Help,hardware or software,not sure

[ViciousClone]

Hi all

oky testing a friends mom's pc..

Seems like a core 2 Duo
1GB ddr2 x2(one per slot)
sata HDD 160GB
Gigabyte Mboard

she says the pc came on normal one day and in 10min of working just shut down completely ,so tried to turn it on,nothing though,after replacing the power supply(new one) it came on again for 10min and just shut down again?

So she brought it to me,i turned it on into safe mode,20mins with no pc shut down,so restarted it and booted it up in normal windows mode(xp) and it's still running..

it's still on as i'm typing,so i'd like to know what could be doing this? is it hardware or software screwing around?

 

[ViciousClone]

oky,so it turned of after 5-10mins in normal windows mode.

now it keeps restating non stop ,eventually when you keep it off long enough and turn it on it starts up again?but cpu ect isn't hot at all..

 

[IndigoIdentity]

I'd boot it and stay in bios then monitor the CPU temp... Could be overheating?

Heat sinks get clogged up with dust etc and things like this happen... Other than that, just dismantling the parts and cleaning and resetting things usually does a world of good... It's weird but u get bits of dust and things that sometimes cause a short...

Also... Any chance of lightning damage to the mobo?

 

[ViciousClone]

I'd boot it and stay in bios then monitor the CPU temp... Could be overheating?

Heat sinks get clogged up with dust etc and things like this happen... Other than that, just dismantling the parts and cleaning and resetting things usually does a world of good... It's weird but u get bits of dust and things that sometimes cause a short...

Also... Any chance of lightning damage to the mobo?

found something that could be the culprit ,took off the cpu heatsink aaand no paste between the cpu and fan,called them and asked who worked on the system the last time,she said some other guy about a year ago?is it possible that a cpu could have survived that long without paste and is only giving problems now?!

 

[ponder]

found something that could be the culprit ,took off the cpu heatsink aaand no paste between the cpu and fan,called them and asked who worked on the system the last time,she said some other guy about a year ago?is it possible that a cpu could have survived that long without paste and is only giving problems now?!

Yeah, they have built in protection and cut out when they get too hot. Set the alarms in bios for cpu heat warning, I've seen some idiots disable it.

 

[IndigoIdentity]

The newer heatsinks usually have thermal paste that is like a rubbery goo..

Keep in mind, what thermal paste does is help to pass the heat from the CPU on to the heatsink in order to dissipate it. Without thermal paste that process is LESS effective...

Any ways, it most definitely sounds like overheating... The lack of thermal paste could indeed be the issue... Get some and give it a bash

 

[ViciousClone]

Oky so got paste on,after seeing temps starting at 55℃ and rising minute by minute to 70+℃ ...applied and booted it and temps were at 19℃ ...noticed this as well ,the power button buggin around as well,turns the system on by itself and killing it,plugged that out and system started up normal,will keep an eye on it and see what happens next