Computer crashing

my PC is messed up. It shuts off at random (normally within 30 minutes of it being on). It tends to do this especially if I am using my cdrom drives or my printer or the internet or even looking through my digital camera pictures. However, I can sit there for several hours without this happening when I am doing homework on an excel spreadsheet and nothing else.. I have a 52x48x52 cdrom a Dvdrom drive(I am at work, can't remember the speeds, but i doubt it matters), a 80 Gb hard drive, and a 32 Gb hard drive, 512 mb ram, 2.1 ghz processor (I bought all the hardware seperately and assembled this computer myself so I hope that I didn't do something wrong in assembling, but this malfunction didn't occur during the first year after I built it). Oh and I am also using Windows XP Home with SP2. It mainly started doing this after I had got DSL (which by coincidence was the same time I added the dvdrom drive). I got rid of DSL and It still does this. I tried formatting and it didn't fix the problem. I have updated antivirus software, so as far as I can tell it isn't virus activity. Then I thought maybe my power supply couldn't handle the load, so I bought a Rosewill 500W power supply to replace the 400W that came with the case, and the 12V, 5V, 3.3V rails are significantly better (see bottom for specs taken from Newegg). I haven't formatted since replacing the power supply which is the next thing I was going to try, but it is a pain that I don't want to unnecessarily go through.


the way that the system shuts down seems like it really is just giving out, because it shuts down, but the light on the front indicating that it is on is still lit up, and simply pressing the front power button does not turn it back on, I have to flip the switch off in the back which takes like 5 seconds to make the light turn off in front, and then I flip the back switch on , which makes it start up (without ever needing to press the button in the front). Also I cannot turn it back on immediately after it shuts off, I have to wait 5-10 minutes before it will become stable enough to stay on past booting up (if I try to turn it back on too soon, it will just give out less than second after it tries to start back up).

Please Help!
Thanks, Brandon

Rosewill ATX 500W power supply specs:
Dual +12V: No
Efficiency: > 70%
Fans: 1
Hold-up Time: >10ms at Full Load and nominal input voltage
Input Current: 10A/5A
Input Frequency Range: 50-60 Hz
Input Voltage: 103-132 vrms or 206-264 vrms switch-selectable
Output: +3.3V@28A, +5V@30A, +12V@34A, -5V@0.3A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2A
Over Voltage Protection: +3.3V, +5V, +12V

have you opened the case and checked for overheating? make sure the fans are working and the CPU heatsink is properly fitted, also, you could try re-installing the drivers for your dvd rom and DSL modem.

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i'll have to double check when i get off work, but the cpu heatsink should be fitted properly, i have a fan on the front of the case and one on the side door of the case and the power supply fan of course, last time i checked (a couple months ago) they were all still working. the bios reports that the temperatures are normal, but is there a way i can check these temperatures while i am doing the activites that are causing the problem when i am in XP? i will try updating the drivers, most of them are pretty up to date because i updated them last december (i have been putting up with this problem for about a year now), and i no longer have the DSL modem because i returned it last year.

Thanks for the reply,

Brandon

ok, you could leave your side cover off the case whilst you have your computer on and see if anything overheats, also make sure the fans are free from wires ect blocking them.
do you get any error messages? if it just turns off click start>rt. click on my computer click properties, then advanced then startup and recovery click settings then un-check the box that says "automaticaly restart" when your computer would normaly shut down, you should get a blue screen, wright down what it says at the top (the error message) and the 0x00..... (error code) this will help us identify the cause of the problems, sorry, should have said that at first.
Hope this helps,
Mike

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i'm gonna try all that on my lunch hour, but no there is no error message associated with this problem. it just shuts off.

yea i tried doing that and no blue screen comes up, no errors occur that i can see. and the fans are all working properly. i'm not sure how else to tell if its overheating other than looking in the BIOS

Thanks, Brandon

you shouldnt get a blue screen straight away.... only when your comp shuts down... did it shut down after you changed that setting?

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yea i figured that so i ran a dvd and waited and it shut down, but didn't report any errors

Have you tried disconnecting the dvdrom drive just as a test?

Also: look in your Event viewer: rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Event Viewer.
Or: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/ eventvwr
Open the system as well as the application tabs & look for X errors. Click error line for details.
Post back the source & event id especially of errors that seem to coincide with a crash.

Also: Go to start | search (type in) .dmp
Note the location of your latest .dmp file.

If you see one that might coincide with a recent crash then:

1) Download and install the
Debugging Tools from Microsoft
2) Download and install this
debugwiz
3) Open the Wiz & Browse to, or paste in the path to, your latest .dmp file.
4) After the Wiz creates a Text document attach it back to this thread.

i tried running the event viewer, the only X's that i got were a corrupted file trying to print, an error with windows update trying to connect, and some application hangs, which don't seem to be related to crashing:

Application Error : EventID: 1000
Faulting application bjezprn.exe, version 3.0.0.0, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x00010f29.

-dated 9/18 (i've had plenty of crashes since then, but then i don't really know what this is either, it is the only instance.

there were a few others:

Application Hang - Event ID: 1002
Hanging application dunnow.exe, version 1.2.0.415, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000. - 9/14

Application Hang - Event ID: 1002
Hanging application escndv.exe, version 1.2.0.1, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000. - 9/14

Application Hang - Event ID: 1002
Hanging application escndv.exe, version 1.2.0.1, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000. - 9/14

the latest .dmp file was dated 9/10 so i figured that probably wasn't related....


Thanks, Brandon