PC Switches off

LiengLiengZA

LiengLiengZA

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Morning

I'm busy helping an elderly person with his PC.PC specs as follow:

Asus A8N-E mobo
2 X 512mb DDR400 RAM
6600GT card PCI Express
Generic PSU 400W
Win 7

I know some the USB ports are also faulty.I also replace IDE writer with SATA.
HDD health status is good.

Now my problem is the PC switches off randomly.Sometimes just when it enters the desktop or sometimes after longer while.
Just shuts off blank...No shut down or anything.

Just poof and it's off.

Can someone steer me in any direction as to what the problem may be?

Don't know if it's Network port or the USB ports or the PSU?


Many thanks
 
Serene said:
Yeah I also thought the PSU was giving issues.Thing is I don't have another PSU to test it with.
Any other way to check it maybe?
Click to expand...

Disconnect everything that is not essential, find a GPU + CPU software test tool. Put the PC under load, if it restarts when under load it is a PSU issue.
 
Sounds more like the motherboard is capped. Check the capacitors for swelling or bulging.
 
With faulty USB ports chances are that at some stage the pc experienced some type of power surge / power problem.

The PSU is the easiest to start with, but more than likely damage has gone in to the motherboard as well.

I'd replace the PSU first, and if that doesn't resolve it, would look at the motherboard.
 
CPU overheating, or faulty PSU.

Check the thermal paste under the CPU cooler and whether it's solidified or not. I'd replace it anyway. Also check whether the cooler was properly seated.
 
Clean the inside of the PC (which I hope, and believe you did) of all dust.
Clean the heatsink for the CPU.
Reseat the heatsink with fresh thermal paste.

Had this issue quite a bit on a similar system when I stayed on the 'plot' (agricultural holding) - lots of dust!
 
Scooby_Doo said:
Disconnect everything that is not essential, find a GPU + CPU software test tool. Put the PC under load, if it restarts when under load it is a PSU issue.
Click to expand...
Other things to also look at:
Use a soft white eraser and clean the RAM and GPU copper contact points

Clean off the thermal paste from CPU and heatsink. Reseat CPU. Reapply paste and reseat heatsink.

Change the CMOS battery those things can be evil.

Then if you replace CPU and GPU and the problem still persists it is probably a MB problem.
 
Venomous said:
Clean off the thermal paste from CPU and heatsink. Reseat CPU. Reapply paste and reseat heatsink.
m.
Click to expand...

This is a good start. This revived a Dell Laptop my folks were using. Does the BIOS have any logs? It will says that there was a thermal even shutdown or something.

If you're in PTA/JHB and would like a desktop as a replacement, PM me. I have an old P4 system that I just revived, running Win 7 and it has 1.5GB ram.
 
Thanks for all the replies...

Will check the thermal paste on CPU and re-apply.
Then will check caps on mobo for swelling or bulging.
Then lastly if it still shuts down I will get new PSU.

Does anyone know what year the A8N-E AMD boards were released?
 
nemo415 said:
This is a good start. This revived a Dell Laptop my folks were using. Does the BIOS have any logs? It will says that there was a thermal even shutdown or something.

If you're in PTA/JHB and would like a desktop as a replacement, PM me. I have an old P4 system that I just revived, running Win 7 and it has 1.5GB ram.
Click to expand...


Thanks will have a look.
 
Serene said:
Thanks for all the replies...

Will check the thermal paste on CPU and re-apply.
Then will check caps on mobo for swelling or bulging.
Then lastly if it still shuts down I will get new PSU.

Does anyone know what year the A8N-E AMD boards were released?
Click to expand...

Looking at searches, 2006 would be my best guess... If the person hasn't done any maintenance on that PC since then(sounds unlikely), I will assume that the thermal paste would be rock hard right now.

I had a colleague who had the same problem last year. Went to his house, I asked him when did he get the PC - answers 2008. I ask him, when last did he redo the thermal paste - he says, I assume they did it when they assembled it... :erm:

Redid it, cleaned out all the crap, and his PC was shutdown-free after that.
 
Many many moons ago, had a similar issue. After replacing every component it turned out to be the case with the power button contacts sticking randomly
 
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