Computer Suddenly powerdowns itself

[Sion]

This week my 3-year-old Dell has suddenly powerdowned itself in the middle of work twice.

Anyone has experienced this before with his PC? Is this a symptom to a hardware problem?

I must confess I run it very hard around 18 hours a day sometimes it is still uploading files while I go to sleep.

Thanks.

 

[vince123123]

Abrupt power down or windows actually going through the whole shutdown process?

 

[wildstallion]

I have the opposite problem, mines about three years old and it keeps turning itself on! Im guessing its a Dell thing....

 

[zero o]

This week my 3-year-old Dell has suddenly powerdowned itself in the middle of work twice.

Anyone has experienced this before with his PC? Is this a symptom to a hardware problem?

I must confess I run it very hard around 18 hours a day sometimes it is still uploading files while I go to sleep.

Thanks.

too much kopitiam syndrome perhaps

 

[Sion]

Just spoken to my friend.

There is a virus currently going round causing such a symptom.

Four computers of his friend are similarly affected.

 

[Sion]

Abrupt power down or windows actually going through the whole shutdown process?

Abrupt power down.

 

[ricohflex]

http://www.securitystronghold.com/gates/trojan.shutdown.html

 

[vince123123]

Then these are the possibles:

1. Faulty PSU
2. Faulty RAM
3. Faulty HDD (when OS reads bad sector, it gives up and shuts down)

Abrupt power down.

 

[vince123123]

Lol you gave a link whcih shows up as red on macafee site advisor.

http://www.securitystronghold.com/gates/trojan.shutdown.html

 

[sammy888]

Abrupt power down.

In the last few years there is another possibility for the abrupt shutdown. Especially in the age of the P4 and beyond. That is over heating of the CPU. As cpu gets faster, heat generating by the higher clock speed has cause some system to shut down. When it gets really bad..just minutes after you boot up a system, it shuts down. This over heat is sense by most modern day motherboard and when the heat gets too high, it will send the PC into shutdown mood or shut it down abruptly.

Your 3 year old notebook could be hacving heat problem due to ventilation. After such a long period, dust bunny has clogged up the ventilation vents, crowded around all the small areas of your notebook thus...with circulation restricted, heat builds up beyond the system's set tolerant level and thus the system will shut down.

It could also be a virus and some of those other stuff vince mentioned could be a likely culprit too. But if you have a vaccum cleaner or something to suck out the dust, open up the notebook and blow out all the dust coating the board and other card or devices...maybe you could see a change in your system now.

 

[engrmariano]

Abrupt power down.

i have very similar prob before on my dell in the office.

the problem was, the fan is not working anymore, making the CPU hotter that it shots down it self.

:thumbsup:

 

[Astin]

i have very similar prob before on my dell in the office.

the problem was, the fan is not working anymore, making the CPU hotter that it shots down it self.

:thumbsup:

I have same problem as u. 3 year old Dell desktop, fan died but Dell desktop fan is not standard one so I diy some similar fan from SimLim, used for another 3 months the Dell just self shutdown while doing my work. I guess its overheat too, and time to change to a newer machine.

 

[pisduck]

Then these are the possibles:

1. Faulty PSU
2. Faulty RAM
3. Faulty HDD (when OS reads bad sector, it gives up and shuts down)

yup. I think most likely is 1. PSU (power supply unit) is usually the first to go.

 

[synapseman]

I've got a four year old PC, running Windows2000(!). I've had both types of problems before, did a deep inspection scan using Zone Alarm (took 24 hours to complete), found some offending viruses. Also went to Windows Live Update to fix security issues. After that, has been pretty smooth sailing.

 

[ricohflex]

Lol you gave a link whcih shows up as red on macafee site advisor.

Kaspersky will take care of it

 

[Nisa]

Kaspersky will take care of it

Kaspersky?!!? I strongly discourage ppl to use this.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

Then these are the possibles:

1. Faulty PSU
2. Faulty RAM
3. Faulty HDD (when OS reads bad sector, it gives up and shuts down)

1. Possible
2. Depends, normally BSOD
3. Confirm BSOD won't shutdown.

what i do think is probably it overheated... but not a Dell user, so wonder if it have a temperature indicator software in the package. If have do check the CPU temp or MB temp to see if its overheating.

other than that... probably a worm in action.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

Kaspersky?!!? I strongly discourage ppl to use this.

the last version sucks thou... the new 2009 version is a hell lot better...

 

[aeskywan]

3 year old? Auto shut down?

The last desktop I had with the same issue was diagnosed as power supply fault. Try to get it repaired and stop trying to use it. Its very damaging to your hard disk from the sudden power shut downs. My last hard disk got damaged because of this.

 

[skf]

If it is due to CPU overheating, maybe can replace the thermal paste..
Thermal paste is the stuff that goes between the heatsink and the CPU. It is supposed to enhance the transfer of heat from CPU to the heatsink, so that the heat can be dissipated. I guess it is possible that the thermal paste might need replacement..

Search for and download this utilty known as OCCT. If you run it, it might help diagnose the problem - temperature, PSU stability