Computer switch off!

[MaryK]

My computer keeps switching off completely in the middle of doing something, I then have to re-start, it's so frustrating. Any ideas?

[vickyclare]

Are you given any warning?  Does a message box pop up and say your computer will be shut down in 30 seconds?

[MaryK]

No warningis given at all it it just switches off.

[Eternity]

I had the same problem on my laptop. I tried everything to identify the problem, but was unsuccessful. My virus scans showed nothing, registry files were not tampered with, hardware was not damaged, and it happened at any specific time. So, I had to re-install windows, and I have not had any problems since.

At first I thought it might have been a problem with the c.p.u fan, but I checked, and it was working fine. You see, Pentium processors shut down if the c.p.u reaches a certain temperature. There are applications out there which are designed to measure the temperature of the c.p.u. Download one of them, and see if your system is over heating. Then, if all is well, try running a virus scan, Trojan scan, and any other system scans. If those applications don�t find any problems, then I suggest you back-up all your files, and re-install windows.

[Tritan]

Before you reinstall windows etc. what operating system are you running? (windows 2000, XP??) If it's either 2000 or XP check the event viewer to see what is going on. This event viewer logs all system events and has error message reports. It should tell you why your PC is shutting down.

To open the Event Viewer, click on START, then RUN and type eventvwr. Look through all the errors. When you see the relevant error message, make note of it's key details - such as Event ID and Source and go to:

http://www.eventid.net/search.asp

[Eternity]

Event Viewer cannot log any hardware problems; over-heating, etc, and to make matters worse, when the system shuts down automatically, Event Viewer does not have the necessary time needed to log the problem. I can so that the problem Mary is having will not show on Event Viewer. But, Mary can try. I would love to see the end result.

[Tritan]

Eternity: when the PC suddenly shuts down there is still information in memory and a dump file could be created. This at least would register in Event Viewer (in some cases) and possible shed some light on what is going on. I have had my PC shut down on me before and the EV caught it. As for Marys case, it may not register in EV, but i thought it worth a look.

But you are correct, hardware issues such as over heating are not logged, but some hardware issues are, eg. I/O errors, clashes, failing network cards etc.

MaryK: as Eternity mentioned, overheating can cause a PC to 'freeze' and to sometimes shutdown as well. So when you restart your PC, do the shut downs occur more and more frequently?

[Ralph]

While I agree that it is most likely to be an overheating CPU or even graphics card, I have to ask; is the power cable fully plugged in? Sorry for stating the obvious.

[MaryK]

Yes, it does seem to be happening more often and sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 attempts to restart.

Yes! The power cable is fully in!

[Tim Baxter]

It could be a host of things that are telling the PSU to shut down.  It could be faulty PSU, overloaded PSU (to many lights, HDD's etc. Could be overheated processor chips which are controlled by the BIOS.  I don't think that any of these would be shown in the event log.

Start from basics, minimum load on the PSU, minimum load on the processor etc.

[Tritan]

Okay, sorry for the long post! It sounds like an over heating issue. the problem now, is to find out what the cause it.

Like Tim said, it's best to go back to basics. Make sure the bare minimum is plugged into your PC (but still operational) and see if it still shuts down. if you have upgraded your graphics card at all, take it out and use the original. Remember that the PSU (the power supply unit - the bit which your power cable plugs into) only supplies a certain amount of power to the PC. Some weaker PSU's cannot handle PC's with loads of USB devices plugged in, additional hard disks, and powerful graphics cards as well - for example. So ur PSU may be an issue?

If you have a heat sync over the CPU (the processor), it is usually touching the CPU with a thin application of gel. This gel is important, you may need to re-apply some of this? it helps to transfer the heat from the chip to the heat sync and so keep temperatures down.

Have you opened the PC case to look inside? Turn the PC off, open it up and carefully hoover away dust (especially on all the fans/heat syncs) then turn the PC on and look at the fans, make sure they are spinning properly. Dust acts as an insulator inside PC's so this can cause heating issues.

[PatTheRat]

as soon as you turn your computer on hit start, then clcik run, then type 'shutdown -a' (without the inverted commas).

this should stop the computer from shutting itself down.

if it still shuts down its likely to be due to a fan or overheating.

If 'shutdown -a' works, I would suggest trying to search for corrupt files, or registry entries. Do this:

click start>click on my computer> right click the icon for your hard drive, and then left click properties > click tools> click 'check now' under the error-checking section, then highlight the two tick boxes, and hit ok. then restart your pc.

it takes 20-30 mins, but ur pc will restart and check for errors on the hard drive, including replacing missing or corrupt files.