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SyedHNaqvi

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PC keeps shutting down

My PC abruptly shuts down. There are no errors and the event logs are also clean and show no errors. Once the machine is down it will not start up immediately and takes upto 10 minutes before it can be restarted.

The pc is running XP pro SP2. This is a recurring problem which i fixed by changing the HD and motherboard.

Advice is appreciated.
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Callandor
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I think this might be a case of overheating or a faulty power supply.  You should install a temperature monitor like MotherboardMonitor, and you can try swapping the power supply.
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David-Howard

Definitely sounds like overheating. Are ALL fans turning as they should? (Power supply, CPU, etc.)
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Deivis007

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Your heatink fan isn't working as orther have mentioned OR you're draining the powersupply of more wattage than it can offer?  have you recently added any new parts to your machine hard drives, fans, lights, powered video cards, etc???

HTH

AR
How old is the mobo?

There were serious shut down and video problems on boards with particular capacitors. You can check the caps for bulging in the top and sometimes they have a light brown crusty deposit on them.

FYI. The caps are usually cylindrical black or blue components with lettering showing their capacitance in microfarads (uf) and a voltage, typically 6.3v or 10v.

This gives a bit more info and some pics to help you identify the caps.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195
"This is a recurring problem which i fixed by changing the HD and motherboard."

Then how can it be CPU overheating, if you fixed it by changing the MB and HDD??
If a new HDD fixed it, it is most likely the old HDD was failing and ready to die.
If a new MB fixed it, then you are dealing with a CPU and RAM incompatibility issue.
as scratchboy said, the Q is badly worded; not near enough info.
could you be clear as to what happened, and what you did to remedy it? and is it still happening after changing mobo and disk?
a good thing would be to sett the PC Not to restart automaticall on errors :
in device manager>advanced tab, go into the start and repair settings section, and untick the restart on system errors. This will give you a blue screen with the error, for helping to diagnose
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Monitor the temp of the processor and also the speed of the cpu fan. You should be able to find this in your bios.
Also if you leave the system in the Bios monitoring this and it does not happen, then it is a windows problem (i.e. virus, etc...)
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I have tried to defrag the HDD twice and it has shutdown 5 minutes into the process both times.

I am looking into:

overheating cpu
cpu fan
power supply &
RAM

Will keep you guys posted
I am sorry if the situation was badly explained:

Several monts ago (7-8) my pc started shutting off abruptly with no errors in the event log. It would shutdown without warning.

I changed the HD and the motherboard which fixed the problem until last month with the problem recurring.

try running some diagnostics too :
burnintest :  http://www.passmark.com/download/index.htm      
tufftest lite  :  www.tufftest.com/tt01-lite.htm
It would be nice to know that you've checked the caps, but when you moved the processor over to the new board did you re-seat the heatsink?

It could be an overheat problem related to a lack of conductivity between the processor and heatsink.
Also reseat the processor