[Ponyroper]

I have a problem that started yesterday and I've never run into it before. My computer was completely dead when I came into the room and it would not respond to the front power button or the reset button. After a little experimenting I found that if I turned off the rear power button for a few moments until I heard a beep then tried the front power button again the computer would power up but show the message that Windows had been shut down improperly and it checked my disk for errors. No errors were found and everything booted up normally. The same thing happened over night and the computer was again dead this morning. I'm thinking this could be an indication of something serious. Does anyone here have any ideas what's going on? I leave the machine on continuously unless I will not be logging on for more than a day because someone once told me that it was harder on computers to be turned on and off each day than just letting them run continuously. It is in a cool back bedroom where it has been running for months so I don't think overheating is the problem. Could it be possible the power supply or the CPU are going south for the winter?Any suggestions would be appreciated, I want to catch this problem before it becomes major. Thanks.

Computer: AMD 2400, 512 DDR, Soyo K400 Ultra board, ATI Radeon AGP card, integrated sound, I/O Magic DVD-+RW, Artec CDRW, 80 GB Seagate HDD(master), 200 GB Maxtor HDD, Win XP Home sp2, V92 Fax/Modem, Belkin Firewire card.

ps: Both times it went dead it was while Pinnacle Studio 9 was rendering video to burn to a DVD. The first time it did not finish before the computer went dead, the second time the DVD was done before it died. I've used Studio 9 many times before and nothing like this has happened so I don't think the program caused the problem.

Edited by Ponyroper, 17 December 2005 - 08:00 AM.

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Both times it went dead it was while Pinnacle Studio 9 was rendering video

This operation is CPU intensive. This means CPU is working very hard and probably heating up. The hard drive is also heating up during this task.

What I would do is go to a local computer shop and buy a few cans of compressed air. Turn off the computer and DISCONNECT THE AC PLUG. Open up the case of the computer and blow out all the dust with the air. Don't blast it out... take it easy and go slowly. Make sure to clean all the fans, the CPU heatsink, and even the Power supply vents and fan. Make sure you get all the dust out of the CPU heatsink grill. Also clean the vid card fan and grill if one exists.

I leave the machine on continuously unless I will not be logging on for more than a day because someone once told me that it was harder on computers to be turned on and off each day than just letting them run continuously.

There is no evidence that leaving the computer on all the time is better than shutting it off nitely. I shut my computer off every day... in fact more than once a day... for YEARS! My opinion is that it's better to shut off if you're not going to use it. Saves electricty, saves wear and tear on your fans.

By the way, if your case doesn't have a front fan blowing on the hard drive, and you do a lot of video editing, I would consider installing one to keep the hard drive cool.

Edited by makai, 18 December 2005 - 06:43 AM.

[makai]

Both times it went dead it was while Pinnacle Studio 9 was rendering video

This operation is CPU intensive. This means CPU is working very hard and probably heating up. The hard drive is also heating up during this task.

What I would do is go to a local computer shop and buy a few cans of compressed air. Turn off the computer and DISCONNECT THE AC PLUG. Open up the case of the computer and blow out all the dust with the air. Don't blast it out... take it easy and go slowly. Make sure to clean all the fans, the CPU heatsink, and even the Power supply vents and fan. Make sure you get all the dust out of the CPU heatsink grill. Also clean the vid card fan and grill if one exists.

I leave the machine on continuously unless I will not be logging on for more than a day because someone once told me that it was harder on computers to be turned on and off each day than just letting them run continuously.

There is no evidence that leaving the computer on all the time is better than shutting it off nitely. I shut my computer off every day... in fact more than once a day... for YEARS! My opinion is that it's better to shut off if you're not going to use it. Saves electricty, saves wear and tear on your fans.

By the way, if your case doesn't have a front fan blowing on the hard drive, and you do a lot of video editing, I would consider installing one to keep the hard drive cool.

Edited by makai, 18 December 2005 - 06:43 AM.