PC just reboots or switches off for no reason?
Discussion
Was hanging on to my failing PC there for a while,riddled from damage from viruses and i was just keeping it barely usable.Finally bit the bullet when it got too bad and formatted the lot and re-installed original Windows XP Home software.Bought genuine firewall and anti-virus software and the PC just sometimes switches off for no reason.Or the common thing is just booting up again and again without it getting as far as my desktop.I know for a fact this isn't a virus problem as it's all fresh installs and everything is up to date,anyone know where to start looking?,will the bios have something in it lurking from before?
Check it's not overheating (don't trust bios figures) and going into self preservation shutdowns.
Check your RAM for problems (my favourite, had no end of trouble trying to figure out why my pc wouldn't get past the vista boot screen, turned out to be duff RAM sticks on 3 seperate occasions)
Check for driver problems / missing drivers etc
Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
Might be worth poking round your system logs to see if anything has been noted
Do you get a BSOD or just an instant shutdown?
Check your RAM for problems (my favourite, had no end of trouble trying to figure out why my pc wouldn't get past the vista boot screen, turned out to be duff RAM sticks on 3 seperate occasions)
Check for driver problems / missing drivers etc
Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
Might be worth poking round your system logs to see if anything has been noted
Do you get a BSOD or just an instant shutdown?
Stu R said:
Check it's not overheating (don't trust bios figures) and going into self preservation shutdowns.
Check your RAM for problems (my favourite, had no end of trouble trying to figure out why my pc wouldn't get past the vista boot screen, turned out to be duff RAM sticks on 3 seperate occasions)
Check for driver problems / missing drivers etc
Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
Might be worth poking round your system logs to see if anything has been noted
Do you get a BSOD or just an instant shutdown?
Just an instant shutdown!This pc has been built for two years so there aren't any ram issues etc I'll check the fans and see if they are clean/working.Check your RAM for problems (my favourite, had no end of trouble trying to figure out why my pc wouldn't get past the vista boot screen, turned out to be duff RAM sticks on 3 seperate occasions)
Check for driver problems / missing drivers etc
Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
Might be worth poking round your system logs to see if anything has been noted
Do you get a BSOD or just an instant shutdown?
jimmyjimjim said:
Stu R said:
Che
Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
I have. Twice. Same symptoms, as well. Power is definitely up there on the possible causes.Power supply might be worth a look but I've never once had one be the cause of this, despite my insistance it was on numerous occasions.
Oh my god I have the exact same problem.
Everytime my computer gets to the Loading Windows XP or Vista screen, it restarts itself and keeps on doing so, will not go to the log on screen no matter what.
Then what I done was i disabled the automatic restart on system failure, then reset it, and now everytime it gets to the Loading XP screen, I get the BOD Blue Screen of Death. lolz
And it should tell you whats actually wrong with your comp, and give you some error codes.
I dont that to mine, and then just couldnt be bothered to carry on. So just left it, and still does the same thing.
Could be faulty ram, hard drive, etc. So have a little fiddle around with those and let us know how you get on.
Everytime my computer gets to the Loading Windows XP or Vista screen, it restarts itself and keeps on doing so, will not go to the log on screen no matter what.
Then what I done was i disabled the automatic restart on system failure, then reset it, and now everytime it gets to the Loading XP screen, I get the BOD Blue Screen of Death. lolz
And it should tell you whats actually wrong with your comp, and give you some error codes.
I dont that to mine, and then just couldnt be bothered to carry on. So just left it, and still does the same thing.
Could be faulty ram, hard drive, etc. So have a little fiddle around with those and let us know how you get on.
Dave_ST220 said:
Have you got Windows live messenger or MSN installed?
are you going to suggest that these "break PCs"? They don't.The OP's problem is most likely to be overheating or a PSU issue.
As an aside, it mystifies me that people manage to get infected with viruses, unless they are torrenting pirated software and don't have up to date virus and firewall protection.
Zod said:
Dave_ST220 said:
Have you got Windows live messenger or MSN installed?
are you going to suggest that these "break PCs"? They don't.The OP's problem is most likely to be overheating or a PSU issue.
As an aside, it mystifies me that people manage to get infected with viruses, unless they are torrenting pirated software and don't have up to date virus and firewall protection.
Dave_ST220 said:
Zod said:
Dave_ST220 said:
Have you got Windows live messenger or MSN installed?
are you going to suggest that these "break PCs"? They don't.The OP's problem is most likely to be overheating or a PSU issue.
As an aside, it mystifies me that people manage to get infected with viruses, unless they are torrenting pirated software and don't have up to date virus and firewall protection.
Edited by Zod on Friday 15th August 11:41
Zod said:
Dave_ST220 said:
Zod said:
Dave_ST220 said:
Have you got Windows live messenger or MSN installed?
are you going to suggest that these "break PCs"? They don't.The OP's problem is most likely to be overheating or a PSU issue.
As an aside, it mystifies me that people manage to get infected with viruses, unless they are torrenting pirated software and don't have up to date virus and firewall protection.
It just mystifies me why this would start happening after a fresh,full format of the drive and a fresh install of Windows?If it is teh PSU it just must be an unlucky coincidence it starts to fail at this time.To answer people's queries of how i got a virus in the first place,it was a failed update of my firewall software,that's how it all started,i had to uninstall it and i couldn't get it installed again,then bam!Virus,or whatever it was?
Dave_ST220 said:
No one likes a smart ass, do you not think i looked into it? There are plenty of people with the same problem who have also narrowed it down to these programs.If you bothered to read what i said i stated i can get it to switch off 100% of the time with messenger running when also running certain other programs at the same time. It's been on all week with messenger running and not one reboot, if i open up a certain application though off it will go EVERY time. Open the same app. with MSN OFF and it's still fine. How do you know this isn't the case with the OP?
To me that sounds like a memory conflict. So possibly bad RAM.rumpelstiltskin said:
It just mystifies me why this would start happening after a fresh,full format of the drive and a fresh install of Windows?If it is teh PSU it just must be an unlucky coincidence it starts to fail at this time.To answer people's queries of how i got a virus in the first place,it was a failed update of my firewall software,that's how it all started,i had to uninstall it and i couldn't get it installed again,then bam!Virus,or whatever it was?
That's because the amount of power required whilst a machine is running varies. I had a server with exaclty the same issue, would boot fine, and could even log in and start file shares, then would fall over. Initially I thought it was the HD, after viewing hte event log, however the PSU was very warm. Replaced PSU and haven't had any issues.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff