OK, my mother's computer that I just built as well as my own keeps shutting off. They do not restart, they completely shut off without any warning. When my does shut off what I usually do is switch the I/O button on the back of the tower and then my computer makes a funny, very small sound like something being shut off inside the case. Then I switch it back after that sound and the computer boots right back up but then it shuts off again when I take action. My computer shuts off when I try to burn discs, watch videos, listen to music, play games, etc. My mom's computer does the same thing. Sometimes you can be doing something as simple as surfing the web or typing a paper and they will shut off too. My computer is almost a year old and my mother's was just built under a month ago. I really do not think it is the power supplies because they were brand new when I bought them. I am having trouble figuring this one out because it's two computers and both are having the exact same problem and I put both of them together and I just do not know what that could be. Please help me if you have any advice. Thanks so much.
Do you have it sufficiently ventilated? The mobo may have an auto shutoff feature that will stop the system if it's about to overheat. If you've got a temperature monitor in your BIOS, you might want to keep an eye on the internal temperature and see if that's the culprit.
Are you running any anti-virus? It's kind of silly guess, but perhaps you have the blaster worm? Symantec has a removal tool for it. If you need an antivirus you can use AVG (free)or Kaspersky (30 days free).
This is what I was thinking. The mobos do have auto shut off features. Of course the processors have heatsinks/fans and I applied thermal grease to both of them. Do you know how I can monitor the temperature, how can I tell if it is too hot, and what to do to fix the problem?
I have no idea...I was putting a new PC together at home over the weekend and noticed my mobo had a connection for a temperature monitor. I'm not sure if that's an add-on or a 3rd party sort of deal that attaches to the heatsink. The best thing that I know to do is to make sure all of the cables are out of the path of airflow...make sure there is an intake fan at the front of the box (might be a little overkill but won't hurt)...make sure the outflow fan is close to the CPU so that warm air is sucked out. I'm definitely not "in the know" on this, but I would assume that the newer processors have temperature monitoring hardware built in that communicates with the BIOS and in turn, the BIOS can relay this information to the OS. Not quite sure, though. Definitely make sure to do DD before you possibly burn up a processor. Good luck!!
Thanks for your idea boomboom, I really don't feel like spending $50/hr to fix it and I am not going to because I know I'll either figurte it out or somebody will.
Oh yeah, I had the whole side of my case off for a while and the computer still acted up. Now if that's not ventilation I don't know what is.
That's not proper ventilation. Keeping the side off allows dust to get into the system. Dust settling on the chip will heat it up and prevent proper cooling. Your BIOS should be able to monitor temperature (or, at least mine does). Check it on startup. Also, are you overclocking?
I really don't think it's a heat thing. Usually when a system overheats it just locks up. Plus, to have it happen to two completely different machines, during the winter, when the ambient temperature is colder, when it's never happened before, seems unlikely. Did you check into the blaster worm? I'm not saying that's it, but damn if this doesn't sound like it.
I do not think I am overclocking and I was told you cannot accidentally overclock so no. know where to check the temp. at but what I do not know is what is a proper temperature for the computer.
If you think its a heat issue, try taking a floor fan and keep it blowing inside the computer. If it continues to shut down, then I dont think its a heat issue.
Another thing you can do is going into the bios and seeing if it shuts down there. If it doesnt then maybe its a software/os or virus problem. I had a simlar problem with my dell few months ago. System would just shut down, but the power light will still be green, and the keyboard lights are still there. I reseated memory, cpu and made sure my cpu fan was running. I went into bios, and the computer stayed running for a few hours. So I thought maybe it was a software problem with my os, or possible virus. I kinda got fed up, so I ran F&R of windows and still had the same problem. Last thing I did was take out my video card that I put in, and ran the system off its integrated video. System hasnt shut down since.
I already have two case fans, one on the side panel and another in a PCI slot. Would a virus cause my computer to completely shut off though and I mean COMPLETELY because absolutely nothing is left on except y monitor?
Do you get any sort of error/info message before the system shuts off? Have you checked the System Log in Windows to see if the OS was told anything about a shutdown before it happened? When you boot up, do you get the message saying the system was shutdown improperly and a diskscan will take place? What type of video card do you have? Some improperly configured video (and audio) cards will cause major problems. If the audio and video are already built into the mobo, this shouldn't be the case. Otherwise, you might want to check the mobo's website to see if there are any compatibility issues with any of your hardware (especially if you are using the same hardware in both of the PCs that this is happening with). Good luck!
No it shuts off with zero warning. Never checked that, how do I do it and what do I look for? Sometimes Both computers are using ASRock motherboards and AMD processors along with ATI RADEON 9200 SE video cards. I have not checked compatibility issues but I guess I'll do that too. One more note, I scanned my computer and had 35 infected files (before it shut off again) but I must ask again, will viruses or trojan horses or malware or spyware or adware or anything of that nature cause complete shut off?
LP...try this link. Click on the OK button and select Virus Scan from the window that pops up. Symantec has a pretty good online scanner...it should help identify and correct problems that you might be experiencing. Make sure you have your AVG configured to clean/delete the infected files. Once you've run the online checker, rerun the AVG checker to see if Symantec failed to pick something up. From what it sounds like, you've got something on those computers that has hosed your system. Make sure you note the virus type that the checkers find as there may be additional security patches you'll need to apply. Check the virus hotlist usually found on the main page of Symantec...they'll usually have a link to info on how to completely clean your system of the current popular virii (sp?). Here's the link to Symantec's online checker... http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?productid=symhome&langid=ie&venid=sym
