My computer is shutting down every once and a while by itself out of nowhere. I see this voltage is too low(the others are fine) and I might buy a new power supply. Am I correct here?
Are you measuring voltage ? If not, some possibilities are: - Bad Power Supply. They can go bad. Swap out to a new one, and see if problem persists. - Motherboard could be going on you. I had an IBM laptop that had similar symptoms. I swapped out the Power Supply to no avail. The motherboard went south, and finished off the machine. I was never able to boot it again. Thank heavens for backups. - Virus. Is your computer gracefully rebooting, or just "losing power" ? If it is rebooting, you may have a virus and you should run a Virus Scan from "Safe Mode" boot. I would strongly recommend Microsoft's Malware Detection Tool, which seems to be the best around. - Are you blue-screening ? If so, again reboot into Safe Mode, and perform step above.
How are you measuring voltage if I may ask? Is there software that does it? I had the same thing happen recently. All the sudden computer stopped no blue screen. I am guessing it was do to me messing with RM clock, which had been fine for 2 years, and tweaking settings. So now I just got rid of RM clock.
Yes I'm measuring the voltage through the BIOS and another software during windows(hardware sensors monitor), it shows the 3.3v number(2.75) in red(outside 20% range), the computer shutdown all of the sudden, it doesnt reboot, just goes power off, its takes quite a few attempts for me to get it running without getting shutdown, when I suceed it usually goes on for the rest of the day without problems. But its getting harder and harder to get it running
Sounds like power supply isn't providing enough juice. It could also be a mother board issue. If you can, try swapping power supply into another compatible machine, to see if problem manifests there as well.
Have you installed any new drivers recently? I was wondering if mine was due to downloading the newest Matrox drivers, but it appears not the case? Knock on wood disabling RM clock has done the trick so far.
I've got a feeling it's not the supply. That is the easiest thing to check though, just plug another one in and try it... Maybe the processor is getting a little hot and can't slow enough to compensate for it and it's drawing more current than the supply / mobo can do.
Just bought a new power supply, its working like hell. Even better, my computer has never been faster, programs open and run MUCH more smoothly, its like its on steroids. So there is the lesson, sometimes its not the memory and CPU like the 'buy more' fundamentalists want you to believe, sometimes a cheap new energy supply makes all the difference
If you want a reliable PSU get a good brand like Enermax, Antec or PC Power & Cooling. I've had numerous cheap ones fail over the years.