View Single Post - System Powers Off

Blue|Fusion · Rated XXX

Hey guys,

I am currently on the phone with my sister about her dying Dell Dimension. She says that it powers up and gets to the login screen, but when she logs in, the system dies completely...doesn't freeze, just powers off. I figured it's an overheating issue (inside hasn't been cleaned out since she got it several years ago). To test this theory, I SSH'd into the desktop and started running a Prime95 stress test. Within about 2 minutes, she said it died again while doing this.

Keep in mind I don't have physical access to the system myself and my family aren't that computer literate, so I'm trying to talk my sister through this...

Anyway, the side of the case is off. I had her carefully remove the massive amounts of dust on the heatsink and shroud and try again. Same thing, pretty much.

Now that this has been discoered, I am wondering if maybe it could be an PSU problem. To date, I never had a PSU die on me so I don't know what the exact symptoms are of that. Anyone have any clues as to what I should ask her to look for?

By the way, it is a Dell Dimension 2350 with 256MB RAM, P4 2.0GHz, and some PATA 30GB drive.