"Random" Power Offs

[LiquidInfinity]

Hey, my newly built machine will occasionally power down while I'm using it. It doesn't seem to correlate too strongly with any particular event/program.
The symptoms are similar to CPU overheating, but Core Temp reads both my cores in the 20-40C range almost at all times - even right before cutting power. I also just did an application of ArcticSilver5 to replace the manufacturer's thermal paste.
My second guess is that my RAM is may be a fault. I'm running a supposedly picky MoBo with memory not officially tested . . . I've heard there are workarounds in the BIOS settings, but I haven't done anything as I'm not entirely sure the RAM is causing the problem.

Here are some specs:
O/S- Windows Vista 32
MoBo- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
CPU- AMD X2 4800 Brisbane
GPU- EVGA 7900 GS KO
RAM- 1GX2 Patriot PC6400 800MHz 4-4-4-12

If you need more intel, let me know . . . thanks

 

[rivalneighbour]

maybe its your power supply thats failing. what psu or case+psu combo do you have?

 

[LiquidInfinity]

Oh, forgot to post that . . .
I've got a Enermax Liberty 500W PSU.

Thanks

 

[Gryphyn]

I've noticed that My computer would do that same thing if I were running coretemp simultaneously with another monitoring program, such as Rivatuner. You said you didn't see a corrolation between programs, but I thought I would mention my experience.

 

[rivalneighbour]

swap that power supply with a backup power supply or one you might have in another pc or ask a friend to borrow their power supply for an hour or two then see if your pc still has random shut downs. hopefully it will be ok. Enermax Liberty is a tier 2 psu but still you may have gotten a dud. find out soon so you can send it back if you need to.

 

[LiquidInfinity]

Thanks for the help fellas. It actually seems that the CoreTemp/multiple program thing might have been happening. Just finished an hour of gaming with no issues - but I'll keep an eye on my PSU if things go haywire again.

 

[Gryphyn]

Woo hoo! Ten points.

 

[PSYCHoHoLiC]

I had the same problem, its coretemp.. doesnt have to run with another program to power off the computer. Google for it random power off with coretemp 0.95