Computer Shutting Down After 5 Minutes

You might get some more mileage from this in the Computers forum.

What are your PC specs etc. ? Your suspicions of heat may be correct - does the PC switch off after a short time even when its been off for some time?

Yep, my first impression is that there is a thermal issue.  Some good suggestions here, and you might also check to be sure your CPU heatsink did not come unclipped from the motherboard.  The next thing I might check would be power, specifically to see if your power supply is capable of handling the load from the components in your system.

It appears all the fans are moving.  I do have information in the BIOS and after about 5 minutes, the CPU temp is about 67C and the CPU fan is running a constant 3445RPM.  The fan on the power supply is running.

Is there anyway to test a power supply without taking it in to someone?

The computer is an old one I put together a while back with Windows XP (as an audio machine).  I has an Athlon 64, 3000+, 2.0Ghz chip with 1.5 GB RAM.  I am hoping it can run Sonar 8.5 as I just upgraded and received it in the mail yesterday :-)

Thanks fo all the comments but it is still shutting down :-(

Dave

kurrykid


It appears all the fans are moving.  I do have information in the BIOS and after about 5 minutes, the CPU temp is about 67C and the CPU fan is running a constant 3445RPM.  The fan on the power supply is running.

Is there anyway to test a power supply without taking it in to someone?

The computer is an old one I put together a while back with Windows XP (as an audio machine).  I has an Athlon 64, 3000+, 2.0Ghz chip with 1.5 GB RAM.  I am hoping it can run Sonar 8.5 as I just upgraded and received it in the mail yesterday :-)

Thanks fo all the comments but it is still shutting down :-(

Dave

67 degrees C?  Wow.  I have two systems that run consistently at 35 degrees C or less, and with an aftermarket CPU cooler most people are able to get their temps down below 30C.  So, yeah, you are burning up!  I remember that some of the older Athlons ran pretty hot, so you might need to take more drastic steps to get your temps down - Arctic Silver should help, but don't forget that a little Arctic Silver goes a long way - you can overdo it, too.
 
As for your power supply, try to determine what the wattage is from its label.  If you are running anything less than 350 Watts, which I would consider a bare minimum for a semi-modern system then you should probably get something a little beefier.  A system that is starved for power is not a happy system!  But, I would address your thermal issue first.

Bear in mind also that it might not just be the CPU overheating (if at all) the north and southbridge chips can overheat. 

The temp failure / temp sensitivity of the chip/s will increase the more it fails, i.e. if it was failing at 80 the more it fails it might start failing at 70 60  etc...

You may need a new motherboard period.

PS does the computer shut it's self down or does it freeze up?

kurrykid


Well it looks like I was able to resolve the issue by wiping off the old "artic silver paste" from the processor and applying some new stuff.  I've had it on for a few hours tonight and it hasn't shut off yet.  Thanks to everyone for their help...I really appreciate it.

Dave

Fantastic ! I hope that was all it was.  Looks like that shut down feature of the MB saved your system, kept it from just burning up.

Yes, that was a very lucky shot!!! Hopefully things will keep humming along.  I've found that oftentimes when the computer shuts down like that on older computers, it's usually the result of some component or card going south. More times than not it's related to the network interface ie modem, ethernet card, etc.