Computer shutting down

[thecableguy]

I have a problem with my computer shutting down on it's own. It acts like a restart, but i can hear the harddrive slow down til the power kicks back in. I just replaced the power supply with a Antec 350w. I thought i had it fixed, but it is still doing it. Does anyone know what the problem could be? I have an Abit m/b, AMD Athlon 2000xp processor, Maxtor 40gb, Sony cd-rom and burner, ATI Radeon 8500 128mb video card, PCI512 Sound Blaster, Antec 350w power supply(brand new), Windows XP Pro. Any ideas on what else it could be?

 

[Xie]

are you sure you don't have "dirty" power? also when does it do this, is it just random?

 

[LeeJend]

As always it could be anything. You have to rule possibilities out one at a time.

When the system drops off do you see lights flicker, fans, heaters, air conditioner turn on, etc. If yes it is your incoming power. You can try an uninterruptible power supply or maybe a different outlet.

Restart and check your system and CPU temperatures in bios. CPU should be less than 60 deg C (preferably <55) after high work load. Below 50 when just surfing. System temp should be <40-45 deg C.

Do a complete virus scan using an antivirus with the latest update.

If anything is overclocked or set for "performance" take it back to standard. See if the problem goes away.

Disconnect everything in your system but 1 stick RAM, 1 HD and video. See if the problem goes away. If not try a different stick of RAM. If it still doesn't go away it's MB or CPU, maybe HD but that's very unlikely.

If the problem does go away start putting things back in one at a time until the problem comes back. When it does you found the guilty party.

My worst nightmare was 4 months of crashes. Thought I had tried everything. When I decided to upgrade my sound card the system became totally stable and has been for 10 months now.

 

[thecableguy]

It does it at random. I used to notice it only while i was playing a game, but only did it every so often. Not often in the same day. Usually days apart from each other. It is hooked to a Belkin UPS, pretty new. No dimming of lights during this process. It's not overclocked. Temps usually run around 115 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit on a Motherboard monitor, not thru bios. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and it runs automatically every friday night. No viruses as of yet.
I figured this might be a one at a time kind of troubleshooting jobs, but was just checking to see if anyone had this problem before to help maybe narrow it down for me.
Oh yeah, i forgot my memory on my list, 1 stick of Mushkin 512mb.

 

[Xeperoth]

I have an Abit NF7 and whenever I do shut down the computer shuts down but then it restarts itself as soon as it goes off. I have to push the off button on the back of my comp to turn it off. Also when I start up my comp sometimes the computer speed is lower and my memory is clocked lower. All I do is go to bios and do 'Save and Restart' and then it goes back to normal, until I shut down and restart, but not all the time, that's happens 50/50 of the time. It didn't always used to do this, just happened like a month ago and I had this for about 6 months, I built it myself. I have a strange feeling it's the Abit motherboard, next time I'll go with an Asus.