Machine Randomly Dying

[mccannt]

OK Guys, this is a long shot but I thought I would give it a try.

I recently thought I would challenge myself and build my own PC rather than buy an already assembled machine. I bought all the parts, put them together fairly easily, initially I had some problems with the way I had the Hard/CD drive and the jumper settings configured, but you guys sorted that out for me.

My problem at the moment is, my machine randomly keeps dying. I boot up, can be working for an hour and then I lose power, everything shuts down, no warning - nothing - its like someone pulling the plug. If I press the power switch the machine will reboot with no problems but I will only have power for about 2/3 mins and then same again, the machine will die. I could do this ten time with the same results, I would never get more than a few minutes of life in the machine after the first initial dying

Now for the strange part !! The machine is a tower unit, and it sits in the normal tower position, under my desk. Once the problem occurs, and, as I say, its is totally random, it can happen after an hour, after 6 hours or after 5 minutes.

However If I put the machine flat on the floor, i.e. flat on its side not in the normal tower position, the problem will never happen, so that leads me to think maybe something is not quite with the way I have put the thing together.

This problem has been occuring from day 1 of the machines life., so any help to help me fix it would be greatly appreciated, as its pretty frustrating at the moment.

 

[Masque]

Well it would be helpful if you could fill your user profile out with system specs to see what you're working with but I'm going to give something a shot. A friend of mine had a similiar issue and it turned out to be a loose heatsink on either his Northbridge or Southbridge chip. Ground yourself and check for "any" loose heatsinks on your motherboard and check for proper seating of your processor HSF as well. It sounds arbitrarily like a heat problem on one of your chips....just a matter of which one.

Potentially, the reason it sits well on it's side is because the heat sink is sitting more snug when you've got the motherboard laying down.

It's a place to start anyway.....

 

[mccannt]

Thanks Masque, will give that a go...

Have filled out the user profile, so should make things easier in future.

Thanks for help, will keep u posted.

 

[mccannt]

Thanks Masque,

what can I say, only thank you so much yet. My problem has been solved and it was sooo easy.....

As you suggested the processer fan was not secured properly. There were two little handles that were not locked into place. I simply locked these down and it made the fan 100% more secure, and the machine no longer dies on me.

With all the frustrations I have had with building my own PC, I was begining to wonder if it was the correct decision, but I have definitely learn't quite a bit and with the help of this forum, I think I now have a fully functioning working PC and have great satisfaction in knowing I put it together myself. Thanks guys, I'm sure I'll be back, with the next issue!!

 

[Masque]

Glad to see it's resolved for you. Happy computing.