Computer Powers Down (in Off-topic)

More PC help.. :(

My PC has started to power itself off when playing games. 5 beeps and it powers off. It used to do this once per day (when I first fired a game up) then it would run fine, but now it keeps happening.

I've taken the side off and checked the fans. GPU, CPU, PSU and an Aux fan are all working (but strangly the BIOS only recognises the CPU fan and doens't think the PSU/System fan are running. :/). And taking the side off for more ventilation doesn't help.

I've installed the latest drivers for my graphics card, which doesn't help.

It's been mentioned that my PSU might be failing, and powers off when under load.

Anyone got any other ideas, or any way I could check to see if it is my PSU.

/grumble.

Just running the internet is fine, computer doesn't power off...

Taking the side off actually makes ventilation worse...

The side has the disadvantage of being impermeable to visible light though.

5 beeps, but what kind ?
Five short, equal length beeps with equal length pauses ?
Some of the beeps or pauses longer ?
PC-speaker beeps, or sound card beeps ?

The beeps should be an error code signal.
The most likely cause is the motherboard realizing something's wrong and calling for an emergency shutdown.

Depending on the make, the code might differ, but as far as I know, the error-code warning beeps are universal... wouldn't hurt to mention the make of the motherboard though (and that of the BIOS).

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

see if that helps.

i would first suggest checking for new vid drivers and installing those. then sound card drivers as well.

MB is an Asus/Gigabyte something or over. Had it for a while.

They are 5 short, equal length beeps, no pauses from the PC speaker. I've looked for beep codes, but they're mostly on power up beeps listed.

:/

Anyone know of any programms that I can get to check the useage of my PSU? See if it's being overloaded. Or anyway to check if componennts are overheating? :/

if you think your psu might be overheating and you have quite a few usb device plugged into your computer, you could always unplug all of the non-crucial usb devices and see if the games still cause issues. have you added more drives to the computer than it shipped with?

Almost every motherboard released in the past decade has sensors that measure temperature, fan speed and PSU voltages. These can be viewed in the BIOS (but then the system is not loaded that much...) or in Linux with the lm-sensors program. I assume for Windows such a tool also exists...

Check your ram too. Run some ram test to make sure nothing funky happened.

To accurately evaluate your PSU power rating, you need a multimeter. SW doesn't really help, since if it triggers to critically low voltage / power, your pc will just shut down, you will never isolate the problem for sure.

Also check and see if the graphics card is loose or not, I remember multiple beeps with short delay in between means it's loose.

Lastly make sure no broken capacitors on mainboard.

if you can find a program called aida32 it can do that, i am not sure it still is being developed, but i also think it is just an executable so if ya cannot find it online, send me a cm and i will send ya the file.

that aida32 also has mem read and write tests as well.

check your power supply

Silly question, are you over-clocking any components?

No overclocking, no added hardware, in the BIOS it tells me my case and cpu temp, and lets me add warming if they getin a range from 60oC to 90 (and my CPU is running at 70, and always has...), but that all my BIOS does. :(

I've tried memetest and it's found no faults, and the G Card isn't lose. :(

Time to have a look in Aida32. ;)

Computer powers...down....must be....some Kryptobyte nearby....

Taking the side off actually makes ventilation worse...

-Depends, Bart. Taking the side off of my parent's computer dropped the CPU idle temperature 5-10 degrees, depending on time of year. It really depends upon the case, I'd say.

Anyway, is that 70C at idle or at load? If it's at idle, that seems a tad hot for most recent chips. I'd advise a quick check of the CPU fan's connectors, as a decent bump can sometimes loosen the connectors. You should also clean off any dust from the heat exchanger.

To identify your mobo and such, I recommend CPU-Z.