PC experiencing sudden blackouts (1 Viewer)

[Lainee]

My computer has been misbehaving lately. I get random blackouts and my monitor says that it doesn't detect a signal and I'm forced to restart. It'll do this every time about 5 minutes after I login to Windows. I got frustrated today and started pounding on the keyboard and everything worked again (the monitor displayed properly again and I've been using it fine for the last hour).

Sometimes I get strange blocks of colour on my screen before things freeze. Problem with my video card maybe?

For the past 2-3 months the fans on my computer have been whirling like crazy as well. I've ignored them mostly. But now I think it might be some heating issues. My fans were also clogged with dust so I cleaned them out as best I could (is it possible to remove them to properly clean?) I dl Speedfan and there is something called AUX that is really overheating (124 degrees) and my CPU is around 50 degrees when I'm mostly idle. That's really all I can understand from it.

Some information about my computer >
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 540, 3200 MHz (16 x 200)
Motherboard: Asus P5P800 (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000 (Microsoft Corporation) (128 MB)
Ram: 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM) (Is this right? I'm getting my information from a program called Everest.)
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Any help please? Let me know if you need any more info to help me out.

 

[sunny]

Programs like Speedfan don't always give you the right numbers since sometimes you need to manually configure the program for each different computer. If something is at 124 degrees you should be able to smell it or feel the computer's insides being much hotter than it should be. 50 degrees when idle for your CPU is probably a little bit high, but still acceptable.

If you haven't already double check that all the fans are spinning when the computer is on just to be sure they're actually working, especially your graphics card if it has one. Did you go as far as cleaning the CPU fan as well?

It is hard to get fans to prestine condition again since some dust particles just get stuck.

 

[Chris.]

this is what happened to me...check your computer fans to see if they are actually working. My ones actually stopped working for sum reason. Also, check your video card for that other problem

 

[Lainee]

I'm not sure how many fans I'm suppose to have But I see two (one out the back and one inside) and they're both spinning constantly. I've left the sides open for better airflow and I can feel the hot air against my legs but I'm not sure whether this is normal.

I just used compressed air to blow all the dust particles out. Not sure if it's okay to use a vacuum cleaner (read about static building up and such).

It's been 2 hours and it hasn't blacked out on me yet, but I haven't been doing anything intensive (been backing up allllllll my files just in case ). I think I'll try to run a game and see if it blacks out on me.

 

[MedNez]

I don't think you should install water cooling

You'd be much better getting a bigger case with proper fan cooling =)

 

[Chris.]

if you need the computer right now for sumthing urgent and it blacks out on you, my friend put a glass of water in his computer lol. Dont put ice water coz it'll fuk the pc up.....oh yeh and also make sure it doesnt spill lol

 

[Punctuation M]

Sometimes the symptons discribed are a indication that the monitor is on it's way out, gone, neally dead you get my drift? But also, the fan related problems can also cause this - and the GPU.

P.S - don't do what Chris has said.

 

[Uncle Jonny]

That happened to me a few times. Took the video card out. Worked fine.

Fukz0red video card.