ECS 915G-A i915 Socket 775 ATX MB w/VID SND & LAN
Intel Pentium 4 550 3.40GHz 800MHz 1MB Socket 775 CPU
Thermaltake CPU Heatsink/Fan Model CL-P0441
Micron Technology 1GB DDR2 RAM PC2-4200 240-pin DIMM
GenMax 400W 20+4-pin ATX PSU w/SATA
12-Bay ATX Computer Case w/Front Panel LED
Sleeve Bearing 3 x 3 inch Case Fan
Antec 80mm case fan
LG GSA-H55N 20x SuperMulti DL DVD±RW IDE Drive
Western Digital 80gb EIDE Hard Drive
Floppy Drive

BIOS: AMiBios v02.57 release 6/27/06

- After sitting idle for 5 minutes on the hardware monitoring screen of the bios, cpu temp 62C, case 28C
- After approx 15 minutes....cpu temp 66C, case temp 32C and the machine just shuts down....
- using on board graphics and sound, only card is a PCI 56k modem

The Thermaltake was a recent upgrade, so was the second case fan and I flashed the bios to it's current release.

The only things not brand NEW are the hard drive and floppy.

I've had the case completely open with no drives/pci cards installed...didn't help
I've had the case down to just it's frame with nothing installedI don't think you're seeing a CPU thermal shutdown (a "thermtrip") here. That happens somewhere around 100 C. Pentium 4s run hot. 66 degrees C is somewhat warm for idle, but should not shut a P4 down.

I am running a 3.0 GHz P4 Prescott core in my little Shuttle. The Smartfan setting in the BIOS runs the fan at ultra low speed until 65 degrees C is reached, then raises the fan 250 rpm for every 1 degree over that, and sets the fan to 100% speed if 80 C is ever reached. It idles around 48-50 and gets up to 64-65 at full load, e.g. divx encoding. It has been fine for 3 years like this. Once, when the original fan died, the cpu temp went up to 93 C (yes, 93 Celsius) and the PC was working fine. I heard the fan go quiet, glanced at the temp readout and shut down at once, though!

Case TEMPS look fine. So I am doubtful that your shutdowns are temperature related. I see everything is brand new, so I would be checking RAM & cpu seating, that the RAM is good and actually compatible with that motherboard, that RAM timings are right in the BIOS, etc. As for the temps, I'd CHECK that the thermal compound is properly applied to where the cpu & heatsink meet, and that any fan settings in the BIOS are in order.

I take it you have not yet installed Windows, you won't have time if it shuts down after 15 mins. if you had, you could take a look at the event log I suppose.

Maybe running Memtest86 would be interesting.


Actually, when I first built the machine it ran fine. I did get XP installed including all of the Windows updates and delivered the machine. The next day, my client called and said the machine just started shutting itself off. I've been a day or two a week for the last 2 months trying different things..

I did try different MEMORY with the same results. (2 different STICKS of micron for the 1st & 2nd time, 3rd time was kingston).

I just ran memtest86 v3.4..........it ran just over one minute and the machine shut down!!

I installed the new cpu cooler about 2 days ago......I had the whole thing stripped down...motherboard out of the case and all.........and I made sure that everything was seated properly when I rebuilt it. the heatseak had the preinstalled thermal gel on it.I wonder about the motherboard.