Hello ComputerHope. First time poster here.
I came here because I have a problem with my wife's computer which I cannot seem to solve. Her computer stats:
- Pentium 4 3.2Ghz, 800FSB
- 2GB PC-3200 RAM
- 80GB SATA Drive
- MSI 865PE Neo2-P Motherboard
- Generic 400W PSU
- Generic IDE-Based DVD ROM
She uses it for light usage (browsing, excel sheet processing, youtube watching, etc). During her use, the computer randomly turns off. It turns off in a way where I cannot turn it back on again. I have to unplug the computer for a few minutes and then plug it back in before it actually powers on. Once that happens, the BIOS complains it's out of date (the CMOS batter is probably shot...). So I reset the BIOS and boot into windows and everything is ok.
Here is the weird part. I believe that this might have been a PSU issue, so I replaced the PSU
twice. It still happens. I thought that it was over heating so I bought two new case fans and it still happens. I thought it might have been bad RAM, so I swapped ram from my server machine, and it still happened. Further, I ran some intensive programs to see if it might be the PSU's voltage. I ran a virus scan, a GPU and CPU stress program, and a few youtube videos at the same time. The max CPU temperature was roughly 50C, which is not bad for a P4. I was hoping that the stress tests would peg the PSU as much as possible. I ran this test for over 30 minutes without any problem.
After I was done testing, I did some light browsing and out of the blue, the computer turned off.
Any ideas? I'm stumped!!
