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Pyramidion

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I'm sitting in a study hall right now with my IT teacher, so I asked him about your shutdown problem. I can't honestly confirm that these are feasable answers because I'm not as good at fixing such problems. But he had a few answers...
1) The first he said it could be the processor overheating, which may cause the BIOS to run an automatic shutdown.
2) The second was that sometimes Windows becomes clogged and doesn't function correctly all the time, which it could end up reading that the computer is to be shut down, when it's not. He said this has happened to him a few times.
I'm sure someone else may have some better answers, but maybe this will help in some way. Sorry I can't help much more than asking someone else
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Chyster

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Both of those are plausible. The MS legacy is wrought with problems like this.

Some motherboards have a BIOS contribution that carries over into Widows and will allow you to monitor your processor core temp. Check into that.

Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools is where I would look first but again it depends on the motherboard and the OS loadout during formatting.

Also, are you running a router in the mix. I had BIG issues like this with mine and found the only way around them was to make my PC a server (which cut performance in half when somebody was on one of the other two PCs). In the end, I pitched the router and got two more cable modems.

If all else fails and you start pulling your hair out, get your CDs that came with the PC and reformat. This is pretty drastic, but usually solves the problem. I can't tell you how many times I have had to do this.

Dunno if any of that helps,

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320

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Boingo_Babe wrote:
All right, y'all. I have a question. I still love my computer, but it suddenly shuts off. Any thoughts on why it does this? It does it randomly. Only once has it shut off while I was actually in game. Twice its gone off just as I'm leaving. One time it just shut off while I was watching TV and it was just sitting there.

Actually, while I'm here, Cham's computer freezes a lot. Same thing, very random and he has to restart. Neither of us have any sort of virus.

Thanks in advance. And for the sake of my little brain, please keep the computer vocab simple.

B_B 


Hmm... I can think of a few things.

1. The first question is always: "Has anything changed?" Did you recently move? Was the computer recently moved? Was it recently upgraded (new cd rom, video card, etc.) Anything like that, let us know.

2. If it wasn't doing this initially but has started doing this (maybe getting progressively worse) there's a decent chance you have a heat issue. There's also a chance that you have an add-in card, such as a video card, that is/has gone bad. When it intermittantly fails, it is taking the system down with it.

3. If it has been doing this all along, it could be bad ram (more likely) or a bad cpu (less likely).

4. You mentioned Cham's comp is seeing similar issues. That suggets a possible power issue. In other words, the power coming from the wall is not great. Whether or not that's the truly the cause, I recommend you put your comps on a battery backup. There are cheap consumer models that will do the trick from APC for about $40. They are designed for "brownouts" and spotty power, like I described. They will only deliver about 30 minutes of power in the even of a total blackout. But they also have the added bonus of blocking surges.

5. Check your computer's event log. It is a little bit cryptic and you have to use your detective skills. Right-click My Computer > Manage > Event Viewer. Check the System and Application logs. Look for events with Red X's. Those are the "bad" ones. The Event Viewer often just provides clues, but if you see anything that looks like it might be related, relay the info.
Boingo_Babe

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Wow, thanks for all the help everyone! 320, no, there's been no move or updates at all. No changes. I just bought the computer in February so everything is brand new.

You all mentioned heat, I'm wondering if that's the problem. I've noticed heat coming from the tower that I've never noticed on other computers. I'll check the temp. My tower is in a pretty tight little spot and there's probably not as much ventilation as there should be. What is the max temperature is should be?

Chyster, yeah, actually, I'm pretty sure Cham is using a router. But his computer may have been freezing before I got mine. I think. I'll have to ask him about that.

Thanks for all the help!

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Spike

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Check your fans - if one is going or has gone out then the temp may be too high for your CPU. Check connections too just in case the fans are not securely plugged in and even if they are running, if one is going out and not running a the required speed you may experience temperature issues.

This does sound like the processors is overheating... however, does it "shut off" and stay off or does it just "reboot"? I ask because it coould be a pad power supply as well (if it stays off).

On Cham's computer: memory -or- graphics card (start with updating the drivers). One of our computers was freezing when playing games and swapping the memory sticks fixed this problem (after changing vid cards and updating drivers didn't make a difference).

There, your $0.02 of free advice I do hope it helps and good luck!

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Boingo_Babe

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Spike wrote:


This does sound like the processors is overheating... however, does it "shut off" and stay off or does it just "reboot"? I ask because it coould be a pad power supply as well (if it stays off).
 


No rebooting, it stays off.

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emetakleze

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You may want to buy a can of compressed air (or if you have an air compressor handy, use that, but gently) at your local hardware or walmart or somewhere and blow out the fins and fan on your cpu, all around the ram, and fins and fan on your vid card. Then, while you have it open anyway, remove the ram one at a time and re-seat (make sure it snaps in with those two tabs) and maybe do the same thing for your expansion cards. (It's called card creep, and my son had that problem about a month ago, his ram contacts must have built up some film or creeped out of alignment and it would shut down randomly, usually when the ram got hot and expanded.)
Also, blow out any system fans you might have, and do the power supply really well.

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Chameleon

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Ok, I finally read everything. As Boingo said, her computer is brand new, but she also mentioned that her computer is in a tight spot in her desk. Her computer may not be getting enough flow of air in there (cool air at least) to keep the temperature down. I will check her temperatures some time to see what they are running at. I know my computer is running at the right temperatures. If my CPU or MB go out of range, warnings will pop up. I've done a memory check on my computer and it checks out. I have a DCOM error and I think it may have something to do with my anti-virus/firewall (McAfee). I think I have an idea on how to fix it, but it will be a couple of days before I can do it. Neither of us have any viruses. We both don't go to shady websites. In fact, we only go to about three websites altogether. Thanks for all your feedback.

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320

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Chameleon wrote:
Ok, I finally read everything. As Boingo said, her computer is brand new, but she also mentioned that her computer is in a tight spot in her desk. Her computer may not be getting enough flow of air in there (cool air at least) to keep the temperature down. I will check her temperatures some time to see what they are running at. I know my computer is running at the right temperatures. If my CPU or MB go out of range, warnings will pop up. I've done a memory check on my computer and it checks out. I have a DCOM error and I think it may have something to do with my anti-virus/firewall (McAfee). I think I have an idea on how to fix it, but it will be a couple of days before I can do it. Neither of us have any viruses. We both don't go to shady websites. In fact, we only go to about three websites altogether. Thanks for all your feedback. 


A DCOM error wouldn't cause the comp to totally lock or shutdown without warning. Some DCOM related events can cause the machine to restart, but you'd see a warning telling you to save your work with a 60-second timer. Total locks and shutdowns nearly always come from hardware of power issues of some sort, not OS. See if the event log mentions anything about hardware.
dip42

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Wow. werid my computer has been doing the same thing and well............ its dead now,so be careful...
Heres what happened...
Three weeks ago it just started to randomly shut down. And when it shut down i unplugged it and let it cool down thinking that may be the problem.. and then it kept happening with the side off and out of a tight spot. So i cleaned it out then it was fine for about a week and then thursday night it randomly shut off again and i said to myself. Im REAL sick of this ill go back on and look for the new parts later.. well their was no later the green light above the power button blinks amber.. and no fans or anything turn on... Im hopeing that it wont happen to you, its been a real pain in the butt not being able to play games for over a week.. Im going through withdrawal symptoms

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320

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dip42 wrote:
Wow. werid my computer has been doing the same thing and well............ its dead now,so be careful...
Heres what happened...
Three weeks ago it just started to randomly shut down. And when it shut down i unplugged it and let it cool down thinking that may be the problem.. and then it kept happening with the side off and out of a tight spot. So i cleaned it out then it was fine for about a week and then thursday night it randomly shut off again and i said to myself. Im REAL sick of this ill go back on and look for the new parts later.. well their was no later the green light above the power button blinks amber.. and no fans or anything turn on... Im hopeing that it wont happen to you, its been a real pain in the butt not being able to play games for over a week.. Im going through withdrawal symptoms  


Dip, try a new power supply. Even an old one from an old machine (made within the last five years or so is fine). Just to see if you can get it breathing again. If you can, buy a decent 300 - 400 watt PS (about $40).
dip42

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320 wrote:
Dip, try a new power supply. Even an old one from an old machine (made within the last five years or so is fine). Just to see if you can get it breathing again. If you can, buy a decent 300 - 400 watt PS (about $40). 

Yea i may have on from an hp that we broke not too long ago, ill have to look around for it.. It may be in my sisters computer... O well... thats why i hate dells they are cheap....

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Another thing to consider--bad memory dumps or cache dumps from the hard drive. This just happened to me and I lost parts of programs files and part of a file from the boot.ini. Couldn't even bring up the pc in safe mode-ended up reformatting and reloading everything. gotta concur with those that say to reformat and reload, knowing it's a pain.

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Sounds like a heating issue. If you can, post a picture of the inside of your computer and where you keep your machine.

Also have you tried reinstalling windows?
Boingo_Babe

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Yeah, I could post a picture of it. Won't be until next week though.

As for reinstalling windows, is that really needed? This computer is brand new and all I do on it is play UT and occasionally check my email. I don't even have any files on it.

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