Computer shuts off at random times

[lewislp]

I built the following computer:

Antec SLK2650-BQE with 350W PS
Asus P5GL-MX MB
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
Two Corsair ValueSelect 256 MB DDR400
ATI Radeon X550
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum with Front Panel Jacks
SATA HD
DVD/CD-RW

It's running a fresh install of Windows XP Home. At random times, it will shut off by itself with no error message -- sometimes after an hour, sometimes after a day or two, sometimes with applications running, sometimes with nothing running. It boots back up fine and has no other issues. All drivers and BIOS are latest and nothing is flagged in the hardware manager.

The ASUS PC Probe reports CPU temperatures no higher than 53 C, even under continuous heavy load, and all voltages stay very close to spec (within 0.3 V).

Any ideas?

Thanks. Larry

 

[lewislp]

Forgot to mention

I forgot to mention that the Intel Pentium 4 630 didn't come with any thermal paste, so I didn't apply that below the stock heatsink.

Is that an issue?

Would the ASUS Probe report a false heat score and the CPU actually be considerably hotter?

Thanks in advance. Larry

 

[lewislp]

Problem Solved

In case anyone stumbles on this thread with the same problem...

Three of the four memory slots are bad on my P5GL-MX motherboard. Using Memtest86 (test #5 in particular), I was able to move one memory module from slot to slot and determine that the computer wouldn't crash only in the first slot.

Hope this helps someone.