Computer turns off

[robman_rob]

hey guys,

Recently my computer turns itself off, by itself. Example: I go to dinner come back one hour later and it's off. I left it on overnight updating, and in the morning it's off. Not standby, off. There is no option in power options to turn your system completely off.

Any idea's whats going on?


I hope this is the place to post this.

 

[robman_rob]

Oh I'm using windows XP, 32 bit.

And I suppose the computer was idle during those two times.

 

[ThatDood]

You may want to check the event logs:
Right Click My Computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer

Also, you may try running memtest86 just to make sure your ram isn't causing the problems. I would check the power cable, plug, and wall connection just to make sure you didn't overlook anything.

 

[robman_rob]

You may want to check the event logs:
Right Click My Computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer

Also, you may try running memtest86 just to make sure your ram isn't causing the problems. I would check the power cable, plug, and wall connection just to make sure you didn't overlook anything.

Thanks for the quick reply, I have looked into Event Viewer, and I don't see anything special, as in no system errors or warnings at the time it turns off. And wouldn't those causes blue screens or freezes instead of the system turning itself off?

I'll run memtest86 and the physical connections are pretty secured (just checked).

 

[Sieravor]

Also, you may want to check the temperature of the CPU. It's possible the CPU or chipset fan is stuck or not working well enough to cool the system and it's failing due to overheating.

 

[Azhar]

Video card too. Video card fan failure will also cause shutdown on modern PC's. In my experience, two things causes shutdowns more than anything: 1. cooling, and 2. weak power supply.

Even if your fans are working, take the side panel of your case off and blow a box fan into your case and let it sit overnight and see if it shuts down. If not, then there's your culprit: your case lack air circulation.

 

[robman_rob]

Also, you may want to check the temperature of the CPU. It's possible the CPU or chipset fan is stuck or not working well enough to cool the system and it's failing due to overheating.

Video card too. Video card fan failure will also cause shutdown on modern PC's. In my experience, two things causes shutdowns more than anything: 1. cooling, and 2. weak power supply.

Even if your fans are working, take the side panel of your case off and blow a box fan into your case and let it sit overnight and see if it shuts down. If not, then there's your culprit: your case lack air circulation.

This has just happened again, was idling (15m? I was working in powerpoint walked away to eat an orange, come back, computer's off), temperatures for idling is low to mid 30's for CPU/ MB and low 50's for GPU... and it isn't PSU, because I can game for hours and it will be fine!

Also sometimes I leave it downloading over night and it's fine. sometimes i leave it idle for a while and it's fine, but sometimes it shuts off...

 

[robman_rob]

Hey, if there's a moderator of the forums, can they move this thread into general hardware so I don't have to repost? I think this is now a hardware problem, and not OS windows xp related.

Here are my results of running memtest86:

7 passes, 10h, no errors, so I don't think it's memory, I don't think it's PSU failing, nor GPU/CPU/MB overheating as well.

 

[leetskeet]

i think there is something really strange going on. it seems as if the amount of catastrophic pc failures have been spiking including my mb crapping out for no evident reason. i've been reading the forums for years and i've never seen so many posts concerning such grave hardware issues. could the weather change be causing all these problems. i've been scared to even look at my comp wrong lately.

 

[svet-am]

Hey, if there's a moderator of the forums, can they move this thread into general hardware so I don't have to repost? I think this is now a hardware problem, and not OS windows xp related.

Here are my results of running memtest86:

[pic snipped]

7 passes, 10h, no errors, so I don't think it's memory, I don't think it's PSU failing, nor GPU/CPU/MB overheating as well.

So, it ran for 10h+ without shutting down. Based on your previous statements, it would've shut down somewhere in that time frame if it really was a hardware issue. Can you run it for longer (ideally, ~24hours) in MemTest?

If you can, that would lead me to believe that it's a Windows setting telling it to shut down.

Or, if you really need to use your PC for desktop stuff in the mean time, can you boot into Ubuntu or something _other_ than your Windows install and leave it running for a while.

If it doesn't exhibit the shutdown behavior outside of Windows then it looks to me like a software setting inside Windows.

 

[FRAGizm]

I have similar issues, my freezes and i get a continous long beep that wont stop unless I should it off. For sure its a hardware problem, now I gotta test wa it is. Thinkin RAM, CPU/GPU seem fine and PS lookin strong...

 

[Demon10000]

So, it ran for 10h+ without shutting down. Based on your previous statements, it would've shut down somewhere in that time frame if it really was a hardware issue. Can you run it for longer (ideally, ~24hours) in MemTest?

If you can, that would lead me to believe that it's a Windows setting telling it to shut down.

I doubt memtest puts much of a power strain on the computer, so it's surely not using everything in the same manner that windows uses it.

For example, windows is using more of the video card, and most likely draws more power when you're a GUI mode vs a Text mode.

I'd take a quick look for bad capacitors. I've seen some weird things happening when a cap starts leaking, or looks like it's going to explode. If you're not sure what to look for, check out these pictures.

These are starting to bulge. It means they're going bad. They should be nice and smooth on the top, not rounded and bulging.

This one started to leak. You can see the gunk all over the cap and the board.

Here's a good pic with a few different problematic capacitors.

Take a look at all the caps on the motherboard, but especially those near the processor. Every cap I've seen go bad has been near the CPU.

You could also have a failing power supply. Since it isn't putting as much power out during memtest/bios, it might not be obvious until you boot into windows and the machine starts drawing more power.