Computer shuts down randomly (Vista x64)

[Ben Johnson]

My friend's computer seems to be shutting off when his computer is put under any amount of stress (opening/closing a program, performing a Windows Experience test, playing a game, etc.). Overheating isn't the issue, as it idles at around 30-35C; IOH was never above 72 with load, which is apparently normal.

I've read that it could be a failing power supply, or bad motherboard, or possibly even bad memory. Anyone have experience with this sort of problem?

Could the electricity be the problem? He has a power conditioner/UPS, and it reads ~111v-115v. The power is constantly fluctuating in that range.

The occurrence of shutting down is completely random though, as the computer can sometimes go an entire day at full blast without any problems. Also, he said the problem was more prevalent at the same time last year, but seemed to subside during the fall and winter months.

 

[sprack]

Is he getting blue screens with the shutdown? Is it a graceful shutdown or just suddenly off?

 

[53Crëw]

Ben, I had a problem where my PC would just randomly shut off - especially under load. It turned out that the filter capacitors on the motherboard had gone bad. I opened the PC and the caps had leaked all over and were no longer filtering the voltage supply. The MB manufacturer gave me a new board to fix the problem.

Anyway, it might be something to check...

 

[Ben Johnson]

Thanks for replying guys.

@sprack: no BSOD - it just shuts down like if you pulled the plug

@53Crëw: all the filter caps appear to be intact

 

[guitarguru777]

Sounds like a bad power supply.

 

[ShredderForhire]

This happened to me and it was my power supply. I also had another problem with a different computer doing the same thing. i took the whole thing apart and blew it out with compressed air. works great to this day!

 

[Seth Morris]

Hey Ben,

It happened when I was over there as well. I'd say the most likely culprit is a bad power supply, but he did mention that his motherboard was getting poor reviews. Would it be possible to post the make/model of the equipment in question? Also, you could try removing all non-essential parts to see if it is something weird (I had a poorly seated video card that would work fine for a little while then cause my PC to crash.), you could also try swapping out some of the RAM to see if that's the cause.

 

[Mesa4x12er]

First guess for me when this happens is always cooling issue. Most machines you can get now have built in protection designed to keep you from frying your CPU. If it gets too hot the machine completely shuts off to avoid permanent damage. While it could be the power supply generally when I see a power supply problem it's not load specific meaning it works or doesn't with no regards to what you're processing. Get a program like speedfan and monitor the temperature of the CPU while putting it under load. If you see it start climbing and getting too high and then it powers off you've got your culprit. Is your buddy trying to overclock?

 

[kev]

It could be anything, but order of test would definitely be PSU, Motherboard then Chip.

 

[darthjujuu]

experienced professional PC repairman here, and if the CPU fan is spinning, than it's 90% power supply, 9% motherboard, 1% something else.


power supplies are $19 at microcenter, go grab one and swap it out, takes 5 minutes.

 

[neverpurify]

I had this problem recently and it turned out I had a bunch of dust inside the computer case. try cleaning that out first.

 

[ssdfvwrgdsg]

What if the computer has a battery that was resently changed and it still happens and the Inspron 1545 cannot run Elsword, Firefox, and all other Internet Browers and games without shutting down?

NOTE: Computer only shuts down when browsers are open and not used by OS stuff.

 

[Sloan]

 

[brianhood]

I had this problem.

Changed the power supply
changed the motherboard
changed the video card
changed the ram

Nothing fixed it, so I built an entire new PC with absolutely zero of the old parts. I honestly think it may have been some weird issue the PC case.

My power downs were abrupt, not even going to a blue screen. Just black screen.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

shut down or restart?

+1 on power supply, my old pc did the same till the day I had to change the power supply.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Old thread is old, guys