Vista - Sudden Vista restart or shutdown

Hello.

I have a problem that's occuring while I am watching videos fullscreen on Youtube, NBA.com, possibly other sites also, but the problem is that when trying to exit the fullscreen mode it sometimes restarts the PC. On some occassions I can switch between fullscreen and windowed mode without problems infinite times, but when PC doesn't want to do that it simply goes black screen with that analog or digital signal sign switching (Samsung 940 BF). There's no error prior or after the restart. It also happened once while in Google Earth, but today it even shutdowned while I was starting GTA 4 - again no error, blue screen, nothing. The games in general work good, without restarts or similar.
Computer is 1 month old: AMD Athlon 64 5600+, 2GB RAM, ATI 4670 512 MB, 400GB HDD, Gigabyte motherboard and 550W of power supply. I have Vista Home Premium 32 bit version installed, with SP1.

I have searched the net for similar problems but couldn't find a solution.
Thanks for help.

Sudden shutdowns like this are quite common, but almost never anything to do
with Vista - it is almost certainly a hardware fault.

Overheating CPUs and overheating or sagging power supplies are the prime
candidates.

My first instinct would be to remove the fan and heatsink from the CPU, wipe
off and renew the thermal paste, and give the heatsink and fan a really good
clean. When it's refitted, check that the fan is running, without any odd
noises. I would do this first simply because there's virtually no cost
involved (just the paste) and you might as well.

I'm not sure why the problem is triggered by switching *away* from
fullscreen videos, but maybe your graphics card is overloading the power
supply, such that it is right on the edge and prone to tripping.

There is one other possibility - it could be a faulty graphics card driver.
I would update it to the latest WHQL driver, just to be sure. This is less
likely, though, as in my experience most driver faults are picked up by the
OS, which halts with a blue screen.

When you've checked the CPU and the graphics card driver, I'd be very
tempted to take a punt on a new power supply. Make sure it's powerful
enough for the hardware, obviously. My gut feeling is that it's the power
supply that's at the root of the problem.

SteveT

Thanks for the reply.

Can you recommend any good programs to test my CPU and GPU temperature and preformance to see if any of these two are the reason for problems.

I think that 550W is enough to deal with my PC, because nothing is or ever was overclocked. After all my computer is new (although I didn't put it together myself-I trust the store which did it) so I doubt it would have such short lifetime.

I have already updated to Catalyst 8.12 hoping to resolve my problem, but with no effect.

> I think that 550W is enough to deal with my PC, because nothing is orI would agree - that would seem adequate.

You can use Sandra Lite to thrash your PC and measure the temperatures:

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/

I'm hoping others will dive in here with other suggestions. Incidentally,
it might be as well to discuss it with the vendor.

SteveT

"Thoomy" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:6c1aeb70bbe6184d7981cb7f7846295d@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
Maybe you could check to see if it is set to re-start on errors.

Control Panel > System > Advanced System settings >
Startup and Recovery > Settings.
Make sure the 'Automatically restart' box is clear.

You may then get some error messages or something when it
happens again.

In article <Ouye36pYJHA.684@xxxxxx>,
Steve Thackery <nobody@xxxxxx> wrote:No.

Windows crashes that are linked to video mode changes and are
100% reproducible are video driver problems.

Change - probably upgrade but might be a downgrade to a previous
revision or a sideways upgrade to Windows or third party or generic - your
video card drivers. This is almost certainly a video driver issue although
a bad graphics card remains a remote possibility.
It's just a bad driver.

Well I have checked the PC with different tests and Sisoft Sandra program and there are no complications with any of them. I figured that if I exit fullscreen with Ctrl+Alt+Del it doesn't restart.
I have updated old Catalyst drivers with 8.12 and the problem still occurs.

On Dec 21, 5:18*am, Thoomy <gu...@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:So many suggestions would have you to fix things not defective; fix
it before first identifying the problem. Therefore nothing has been
accomplished.

For example, you power supply is sufficient because it is 500
watts? Watts say little about a properly sized supply. Only useful
numbers are the current for each voltage AND how much current each
device requires.

Temperature is a commonly blamed item because it is one of the few
things so many understand. Any properly constructed computer works
just fine in a 100 degree F room. Any properly constructed heatsink
should be sufficient even with no thermal compound between CPU and
heatsink. Also thermal compound does not go bad (although applying
too much can create numerous other problems including higher
temperatures).

Start with collecting facts. What do the system (event) logs
report? That is where the system has been reporting failures long
ago, then working around those problems for now.

Power supply - until you have measured the actual numbers, then
nobody can post anything useful about that supply. Best time to
measure voltages with a 3.5 digit multimeter is when the system is
under maximum load. IOW when doing 'taxing' videos, while downloading
from the internet, while playing sounds, while searching the hard
drive, while reading a CD-Rom, while .... Now useful numbers are
obtained by measuring any one of red, orange, yellow, and purple
wires. Those voltages must be above 3.23, 4.87, and11.7, AND reported
here for further useful replies. Only then is the power supply
'system' (more than just a power supply) definitively known good.

If heat is a problem, the problem will appear when a room is 100
degree F - especially while running manufacturer diagnostics. Of
course, more responsible computer manufacturers provide those
comprehensive hardware diagnostics for free. If your system is not so
responsible, then download diagnostics for each of the few hardware
devices that can cause your shutdown. That shorter list is video
controller, sound card, CPU, some motherboard functions, power supply
'system', and memory.

Obviously, the supply 'system' has been removed without doubt. So
move on to other suspects. Diagnostics - especially when hardware is
warmed - puts each item in a list of 'known good' or 'known bad'.
Currently, everything on that list is unknown even after all that
work.

Heat (ie a 100 degree F room) is a diagnostic tool. Selectively
heat suspects with a hair dryer on highest heat setting - ideal
temperatures to semiconductors. A defect can become temporarily
obvious when heated and while executing diagnostics. Again, a
definitive answer.

Accomplishment is measured by a list of items 'definitively' known
good. Provided is how to get definitive answers. Others have not
provided any such recommendations - only speculations.