I moved my PC tower and after reconnecting all the peripheals and the monitor, etc. the computer will boot and begin loading windows XP and then just power off apparently for no reason. 5 minutes prior to moving the PC everythign was fine. It was playing music while I rearranged furniture.

I had the same exact problem when I installed the GeForce 7950GT PCI-E card. I didn't have the power molex for the card pushed in far enough and it would shut off right at loading windows. I corrected the molex problem and it's WORKED perfect until now.

Anyone know why moving a computer would stop it from botting properly for absolutely no reason? Everything is perfect internally; I went thru it to make sure and only found one thing that might even affect it at all: my cpu heatsink.

It's a stock heatsink for the P4 3.0ghz LGA 775. I was worried the heatsink wouldn't be good enough or that I hadn't used enough thermal grease but it worked great in conjunction with 4 case fans up TIL now.

Will this type of power down occur if a processor is GETTING too hot? It doesn't give me any kind of warning or notice at all, just shuts off.It sure can, if it's an Intel. (If it's an AMD it will just burn up!)

With a hot processor like that a good and functional cooling fan is a must. If you're not sure, reassemble or get a new one.Did you fasten the heatsink properly? Is the fan running? Checked the power supply connections and fan?

Alan <>< Whenever a machine is moved one or more components can be unseated...likliest culprits , vid card, RAM and NIC cards or any other addon cards.

Re-seat them all. As always when working inside the case remove ALL power sources and take anti static precautions.I tore my PC down completelyand reassembled it. The P4's heatsink was slightly unset and not fitting as tight as it should, and I discovered upon taking it off that the paste on the processor and heatsink was thinning, possibly from where it wasn't set tight enough and the heat causing it to dissipate. The seal between the heatsink and processor probably broke when I moved the tower.

I bought some Arctic Silver 5 and applied it about 5 minutes ago. Squeezed out about as much as a sharpened pencil lead or a rice grain and rolled it out EVENLY over the processor with a toothpick. I checked to make sure there wasn't any excess paste.

I'm going to let it set up for about 15 minutes and try to boot my PC again. I'm praying that my problem was only the P4 getting too hot and shutting down. The behaviour the PC was expressing suggests that this was my problem. The evidence that supported my theory is:

When I'd let the computer sit for 5-10 minutes (until it HAD to be cold) then hit the power button, it would stay on for 12-15 seconds, usually until the Windows XP logo hit the screen and then zap, it shut off. If I attempted to power it on again 20 seconds later it would stay on a whole 5 seconds and power off again, not even making it to the Windows load. (This is what made me assume that the processor wasn't staying cool enough anymore.)

I'll post a REPLY of my results when I try my next boot. Thanks for the advice!Well guys, the Arctic Silver 5 did the trick!! Man I'm so relieved. The processor core is running about 4-5 degrees Fahrenheit lower than what it was running even before the problem happened! Now it's booting wonderfully.

Never again will I even think about relying on stock thermal paste. I'd always heard good things about Arctic Silver and now I'm definately a believer.

Ok guys thanks for reading, I'm getting off this old Dimension 2400 and going back to the other PC. Nice job tracking down a solution liquid and thanx for letting us know...this may help someone else down the road...The problem was helped with the paste but probably helped more by the reseating of the heatsink/fan correctly. Quote from: Raptor on April 19, 2007, 03:09:09 PM

Did you fasten the heatsink properly?