Computer keeps turning off.
Monday, August 27th, 2007 - 8:54am
Not crashing, just turning off. Doesn't restart automatically, either.
Happened four or five times now over the last 24 hours. Seems to be random. On one occasion, it wouldn't turn back on again immediately - I pressed the power button and it seemed dead. That's not happned again.
Been fine for weeks before this.
Not sure what the problem is; the only thing thing I've done to the system is install some AddOns for World of Warcraft. (I'm I'm disabling / deleting one by one.)
The computer's plugged into multi-socket power thing, shared with the monitor, printer and surround sound speakers.
After one shut down I noticed that the little light on the multi-socket was dimmer than normal, but don't know if that's relevant.
It's a quad core running XP; someone suggested it might be overheating and told me to get SpeedFan. I had a look at not sure if the software is beyond my skill level.
Any ideas / recommendations for temp testing software?
Try this program, if it supports your motherboard, it's got a lot of good information.
Motherboard Monitor
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311
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Oops my first double post. Gah.
"I have not supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon." - Fedaykin98
Well the obvious thing to try is plug it directly into the wall for a day or two to see if that resolves it in order to eliminate the power strip as the culprit, though it doesn't seem likely to me that a powerstrip would do this sort of thing.
My first instinct is/was a bad power supply. When machines just "go dark" randomly, that's been my experience most of the time. Once I had it end up being a bad mainboard, but usually it's the power supply. What spec/brand Power Supply is in your system?
I use Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to monitor the temps of my Core 2 Duo. I guess really high temps could cause the system to power down immediately as well. Worth checking out. If you install Intel TAT, you can stress your CPUs with it (it has buttons to work the CPU(s) at 0 to 100% load) and see what happens.
"I have not supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon." - Fedaykin98
Every time I had a mysterious shut down it was the power supply.
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Mine too, except as a second guess. Once you've proved that it's not emergency temperature shutdown, power supply is the next most likely culprit.
If your computer will boot up, and you can't get any of these temperature reading tools to work, you could just stick your hand behind the exhaust fan and see if the air is hot
If it feels like a furnace, then that may be your problem. If it feels just slightly warmer than the surrounding room's temperature, then I would say you are fine. I would vote for the power strip being the next thing to check, though be careful with just leaving the computer plugged into the wall for a long time, power in our area is really spikey...and storms don't help.
If the problem still doesn't go away, I too vote for Power Supply as the faulty hardware.
Tobyus
Still searching for the perfect game...
Last edited by Tobyus on Sep 14, 2006 - 02:06 PM; edited 1,000,000 times in total
Also, make sure everything is seated and plugged properly inside your case. Sometimes things just jiggle themselves a little loose.
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Thanks for the all tips. I downloaded the INtel software and I'm keeping an eye on the computer's temperature.
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As funny as it may look, getting down and sniffing the power supply can be a great indicator if its going bad; all too often power supplies begin letting out 'burning electronics' odor while in their death throes. Its not always real strong, so you might have to get up close and personal with it to check for the smell.
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True. Though just the other day I ran across a dodgy power supply that emitted no real odor when I checked, yet I watched and listened as the thing turned itself off and on rapidly in front of my eyes.
You could hear the clicking of the hard drive parking and un-parking the drive heads as it happened.
"I have not supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon." - Fedaykin98