[Hieronymous]

Just moved half way across the world, and before I left, I re-installed windows for my girlfriend. Now that I'm 3000 miles away, she tells me it keeps crashing, and she doesn't know what to do. She says it will randomly shut down, then when she turns it back on, it will shut down again almost right away. On the other hand, she says that when she lets it sit for a while, she can get it to stay on for longer.

I told her to try it in Safe Mode, that made no difference.

I told her to do a system restore, that didn't help.

It's starting to sound like a temp problem, but I never had one before, and I haven't changed any of the hardware in the recent past (except a web-cam).

Admittedly, I did the re-install in a bit of a hurry, but it is far from the first re-install I've ever done.

The only posts I have found that are similar talk about power source shortage, but I've already got 400 watts on that comp.

Can somebody help me help my girlfriend figure this problem out from a distance? I need to redeem myself in her eyes as the geek pants-wearer in the relationship, and I can't do it alone!

Asus A8N-SLI SE
AMD Athalon 64 4000+
ATI Radeon X1300
2x512 Corsair DDR-400
nVidia nForce 4
Maxtor 164gb HD
Windows XP Home SP2

[SYL\X/3K]

Well if it keeps on power off after boot up then there isn't sufficient power going in the computer , in other words it sounds like a dead power supply

[peterhuang913]

or overheating cpu

[Hieronymous]

Thanks for the responses guys. Now the question is how can I help my girlfriend to test those theories from here?
The overheating issue is not too hard, I can just have her install PCWizard and watch to see if the temp rises before the crash (this seems to be the most likely explanation, given that when she lets the comp sit awhile, i.e. lets it cool down, it stays on longer).
But how can she test the power supply hypothesis?

Thanks for yer help guys.

[superdave1984]

I agree it is overheating. Have her open the case and see if the fans spin when she turns it on. Or leave the case open and put a small fan blowing in there.

[ShackledPhoenix]

To test the PSU the best way is to get a known working one to test the theory.
There's also power supply testers you can get, but I've never cared for them as most don't put a draw on the power and can show it's OK when it's really not.
You can also test it with a multimeter, but it's a pain and requires a good bit of knowledge on electricity.

[Ethereal_Dragon]

I actually just fixed an overheating issue on my gaming rig a few nights ago. When I was at my apartment, the temps were always really cool, because there was a nice cross-breeze through the apartment. Now that I am in my house, the office ALWAYS has the door shut, cause I don't need our animals chewing on junk (again), and don't need the hair clogging up the heat sinks.... So, after the move, the computer would down-right FREEZE after about 10 minutes. If I tried to reset, it would freeze at the BIOS splash screen, and not even get to windows. I suspect it was perhaps the Northbridge, because it didn't power down, it just froze. A little AS5, and I am back in business with good temps in the HOT HOT room to boot. lol.

When was the last time that the inside of the case was CLEANED?? When I rebuilt a few nights ago, I also found ALOT of dust and junk clogging some of the fans and heat sinks...