New guy, with a big problem

I am hoping I can find some help from this forum. I have an eMachines computer that was new this past Christmas. It has been great so far. It has Windows 7 64-bit, a Dual Core E5300 @ 2.6ghz, 4GB RAM, 750GB HD, and I added an nVidia GeForce GT220.

Sometime last week, Wednesday or Thursday I think, is when the problem started. One night as I was turning the computer off, it said that it was going to install updates before it shutdown. I turned the monitor off and went to bed. The next morning my wife turned the computer on, and it said that it did not shutdown properly and asked whether to boot up in safe mode or start normally. She started it normally and then it began. After about 5-10 minutes, the computer just turned off. It did not shut down, it was like it was unplugged from the wall. She turned it back on and it did it again after the same amount of time.

I thought maybe one of the fans or heatsinks had a lot of dust, so I took the cover off and checked it out and it looks good. I blew it out anyway and put it back together and the problem is still there. I took my video card out to see if maybe it had something to do with it, but I still have the same problem.

I don't think it is heat related, because when the computer turns off, I can turn it right back on. Sometimes it stays on 5 minutes, the other day it stayed on for nearly an hour. It doesn't matter whether the computer is just sitting idle, or if I am doing something.

Sorry that this got a little long, but I wanted to give as much information as possible. This is really frustrating me. I really think that it had something to do with the update that happened. We did a system restore, but I'm not sure if that will undo an update or not. It didn't help so who knows.

Thank you for any help,

Joey

Wow that was fast.

I forgot to mention, I did that too. I also booted it up into BIOS to look at the temperatures, and it did it then too. It seems like the highest the CPU temp ever got before it turned off was 33* C

Did you by any chance upgrade your PSU (Power Supply Unit) before you installed the Nvidia card?

I'm wondering if you were drawing too much power than the PSU could handle.

I did not, the factory one is a 250w which I know isn't a whole lot. My card said it would work with a 250w PSU, but I won't rule it out yet.

I am using a laptop to post all of this, but I did a clean boot about 10 minutes ago and it is still going with everything disabled.

Nevermind, it just turned off.

richc46 said:

Can you do a system restore from before the updates? Frequently, when there are many updates that require a boot, there are problems.

We tried that already, but I can try again.

No, it's not a software issue.. computers don't shut off like that because of a software problem. Its a power issue, and you should upgrade to at least a 400 watt power supply. NEVER use only the minimum recommended PSU for a graphics card, especially when you can get an adequate power supply for less than $40.