Yea, i think it is the PSU. I don’t really know too much about electronics, but if it is a crappy 3rd party replacement, it may not be sending a steady current of power, perhaps at some times it sends too much power, and at others, too little. This could cause a shutdown.
If a different component was the issue, say a non-critical device such as a drive or video card, sound card, or even ram, you wouldn’t have any of the random shutdown issues you described.
I don’t think it is the MoBo either, because a faulty mobo usually means that the machine won’t boot at all, and won’t even post.
Precisely. As you said, the probs didnt start until you installed a new PSU.
Just a reassurer for the whole ‘getting worse over time’, it may be just the PSU that got damaged overtime, leaving the rest of the PC unscathed. Hope that is the case.
If you need a new PSU and your’ friend doesnt have a good one around, try looking for one on newegg. If you dont want the same issues, dont skimp on price.
Update: Just came back from my friend’s house, and it seems the problem was caused by… a faulty CPU fan?
We changed the fan at the same time as the Power Supply, and apparently it works randomly, allowing the CPU to overheat. I’m currently using my PC with the side panel removed, as hitting the fan causes it to restart. So far Deus seems to be doing alright.
Why didn’t we install a new fan? We did! Guess what? It came defective!! 0_0 My friend said he would get me another one tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to use the hit-it-with-your-finger gimmick, as I have important things to do tonight on my PC.
Oh, we also found out the PC was running WAAAY too many useless programs at startup (things like A-Lock, an encrypting program I downloaded way back when one of my friends was into the “let’s email each other in code!” fad.) :noway: which was the apparent cause for its slowdown. We’ve deactivated a lot of them now. I’m still checking to see if it runs faster.
This doesn’t mean there are no other causes, just none we have have found yet. My friend also says I can buy the discs I need at the Emachines website, and that I should buy more memory for Deus (it has 128MB SDRAM). Those’ll have to wait until I have more money to spend.
Before you buy more RAM, make sure you buy a different kind, like DDR Even if it means a new mobo. So you changed both a fan and the PSU? Hmmm. Fan seems like a remote possibility, but I doubt overheating would cause a sudden, hard, cold crash. An old laptop of mine would do a temporary freeze for overheating, while once with my current comp overheating caused snowflakes to occur. I doubt a hardfreeze would cause it outright. But either way, if the current solution is working, then keep going with it.
Even if it means a new mobo. So you changed both a fan and the PSU? Hmmm. Fan seems like a remote possibility, but I doubt overheating would cause a sudden, hard, cold crash. An old laptop of mine would do a temporary freeze for overheating, while once with my current comp overheating caused snowflakes to occur. I doubt a hardfreeze would cause it outright. But either way, if the current solution is working, then keep going with it.