Around a month ago my computer shut down, when I rebooted it, it mentioned overheating. I checked the heat sink, and it clogged with dust. I cleaned it and everything was working fine. Yesterday the computer shut down in the same way, I checked the heat sink, it wasn’t clogged or even hot. When rebooting an screen comes up asking if I want to start in safe mode or normally. No matter what I choose the computer shuts down (as if the cord had been pulled out of the wall) before the OS loads.
I figured my power supply was shot, but I just tried a brand new one and the problem was exactly the same.
The comp is running Windows XP with service pack 2, I haven’t tinkered around with it in a while, software or hardware wise. I’m assuming it’s a hardware problem, any ideas?
Is the CPU fan working properly? (Or for that matter, all of the fans) Is it completely shutting down or spontaneously rebooting? When you try safe mode does it get to the bit where it shows all of the components it’s loading? If so, it is stopping/shutting down at the same component every time? Does leaving the computer off for any length of time improve things any, or is it pretty consistent with when it craps out?
All the fans are working. It’s completely shutting down. Not like I had chosen to, like it just loses power. It doesn’t get anywhere after I choose to load in safe mode. It’s pretty consistent with when it craps out. ~30 seconds after it powers on which coincides with selecting how it should load.
Disable automatic reboot on system failure. I forget what the option is on XP. I believe you have to hit f8 just before th OS boots. you’ll get the boot options menu. Find the option to disable auto restart.
The try to load the OS. This might give you a BSOD with atleast some basic info as to what might be the problem.
The CPU heat sink isn’t going to get very hot at all on the few seconds it takes to boot up.
Still, it might eb a good idea to test each RAM module, then to reset the CPU fan by removing it, cleaning it (and removing the residual thermal compound) and replacing the compound with new stuff.
If the heatsink is not in intimate thermal contact with the CPU, the latter can overheat in a matter of seconds, in some cases - so that would be something to check - the seatedness of the heatsink.
Laptop or desktop? I have desktop doing exactly the same and waiting to be repaired. I thought it was the PSU and looked into it but it seems ok. It’s under my desk waiting for me to get a round tuit.
Desktop. It looks like the heatsink wasn’t in good contact. The CPU was at around 90 C, I applied some new thermal paste and got it down quite a bit. It’s possible one stick of ram crapped out too, I’ve got to put it back in and see if it still works.