Computer Randomly Shuts Down

[SoulEdge]

Problem : The computer has been shutting down kinda randomly. I am not sure what the problem is but the temperature has been pretty stable when it has done so usually anywhere from 35-43 celsius. It started happening after I got a PS Emulator last weekend and happened usually when I am playing a game on the emulator, however the temperature never exceeded 42 or 43 c.

Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 venice core
1gb Corsair ddram
Asus A8N-E 939sckt motherboard
Seagate 120gb 8mb cache 7200rpm
ATI x800XL 256mb
Antec 450 Watt ATX12V v2.0 PSU

The system is 3 months old and has never had this problem before. Someone told me that the PSU could be the culperit. I'm not sure how to narrow it down. :(

[RD]

Its probably the psu

[thrash_head]

Make sure that your RAM is pushed in good and getting a good connection. The PSU could be the problem, you may have gotten a lemon from Antec (wich isn't very often). If you have a back-up PSU or a local CPU store take it in and see if they can test it on a different PSU and see what it does.

[mafiaman]

stop pirateing games se :)

[SoulEdge]

im allowed to download the emulator since i legally own a PS :p

on a side note, i ran a spyware/virus check and nothing has come up with regards to my computer. i drank a glass of water and put on the tower near the psu and the shit shutdown too. i wanted to see if the vibration caused it so after i turned it back on and gave it a thump with my palm it shut down again.

[thrash_head]

Thats weird, i'd get a new PSU fast.

[SoulEdge]

i was browsing around for probable causes to this dilemma and I came across someone that said their computer was also shutting down randomly, and the frequences increased after the first incident. there were also periods where the computer would stay on and function fine for a good number of hours. Mine is just like that. anyways, said person got a new psu, the same model i have infact and said the problem continued. so someone recommended getting Memtest-86 to check the ram. I was able to create its boot disk and run the diagnostic but im not computer savvy enough to really understand whats going on and the results.

[theCops]

that was happening to me too. it happened when my video card changed video modes (starting a game etc).

i got around this shutting down by underclocking the memory and gpu speeds on the video card, then cranking it back up again to where i find it stable.

check the wattage on your psu though. they tend to get "tired" and not crank out the labeled wattage over time.

[SoulEdge]

im going to contact newegg/antec to see if i can RMA the psu. lets see how that goes.

[SoulEdge]

how can i know for sure which is faulty between the psu and the mobo. newegg said i have to ship the friggin case cuz the psu came with it and in the original box non the less. i gotta call up antec to havem ship a empty box to me lol.

[SoulEdge]

yeah im going to contact antec and see what i can do