PC Randomly crashing

OK, Ive already narrowed down this problem to either; faulty power supply, or faulty motherboard.

Originally my PC was crashing on average about every 15 mins, I thought it may be my case shorting out my board, so I ran only critical devises outside of the case.....no crash, removed the mounting screw that was shorting, it began crashing every couple of hours. It only crashes a couple of times, but it now crashes every now and then. This WOULD seem to point at the motherboard, but seing as my case isnt in the best shape, and my PSU is blowing WARM air out the back, and contaisn more dust than you can shake a stick at.......well, that just introduces a 2nd party to the problem!

Can somebody point me in the right direction of furthur system testing, or some motherboard diagnostic tools?

thanks!

Nic_Italiano

Blowing warm air isn't necessarily a problem, and some compressed air can get the dust out of your existing psu. Best way to see if thats the problem though would be try a new psu. If that doesn't fix it, and you're sure you've eliminated everything else, must be the mobo.

OK, does anybody know of ANY motheroard diagnostic tools?

thanks

OK, Ive just worked out that my PSU only blows warm or hot air out when running several devices, I disconnected everything but my motherboard, and ran it, and it was blowing out COLD air.

so Im pretty sure its the PSU for now, it also was making some quite scary loud noises today when I worked that out.

Any suggestions?

Thanks guys

Just a word of caution, my PSU blows out warm air, and always has. My computer runs just fine (aside from the occasional blue screen of death, but that is because I've overclocked my cpu). You can get a PSU tester from most places, such as Circuit City. It's cheaper than having to by a new PSU just to test it. Usually PSU units go out real quick, rather than taking their time. Is it a new PSU?

Yeah, less than 6 months. I think it is just because im running all these devices on only 350-WATT

Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM
Lite-On 8X DVD+/-R/RW
Panasonic FDD
Maxtor DiamondPlus 8 40GB
Motherboard
2x 80mm 12v fans
......and everything else in my system (if it wouldnt crash with them connected)

Im just going to buy a new case with 400-WATT or higher PSU in it.....sadly, most cases have a 350-WATT PSU with them, even "cases designed for serious gamers" (Antec SUPERLANBOY to be specific).

Looks like my motherboard has survived its luck AGAIN! lol

Thanks guys!

I had a similar problem with my PC crashing for no reason. It turned out I had the voltage switch on my PSU set to the wrong one. It was set to 220 and not 115 as it needed to be for use in the USA. Not sure what Australia needs to have it set to. If you need it to be 220, and it is at 115, you need a new PSU, cause that ruins it. But if you need 115, and it is set to 220, you can just set it back with no problems.

Hi , I am sending you this information because i ha d the same problem but i found out where it came from.
I symply opened my computer to access the processor, and i noticed that there was a lot of dust in the cooling(i don't know how to say it in english) aluminium over the processor and before the fan.So try to get away all this dust and it should work again.It did it for me.
I have now another problem, my computer will not start when cold or even crash with a blue screen for several times until it get to the right temperature. What could this problem be???
Pls help me.

Firstly, blow the dust out of the PS and the interior of the case. Make sure that you clear the dust off the motherboard.

Secondly, add another fan. You cn add a 3-4" sqaure fan to the front on install a slot fan in a spare PCI slot.

The dust will create shorting and block the flow of air.

If that don't work, get another supply - they are cheap enough.