help please i have a computer problem?

[Peter Normington]

Rob does it just turn off or blue screen first?
if it just turns off like you turned off the power, then its either the power supply or a loose connection to the mainboard?

When you restart are you getting any messages as to faults/reasons why a shutdown happened?

Peter

[Michael Tremarco]

Hi Rob,
With the problem appearing to be intermittent, some basic diagnostics may help. it might be worth checking that all your cards are seated properly in their slots. Was the unit moved prior to failure?
Do you have a temperature monitor for your CPU? Check to see there is no component overheating.
You also might try hitting F8 during POST and select ‘start in last known good menu’ just in case gremlins have changed something.
Sorry Rob, you have probably tried all of the above.
Sorry I can’t be of more help 🙁

[Phill Fenton]

Could it be that it is overheating? If tyhis has gradually gotten worse it coul dbe a build up of dust preventing the cooling fan from keeping the innards cool. Check that there isn’t a bvuild up of dust inside and especially at the vent where the cooling van draws the air in.

I reckon that’s your problem 😉

[Martin Pearson]

Robert, sounds like it is shutting down because it is overheating. Reason it didn’t do it at work was because it was just running with no load, soon as you got it home and made the processor do some work up goes the temperature.
Normal cause is dirt and dust, the fan and the heat exchanger become covered/clogged with dust and reduce the efficiency of the fan.
Open it up and give the fans and heatsink a good clean and that should sort the problem

[Nick Minall]

Sounds like over heating as all have said, if you look in the bios it may tell you the temp it is running at and maybe some settings you can change.

Nick.

[Peter Normington]

it doesnt sound like overheating to me as it happens so quickly, unless the fans on the processor and the case have both failed.

Downloading a few thousand emails does not put any significant load on the processor.

Do you have the mainboard installation disc Rob?
there is quite often a disgnostic prog on there that will let you see the component temparatures, if you cant see it in the bios.

Peter

[Saph-D]

How weird is this ? I have been away for a few days – prior to going away I had had a few problems with the pc making a whining noise at times and thought it was the main fan. I cleaned it and it seemed a little better for a short time.

Today I have returned home, switched on, went through emails and was just about to ‘run’ a newly installed program when the pc switched off.

Nothing I could do would make it re-start. I phoned a friend who is a pc technician who asked me to smell the vent at the rear of the pc (which felt hot ), it had a slight ‘electric’ smell to it so he came straight over.

He took out a psu (power supply unit) from an old computer and switched on and it booted up immediately – he then put on all of the connectors ( this psu was a slightly lower wattage ) and it has run fine since. I have ordered a new bigger one and am hoping this will work until that arrives in a few days.

He said that the switching itself off was a classic sign of the psu being pushed too far, overheating and then finally giving up the ghost. He advised me to keep out as many usb run items which don’t have their own power supply as possible as this would reduce the pressure on the psu.

Maybe try to reduce any non self powered items you have plugged in for the moment and see if that helps it a bit ? It does sound as though yours is going through a very similar process as my own did before finally stopping and refusing to switch back on again.

The good news is that the psu’s aren’t too expensive if that is what it proves to be with yours too –

Good luck,

Saph

[Robert Lambie]

hi folks, thanks a million for the replies, I’m gonna go and check this now… just eaten a curry and came back to all this help. BIG thank you from me… fingers crossed its one of them.

when it shut down i got nothing, no blue screens etc… when it rebooted it just booted as if nothing had happened. didn’t scan etc

[David Rowland]

overheating / fans and PSU is packing up and getting too hot.

same as above

[David Rogers]

quote Robert Lambie:

…when it shut down i got nothing, no blue screens etc… when it rebooted it just booted as if nothing had happened. didn’t scan etc

Is this the ’emergency shutdown’ that windows does – about 5 seconds with no real ill after effects.

If it is, as already said – it’s normally / nearly always a CPU temperature issue.

Dave

[Robert Lambie]

update:

Opened the case… cleaned every bit i could get at.
where i couldnt i cleaned with my Dyson hose… "it made a very good job of it"
checked all the cards, ports, cables etc where all secure.
assemble case again and began replacing the cables.

This time only connecting the mouse, keyboard, monitor and rebooting.
i didnt connect any USB ports etc for reasons advised above.

Turned on the PC… rebooted… and shuts down about 5 seconds after all the icons etc appear on destop. 😳 🙄

Well ive gave up… Ill just have to get it done by an expert in the morning. 😕

Also…
My apologies to anyone waiting on accounts being activated. Give me till tomorrow evening when i get my comp back.

.

[Martin Pearson]

Robert, did you try starting it with the side panel off? That way you would be able to see if the fans were actually spinning or not.

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi
had same problem with my Dual Core got an airline gave it a good blast cured the problem, did the same with the lap top fluff balls galore out of that but cured the problem.

Kev

[David Rowland]

did u check each fan when turning on? processor fan, psu fan(s)?

Are you saying ‘Please wait while we are shutting down windows’ or sudden ‘reset’?

Other causes are sticky switch… poor psu (under 300watt)… USB devices interefering with computer (or a particular USB not plugged in)

Mainly it is the heat/psu one.

[Brian Little]

eh mnot that i know anything about comps…..but from past experience my comp was shutting down after 5 mins …turned out the settings were screwed up ….hard drives were switching offf

[Robert Lambie]

all fans are spinning hard…
all fans are clean but werent too bad when i opened it.
i did try it with the side off too…

dave the power source is AC 230V
its not giving me any notice, just drops dead/shut down.

I know very little about computers other than the norm… i dont touch/dabble in anything i know nothing about. so no settings, additions etc have ever been done since the machine was last upgraded.
the machine is powerful and never misses a beat, everything runs sweet… just this power loss! 😕

[Martin Pearson]

Robert, you haven’t moved it at all have you? I mean before you took it in to work, memory can cause all sorts of problems including sudden shutting down. Try removing the memory cleaning the contacts and reseating it. If you can get into the system BIOS just check it is showing the correct amount of memory.

[Michael Tremarco]

230V PSU has probably struggled for a while with USB peripherals feeding off it. Upgrade to min 300V and I’d wager you will have a healthy puter once again.

[Robert Lambie]

has a gig of ramm if thats what you mean mate?
i never touch, move my machines…

[Martin Pearson]

Robert, no it doesn’t matter how much memory it has sometimes it can become dislodged if the computer is moved which was why I asked.

Michael the voltage is 230V which is standard UK voltage, it’s the wattage that will make a difference to how many peripherals it will run. Nowdays a 300 watt power supply is about the bare minimum and you will find most machines have a much higher supply.

[Andy Gorman]

I never get to make any suggestions on threads like this because I know bugger all about computers.

So, my suggestion is to hit it with a hammer and then put it in the dishwasher. Don’t forget the rinse-aid.

Let me know if it works.

[Martin Pearson]

Andy, you never hit things with hammers, the correct phrasing would be to apply impact technology :lol1:

[Andy Gorman]

Good one Martin. 😀

Or use a ball pane screwdriver.

[Michael Tremarco]

Martin You are absolutely right. I meant that Robert has not got the standard minimum voltage PSU and and to beef up the PSU even to minimum acceptable voltage would probably restore his unit

[Michael Tremarco]

Martin I’m sorry I mean watts not volts. Getting tired.

[Shane Drew]

For what its worth I think it is heat related too.

PSU is too small for its purpose tho Rob, I’d replace with a larger one whether its the cause or not.

Sounds like CPU to me though.

Been wrong before tho.. just ask the wife 😕

[Phill Fenton]

Yes – I’m also convinced that the PSU is at fault here

Remember this thread:-
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=27215

[Peter Mindham]

There is a few possibilties
1. Cpu under load starts causing errors
2. Memory chips are duff
3. Power supply has a bad rail causing intermittent shutdowns
4. Motherboard has an intermittent fault causing a restart
5. One i found myself cd-rom is broken causing the computer to lock up on startup as it can,t read the cd-rom
Solutions cheapskate version
1. Swap cpu or try it out on a friends comp
the latter being the cheapest way.
2 Take out mem chips one by one until the problem disappears or run memtest dos version if you only have one chip
3 Find a friend with the same type power supply. There is 3 common kinds AT one blade Atx 2 blades Btx not out yet in any meaniful way. A xp or p4 will need at least 300w a p3 or athlon will make do with 230w this will work in a xp or p4 would not advise it though. And plug it into your system see if the problem disapates. If you move the cases about you can check your system without removing the supply in the other case. The leads will stretch over.
4.If you have tried all of the above and everthing checks out it usually means your motherboard is dying. Caused by a dry solder or a faulty chip. Use hwinfo dos version to check motherboard it has got basic set of tests to run.
5. Broken cd-rom/ Windows will start up as normal but will freeze just before you go into the welcome screen.

Or Not and I could be completely wrong and a Hammer will do just fine.
As an aside, my neighbor at work showed up with his home computer last week. Put it in the back of his sprinter, set it on fire and then beat it mercilessly for an hour with a hammer. Seems it crashed and he lost all his emails. How many of us would love to do that? Maybe a new thread? Best way to terminate a PC?

Peter

[Ivan Morley]

From my experience, it is most likely to be the motherboard.

This is one of the reasons I hate the ATX power supplies, which do not have a proper system on/off switch, and is software controlled.

It is also possible the problem lies with the power supply thinking it has received a shutdown command from the pc. If you can try an alternate psu, that might help determine the source of the problem.

To rule out device drivers and software problems, it is worth pressing F8 on startup and select Safe Mode, to run a very basic version of Windows.

Ivan

[David Rowland]

Sudden switch off’s are not software driven, cant be done. Overpowered/heat psu issue…

[Michael Tremarco]

Rob Any news on your PC?

[Martin Pearson]

Michael, it shuts itself down before he can get to the news :lol1:

[Michael Tremarco]

😀 😀

[Robert Lambie]

Well im glad to say "its fixed" 😛

Picked the comp up from the guy around 6.30pm. he said the fault was the power source. he run some sort of gauge/device on it and it was showing a drop in power or something like that. hes now put a 500watt one in it with some extras on it… running sweet now… thank god 😉

I’m now just getting back onto the email backlog. so i have a busy night ahead of me…

anyone waiting on membership access gimmie an hour or two and ill have them done.

sorry for the invonvenience this may have caused anyone waiting on me replying to them… 😕

[Michael Tremarco]

:yeeha: Can’t wait to view tutorials