I have a custom made computer with an AMD 2800+, 512 of ram, SATA hard drive, 6600 vid card, DVD burner, and every usb port is in use. I leave my PC running constantly. I recently replaced my power supply which the old one died in 7 months. My pc also reboots itself at least once a week without warning and when I go back into windows it says "this system has recovered from a serious error". Is this from a weak/hot power supply?
2006-08-18 22:48:13 · 13 answers · asked by jayjr1105 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
There are only 3 reasons why a computer will spontaneously reboot, due to heat: the processor overheating (most likely), the video card overheating (2nd most likely), or the motherboard's northbridge chipset overheating (least likely). If your power supply overheats, they almost always just destroy themselves, since a power supply puts out less power the hotter it gets.
Download this: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php It will tell you your processor temp, your chipset temp, even your power supply temp, if your power supply and your motherboard support that. Also, it will tell you all of your voltages. If your +12v is less than 11.8, your +5v is less than 4.9, or your 3.3v is less than 3.2, then your power supply isn't powerful enough for what you're trying to run with it.
2006-08-18 23:34:50 · answer #1 · answered by alchemist_n_tx 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have a standard reply for this question!
Would you leave your car running 24/7 ?
It has a motor with bearings that can wear out, well guess what so does the computer, the Hard drive has a motor, the CPU has a fan that is driven by a motor, the power supply has a fan that has a motor and many CDROM drives (particularly if there is a disk in them) are continually running (again a motor).
So Yes it is bad to run the computer 24/7 it's different if you were in a business that required the CPU to run all of the time, but for personal use there is no need for it to run all of the time.
As for the reboot problem well you are probably experiencing an overheat condition on the CPU open the system up and get some canned Air and blow out all of the fans and heatsinks and hopefully you haven't damaged the CPU or video card or and other components.
2006-08-19 06:04:32 · answer #2 · answered by Mollison_98 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heat is your problem. Try getting a Zalman CPU fan and some Arctic Silver thermal grease. This will help the CPU stay cooler, especially if your leaving this unit on 24/7. Add 120mm case fans, ones that move lots of air. There are also fans that mount on the hard drives, consider these to extend the life of your hard drives. The bearings in these will get very hot and fail, if you have this unit on 24/7. The power supply may also be too small for this unit after adding fans, consider a new one and make sure that the AMPS on the +12 line are high. Do not buy a cheap "bargain" power supplies (under $40). A variable fan speed adjustment on the PSU is handy. Start with it set at the lowest speed. If it kicks out from heat, crank the fan speed up. If your new fans are too noisy, you can reduce the voltage from 12 volts to 7 volts without a lot of loss in cooling power and will quiet the case fans down. A car can run 24/7, if it is properly maintained. Many big rigs run 24/7, especially in cold weather, they are tough to start in cold winter weather. Again, maintenance is the main concern.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/9169
2006-08-19 06:22:41 · answer #3 · answered by mittalman53 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It should be OK to leave your PC on 24/7 but it is a bit of a waste of energy if it isn't neccessary. There are wear and tear arguments for and against leaving PCs on but from what you have said I suspect you have a lot of power hungry components in your PC and your power suppoly may not be up to the job of powering all your peripherals. The error may well be due to a poor quality or underrated power supply. Bearing this in mind I would be inclined to either replace the power supply with a good quality one producing at least 480 watts (don't just buy the cheapest), get the existing power supply tested properly if it is rated at 400+watts or only have the PC switched on when you're nearby in case the power supply does the unthinkable and melts down! (it happens - happened to me once).
Good luck!
2006-08-19 06:02:13 · answer #4 · answered by notthateazy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your processor has adequate cooling,you can leave your PC on for a long time.Keeping it on for about 7 days in a row cant be good for your PC.5 days is okay though.The reboots could be due to an over heating processor.This could also be the reason why your power supply gave up quickly.
2006-08-19 06:14:43 · answer #5 · answered by Mrknowitall 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
weak/hot power supply? nope its you your doing the damage to your own computer by keeping it on 24/7 that is why you cpu fan got messed up and your power supply was done in do you know when there is a power cut your pc can bee killed off from it then your have to buy a new one and keep that on 24.7 and wait for it to die again keep going your doing so good
2006-08-19 06:02:01 · answer #6 · answered by cuitie 11 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your computer is restarting because of the default settings.
Control Panel
System (Right Click) click on properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the system recovery button
Now uncheck the box that says restart when error occurs.
Also look at your Event viewer to see what errors have been occuring.
2006-08-19 06:01:52 · answer #7 · answered by AnalProgrammer 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No it isn't bad. You should reboot once a day to clear the RAM tho. It sounds like you either have a virus or some corrupted files. Need more info on the actual errors tho to say for sure.
Try downlaoding Ad-Aware, and, Spybot.
Run them and restart everytime you have to remove something.
http://tinyurl.com/6bog4
2006-08-19 05:55:59 · answer #8 · answered by better? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ya bro no problem u can put your pc 24/7 but for that u need a ups who can give some hours backup and also regulation of voltage. as u know in whole world electricity is up and down sometime and its made problem to your pc as u know if powersupply will give more power to your mother bored then your system bus will not work properly and it will coz damage.SO buy a UPS right now atleast with 1 hours backup....:) problem sloved........ting tong
2006-08-19 06:02:37 · answer #9 · answered by winnner_of_heart 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sounds like a system its getting too hot to me. add some fans. if that doesn't help you need more power. if your power supply is weak, i would be careful because a weak power supply can cause your whole pc to fry.
better,
how much do you get paid if someone downloads from your site?
2006-08-19 05:56:14 · answer #10 · answered by NotScared2Ask 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋