SnowFella Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Hi again folks I've got a couple of questions about hardware, think I might have a problem brewing on this computer. Thing is I'm getting random shutdowns, the computer just shuts down without giving any reason and then reboots flawlessly on its own. This seems to happen most of the time during high load, ie harddrives, dvd and cd's all spinning up at once or when I'm opening high amounts of files at the same time. I have a theory, to weak psu. Think I only have a 300W psu to power a P4 1800 with 2 harddrives, dvd player, cd burner, GF 4 Mx440 card +additional periphials. Could this be it? And another question: I just can't get any performance out of my burner, LITE-ON LTR 40125S. Its a 40x burner but I just can't get it to burn full speed, can't even get it to burn at 20x. Every time I try the read buffer just empties and the protection kicks in & stops burning untill the buffer fills again. I know the harddrives are fast enough, tested their transfer rates & its higher than the cd's burnrate. I have had it running full speed flawlessly under Win XP without any twaeking needed but this just doesn't work under Win 2K. Any ideas what could be done about this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Make sure you have a CD-R Disc that is capable of writing at that speed. Also, if a drive spins up too fast and the disc is going way way too fast it can shatter so that's one reason why they might not do it... not sure.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 I need to know the wattage on your Power supply, how many drives, what sound card, and what CD drives you have as well as video card. Sounds like your Power Supply is a bit weak for your system. For your burning problem, what burning software are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowFella Posted September 2, 2003 Author Share Posted September 2, 2003 @Firefly: I only use disks that are capable of 40X so that shouldn't be a problem. Seems more like either a hardware issue or something that my settings screw up. @SOTOPhantm: the specs on the puter are the following Mobo: ASUS P4S333/C/WOL/PA-UAY cpu: Intel P4 1800GHz Ram: 521MB DDR PC2100 FX card: GF4 MX440 64Mb Sound card: Soundblaster Live Hard drives: 1 40Gb Seagate (think Barracuda) ST340016A 1 80Gb Western Digital WDC WD800JB-00ETA0 both on the primary IDE bus CD drives: 1 Creative DVD-Rom DVD1610E 1 Lite-ON burner 40x12x48x LTR-40125S both on the secondary IDE bus its also got logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, an internal modem, extra usb ports All this running on the following powersupply: Codegen ATX 300W specs AC output: 115/230 VAC 1A/0.5A DC output: +3.3v +5V +12V -5V -12V 20A 30A 10A 0.5A 0.8A 165W Max ------ 9.6W max & the software I use for burning is Ahead Nero 5.5.8.3 bundled. Could it be the fact that both my burner and dvd player is set as UDMA 2 in the bios? sounds abit slow to me, but then again...what do I know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Ranger Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 1st Question: Next time it shuts down like that, place your hand on the PSU, or feel the air expended from the PSU fan. How warm/hot is it? The PSU is what I'm leaning toward. With almost every manufacturer, just because it says XXX watts, doesn't mean that's what you'll be getting. For instance, a 300 Watt PSU may only provide 260-270 Watts continuous. How long have you had the PSU? 2nd Question: Have you tried a Firmware update from the manufacturer? Sometimes that can make a difference. You might also try different media(i.e. cd-rom/rw disks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowFella Posted September 2, 2003 Author Share Posted September 2, 2003 This puter hardly runs warm at any time (ususally doesn't even hit 40C on high load) but I'll try..I've also started logging temp, fanspeeds and voltage to see if I can see any anomalies the next time it shuts down. Could come in handy. The PSU is about 1 year old now and came with the case when I built this computer. & about the burner, Lite-on doesn't have any updates for this burner on their site & I'm acctually still on the same spindle of CD's that I got when I bought the burner. They worked ok when I had win xp & the burner hit 40x no worries. Snow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Did you do a new re-install of Nero after you switched OS's? A bit off topic, but why did you switch OS's and go back to an older one? Especially since they are trying to replace 2K with XP? I think you are going to have to replace that power supply. When and if you do, go for 330 or higher. Also, go into the BIOS, and set the drives for the faster UDMA settings or to auto if it is an option. Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowFella Posted September 2, 2003 Author Share Posted September 2, 2003 I did a fresh clean install of everything! "format c:" How I love that line & I switched OS because XP didn't exactly run smoothly for me, would hang now and then and I had years of experience with flawless running od win 2k...so the choice was easy. Oh well...time to try and convince the boss (the wife) its time for another purshase of computer parts..fun fun..prolly go for a 400 though...can't have enough power on hand if needed later. & I'll try changing the settings in the BIOS in the morning and let you know. Thanks mate Snow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Anytime bro. Also feel free to contact me via PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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