updating the BIOS

[ellegrand]

I have a soltek sl-86spe-l and I assume it´s giving me problem because my PC shuts down suddenly after 45min, 2hrs, 4hrs of use. It shuts down and I can´t start it at least I unplug from the wall and connect it again. Well, somebody told me to update the bios. But i must do a bootable floppy diskette and after doing it and trying to copy the files downloaded from the soltek site, i receive the message that diskette is full, then, what can I do?
What do you think about the whole problem?

[igalan]

First I would see if this problem is not because the PC is overheated, or the PSU is bad. Use your PC with the housing open, so you can see if the CPU, GPU (graphic card) and PSU fans are all running. If it still shuts down, look quickly all the fans to see if they were spinning. If everything looks OK, the next suspect is the PSU, a quality PSU is a must these days.

BTW most modern boards will allow you to flash the BIOS within Windows with the correct program, or saving the new BIOS in a floppy and flashing with the BIOS (Alt+F2 during POST or something like this).

And welcome to PCTT

[ellegrand]

I have a software to check the temperature and according to its measurements (40 °C , 36°C) it isn´t because of a high temperature.
Maybe I should change the motherboard (1year old)?
But now there is something else: Now, it´s the monitor what shuts down and the cpu is on. I unplug the PC, connect it again and it works excellently for one hour and after that, the monitor " is off".

Thanks.

[igalan]

If this is the CPU temp it's way below limits of modern CPUs. The next suspect is the PSU. Which brand is it? Watts? Do you have a program to monitor voltages like MBM? You should stick for well known brands: Antec, Thermaltake, Enermax, Foxtron, etc. Please, specify the specs of your computer: CPU, videocard, how many hard-drives and optical units, RAM.

[bayoupimp]

i had the exact same problem (except it shut down after 10-15 minutes tops), drove me nuts. finally decided to switch the PSU with one from work just to see. sure enough, it was the PSU (didn't steal the one from work, i took it back and bought another one so quit looking at me like that). i would definately look to check that next in your case (no pun intended) as well.

[bayoupimp]

oh, and as far as the bios to diskette issue, never heard of a bios being so big as to fill up a floppy. is the disk full or are you using a blank? might be a bad floppy or something if its not full is all i can think of; unless you're trying to put the wrong file on it or something (i'm sure you're not, you seem like a bright guy (or gal, whatever the case may be)).
and if its the monitor shutting down its probably not your psu, check out the monitor, see if you can hook up a different one for troubleshooting. never heard of a pc somehow turning power off on a monitor (beside the hibernate or whatever function).

[ellegrand]

Thank you, guys.
About the diskette, yes I´m using a new one--empty. But now it doesn´t matter, I´ll talk about that later.
It´s good to know you didn´t steal the PSU you talked about!
Specs of my PC:
Soltek motherboard SL-86SPE-L, Intel P4 2.82 Ghz, 2 hard disks (80 & 120 Gb), 1 Gb Ram, Soltek GeForce FX5200 128 DDR video card, LG dvdrw 8x , LG Flatron T710SH monitor Anlix 300w PSU, Windows XP pro.
After I bought my PC, a funny friend of mine told me that the soltek motherboards are not good...
Well, I´m almost tempted to use a hammer on that PC... but I´ll be patient.

[igalan]

When the computer shuts down, is there any event being recorded on the Windows XP event viewer?

And as bayoupimp says, the BIOS should fit in one floppy, the problem is when you try to store DOS to boot from it, and the utility to flash the BIOS. So modern motherboards can flash without booting the OS. Anyway if you see no way to do that, you can create a bootable CD-ROM or USB memory with as many files as you need.

[ellegrand]

"So modern motherboards can flash without booting the OS".
Do you know where to get this information,igalan?

And, "When the computer shuts down, is there any event being recorded on the Windows XP event viewer?"
Negative.

I cleaned my PC up, remove the videocard and put it in place again... Well the PC hasn´t turned off in 9hrs.

I´ll wait to see the new events.

Than you for your interest in "this".

[ellegrand]

"Well the PC hasn´t turned off in 9hrs."

15 minutes after I wrote that, the monitor turned off.

I was listening to a song and suddenly the monitor turned off and the CPU lights wereon, but the music also stopped.

It´s something very, very strange!

[igalan]

Do the BIOS update just in case. Test the RAM with Windows memory Diagnostic. I still think that PSU could be the problem here, but the only way to know for sure is to replace it with another one and see what happens.

[ellegrand]

Thanks, igalan. I´m gonna do what you advice me (PSU).
I placed thermal paste on the CPU (someone told me) and, the PC at the beginning was the same, but after it improved. One firend told me tha at the beginning it was going to give problem but after it would be OK. I don´t know, but , yes I´m going to change the PSU. But do you think about the motherboard? Oh, yes, I¨ll update the bios.
Keep in touch.
Thanks.

[igalan]

I have no experience with Soltek, so I can't tell you. But the Intel 865PE chipset that it uses is very reliable.

About the CPU thermal paste, it's very important to have proper contact between CPU and heatsink. For this purpose there must be thermal paste in between. Apply a very thin layer of thermal paste over the CPU only, almost transparent, evenly. If you're using some special compound, follow instructions, as some require a different application. A badly placed heatsink can cause the CPU to over heat and slowdown or even shutdown. But you said that temp was stable at about 40ºC so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

[ellegrand]

Igalan, now the monitor is the thing that shuts off. (So I must unplug the PC, and after turn it on. After this it works fine).
For example, I´m trying to open a video and, the monitor shuts, but the pilot light is on . So the video card must be the problem, now?
By the way, how can I upload a picture here, in order to be more illustrative?

[igalan]

Under what circumstances does this happen? If it happens anytime and you have a CRT monitor (Cathode Ray Tube, not LCD-TFT) it may be damaged. If you have a LCD monitor and it happens always when for instance playing a game, maybe you aren't using the accepted frequencies. I assume that you don't have a spare monitor to test, but maybe you can output to TV (through video-out) to check if it's really the monitor or something else.