this isn't my area of knowledge. Mss Drizzt is pretty brilliant about this stuff so listen to them, I learn from Mss Drizzt pretty much every time I read one of their posts.

Not saying it can't be the battery but I seriously doubt it. A bad battery will give a checksum failure first. But, from the first I thought it was a poorly set heat sink and fan... but this would have shown itself if he's had the computer for awhile. I'd suggest opening the case, turning the power on and making sure your fan is actually operating. If it's spinning like normal and seems to be oscillating fast enough for satisfaction (basically it's blowing air into the heatsink). Then we need to look elsewhere. If you have a faulty motherboard sensor that could be causing the trip ups on restart... a simple cheap solution to this is to buy a glass thermometer (the kind the nurses used to use.. not mercury based). Then turn the PC on... after it does it's restart thing, take it's temperature (directly on the heatsink... make sure to use a thermometer with this scale... don't bust a thermometer)... if it reads something way off of the value your seeing (take into account cooling) then yes the sensor is probably faulty.

Lansing Kai Don

yea my motherboard fan is working just fine. also, i've discovered when i play GW, there's a slight constant clicking/grinding/"thinking" noise, that's distinguishable. it only happens when i have guild wars on, like the login screen. i think it's coming from the motherboard/processor, near the back of the tower, left of the fan. any idea what this might be?

I would do what Mss Dizzt has said. Take off your heatsink from the CPU, clean it, and reapply some arctic silver. I would also do the PS upgrade aswell. Not sure what the clicking is, a damaged fan? PS acting up?

I would go with the upgrades and see how that does for you.

taking off my heatsink fan from my mb, do i just pull these 2 white levers at the top and bottom? and is it easy to get back on again? or do i need that arctic silver stuff mentioned?

Wait...2 white levers? I'm used to there being a metal strip spring (guess I've been messing with AMD's and old Intel CPUs too long ). Maybe somebody who actually knows what it looks like can help.
Most likely you'll need to buy new thermal paste. The stuff that was on the heatsink has most likely dried up by now, which is normal and fine, but that means it won't re-form to the processor. The thing is that the paste already on there isn't properly sealing on the processor, so it's not transferring heat well. Buy some thermal paste from a local retailer; it shouldn't cost you too much.

The white levers are because it is a P4. But you must have artic silver first.

If you have a thermal pad on the bottom of the HSF get a razor blade and scrap it off. Apply a small amount of artic silver to the bottom of the HSF, then take a baggie and stick your finger in it. Rub the artic silver into the HSF and take the excess off with the baggie.

Now put some on the cpu core Use a credit card and wipe it smothly across the top so that it is all even.

Put the fan back on.

i've never performed anything like taking the heatsink fan off of a processor before, and i'm not too keen on trying, just because i might screw things up, or do something wrong. is there an easier way? or should i perhaps pay someone to do it?

If you don't have confidence to do it yourself, which is perfectly fine, then I would pay someone to do it, but please someone reputable. However, I have a very difficult time believing you don't have a neighbour, family relative, or friend that can assist you by explaining, walking you through, or just doing it for you. Think really hard about some relative you forgot maybe. I do that too, hahahah

*Edit* Arctic silver is the best by everyone's recommendations here as far as thermal paste. Ask who does this for you to use the type of Arctic Silver as recommended above, if they already know, you are surely in good hands.

yea ok i know a few people who would actually WANT to do this heheh. and where can i pick up some of this arctic silver?

330W PSU with what you have seem a bit underpowered. You should look at that first, if it's only this game shutting the PC down, next is CPU overheating but that would be evident in most games. Possability a fault on the Graphics card and thats casuing an overheat problem.

I presonally would upgrade the PSU to a new 450W to make sure you have enough power for your system. Then Look at air flow in the case make sure all the cables and neat and tied back and air can flow from the front to the back of the case. a few fans pointing out of the back of the case should help with that. Air flow is vatal, you can have the best CPU fan in the world but if all your doing is recycling warm air your not going to get very far.

Golden rule don't blow air in to the case blow it out of the back and leave no fans in the front. I have this set up and I getno dust in the PC and a constant low case and CPU temp.

If these don't solve it then look at a full system re-build, take your computer to bits blow of any dust and re assemble, putting cards in differant slots. Then blast out the OS and re-install everything from scratch.

I reccomend a re-install last because for some peolpe it's a hellish job.

Power supply testers can be bought at Comp USA for $15. It has always been the best way to positively determine if the problem is cause by the PS (had the exact same problem a year ago on one of my AMD systems witha VG Antec 400W PS). Regarding CPU heat spikes, there is the possibility that the fan on the heat sink is going bad. MBM should also determine actual fan speed.

I have one more thought. Overheating of the hard drive. It happens, especially if the air flow around it is limited by cables or other drives. With the computer off check the HD by touch. If you toast your fingers, you may have found the problem, but there are so many variables here you have to go one step at a time to eliminate the problem.

This would also explain the clicking noise. Many hard drives start having audible clicking noises right before they fail. But it doesn't do anything for why his CPU temperature is so bouncy. I'd check to make sure you're getting accurate temperature reads from your motherboard by the thermometer. If your not, then the HSF isn't the problem and you don't need to take it off. The problem is that your mobo is giving wrong temp reads and turning itself off. Did you say it only happened for this game?

Lansing Kai Don

yea the temp readings are all over the map, and this has only happened when i play GW. also, the clicking scratchy noise is def not from the HD, it's from the left part of the mother board, where there's the access ports to the back of the tower. i'm wondering if it is the thermometer in my MB, and that's why the computer shuts itself off at such unpredictable intervals

According to the manual for this board, the bios has a function to step up the fan speed on the HSF when the cpu is under load. Most newer video cards do this now natively also. Try to find out if its coming from the fan on the power supply or the fan on the video card maybe. It could be that while the cpu is under load, the fan stepper is trying to kick in .. but cant.... still sounds like heat to me poor mounted or poorly working HSF.

Sure sounds like you are narrowing it down. Might I suggest....

1) Get the fan re-seated on the CPU.

If the problem you only have playing GuildWars persists...

2) Do the thermometer tests that have been outlined above as well as make sure all the fans are spinning. Your mother board bios should tell you the speed of the fan.

If the problem you only have playing GuildWars persists...

3) Check your hard drive temperature and make sure that isn't an issue too.

If the problem you only have playing GuildWars persists...

4) Check your temperature probe to see if maybe it's messed up and then, as it is probably something you have never done before, pay someone or get that relative I know you have ( ) to fix it.

If the problem you only have playing GuildWars persists...

5) Get a new power supply so the mysterious multi-symptom things that happen when power is not sustained due to a faulty power supply or marginal other devices, or both, can be ruled out. Should #1 solve your problem, I would say it also indicates sensitivity to heat in your situation and that you really need to make sure you have enough power to cover more than two devices under load at once on your system or you will likely experience the problem again when playing this game from the CD while playing your own music from the hard drive or another CD. Lastly upgrading your video card may be an option should the heat problem be coming from the advanced shading used by GuildWars and this is because more recent memory tech has lead to less power fluctuations, less heat, and better fans in the newer video card products--at least until they put 512 megs of video ram on!

You have 2 problems that I can see. One is only the one fan. I don't care how big it is you need a good cooling system for you are running. The second is the power supply. 330 is low by todays standards so if you are going to keep upgrading that comp you will want to get a better power supple. Both are fairly cheap to fix your best bet which could solve both problems would be to get a new case. You can get a decent case with a good cooling system for about $100 on newegg.com.

My guess would be power supply or overheating.

You are running a high wattage CPU along with a 4200, which will both draw juice and pump your core temps up. One way to fix that is to get some better fans in your box and possibly a PS that could push more air out the back would fix both problems at once. Look for something with 2 80mm fans on the bottom, or 1 120mm fan - that will get the air moving. Also make sure that you dont have it surrounded by dirty underpants and old Cheetos bags. Ventilate that baby.