Windows Vista, Quad Core CPU, nvidia 8500GT, Gateway

Constantly! It'll run for about 15 minutes, then a fan will kick into high gear and then my computer will reboot a few seconds later. This happens even if it's just sitting there with no games running or anything.

When LFS is running, it'll happen but it won't reboot fully. I'll get a black screen, and if I press alt-tab it'll go back to the windows desktop and say LFS has encountered a failure.

The interior is very clean as the computer is fairly new. No buildup of dust yet anywhere.

Advice?

wrong forum part, but i would expect there is a heat problem - a system you built or purchased? any paste between the chip and heatsink?

Sounds heat related, most likely CPU.

Thermal paste!!

I agree with the "Your CPU probably isn't attached to its heatsink well enough" diagnosis.

Sorry about the wrong forum, and I appreciate the advice.

It was a purchased system from Gateway. I will check the paste - since it is a mass produced system, it sounds like the paste may be sub-par. Thanks again.

Be careful not to void the warranty... unless you're comfortable doing that.

If it was my PC? I'd check the paste.

If it was a an off-the-shelf PC? Send it back.

You have a warranty. Use it, don't void it!

Quote from Jakg :

You have a warranty. Use it, don't void it!

And that is why getting a maintenance certification to your name is a good thing, I can rip apart kapooters and not void a warranty.

I had a similar problem after I upgraded my video card. I thought it was faulty, but then I realized what the problem was.

The fan on the new video card plugged into the power supply, which the old one did not. I was using a power supply that barely cranked out enough juice to run the system, especially after adding the new power-hungry video card. Then I realized that the PC was rebooting every time the electric space heater (on the same circuit) turned on. The extra draw on the circuit was enough to make the PC reboot.

Initially I turned off the heater and froze while racing, then I upgraded the power supply and fixed the problem.

Hope that helps!

Dust filled heatsink?

That is the thing that gives me trouble.

What about viruses and such?

Dust doesn't seem to be the problem in this case...

Quote from mattmac83 :

The interior is very clean as the computer is fairly new. No buildup of dust yet anywhere.

Quote from jibber :

Dust doesn't seem to be the problem in this case...

HAHAHAHA - "in this case." PUN INTENDED!!! LOLZHAXXORS!

Lol!

Ah yes, warranty...looks like I'll take it in for repairs instead until the 1-year warranty is up, then I'll do my own repairs. I never considered the PSU - it is 400w so might that be an issue running an 8500GT, Core2Quad system? I somehow doubt that gateway will upgrade the PSU *if* that is the problem.

Looking at my current core temps, 41, 32, 40, 32. They are all being used quite a bit, with core3 pretty much maxed out constantly. Idle usage overall is averaging about 30%. Sheesh. Is it possible there is a virus or something messing with my system?

Sounds to me like you need a more powerful PSU

That's odd. It's not running hot, so it's not a cooling issue (from what I can tell) but the computer should have a PSU powerful enough to power what they put inside it... and 400W does seem a little weak. Then again, manufacturers like to go with the minimum. However, it should still be fine. What other components do you have in there?

I'd think a 400w power supply for that system is on the weak side, for a sys like that I'd think 600 min would be more in order unless it's a very high quality power supply, which is fairly unlikely on a Gateway.

There's a way of working out the power requirements based on hardware, google for that, work it out then argue with gateway till your warrenty expires.
When that happens buy yourself a decent supply and some arctic silver ( or similar ) and that should fix your problems.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

I'd think a 400w power supply for that system is on the weak side, for a sys like that I'd think 600 min would be more in order unless it's a very high quality power supply, which is fairly unlikely on a Gateway.

WHAT?!

600w?!

I'm running a 580w PSU with an overclocked and over-volted Quad, with an 8800GTX (which takes more wattage than the CPU to run) and it works fine. an 8500GT is less than half the card this thing is so 400w should be fine.

Remember than an 8500GT is the same speed (if not a little slower) than a 7600GT, and uses less power...

And we're talking about a gateway 400w supply, not I suspect the highest quality. Cheap generic power supplies can give very dubious outputs so if one of the rails is out then that would upset a quad core which needs a stable output.