My System Keeps Shutting Down Randomly!

[jovelster]

ok so i tried removing the apple things n yeahhh it dident work i keept trying for like for hours untill i got sleepy. I dont understand what could have happend tho. it was working the day before, but i know my brother dosent have internet so he couldent have been downloading a virus or a worm. or maybe the virus was already there but since it hasent been used in so long.. it grew? lol. I had this same problem when i bearly bought my computer. and it was my brother again. but there was internet. and my friend fixed it by restoring it but now it just restarts when im in restore mode so idk what to do!!!. im gonna try again today after school. if someone finds a solution, please tell me!!!

 

[DrWho]

Random shutdowns, in General, regardless of the OS, can often be traced back to a marginal power supply. The more CPU time and the more RAM you use, the greater the power drain is, on the PSU. It will be less in SAFE Mode, because you're using less ram and less cpu time.
It can reach a point where the PSU just gives up sees an over current condition and the system crashes. I've seen that more times than I can even mention and it doesn't have to be an el'cheapo PSU like the Bestec. It can even be a top-O-the-line brand.

A while back, I scrapped out 14 bad PSU's to recover the fans, fuses and whatever else I could salvage. In every PSU I found bulging filter capacitors.
Some of those PSU's were less than a month old when they failed.

As for running multiple OS's, I always install each OS on a separate HD.
The boot menu from my 'MSI' BIOS allows me to boot from any drive in my PC.

Nothing's worse than a boot manager gone sour. So I don't use one.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

 

[duo8675309]

Never thought it could be your psu. Same thing was happening to me and it was the psu. It just kept shutting down randomly and at no specific time. Sounds very similar to your problem.

That MIGHT be it. It does seem to fit. But why does it run fine in safe mode? If it was the PSU then it doesn't seem like it would be caused by a stimulus. I'm not saying this is, but it seems like it would be more of a software issue. I think if the formatting doesn't work I'll buy another PSU and see what that does. Couldn't hurt anything but my wallet.

EDIT: After reading drwho's post, I think it might actually be the power supply. It is a fairly old, albeit good, psu. Still, one last reformat. For the hell of it.

 

[JustDavid]

Try a power supply

I have to agree with the other posts, try another known good (or new) power supply. I've been a hardware technician for many a year, and have seen similar problems that all go away when I have replaced the power supply.

There is no need to format and reinstall the OS. It boots, and works fine while the power supply is able to keep up.

Just my two cents worth

 

[DocBrown]

What are your power settins at ?

 

[RST101]

Exactly the same thing happened to me and it was the psu.

 

[DrWho]

I repeat....

The more CPU time and the more RAM you use, the greater the power drain is, on the PSU. It will be less in SAFE Mode, because you're using less ram and less cpu time.

The more you do on your PC, the more power it takes.

Like, running your car at 50mph doesn't take as much horsepower and gasoline as running it at 90mph.
If ya wanna play, you gotta pay!

Whatever PSU you are replacing may just be too small for the job you want it to do, so replace it with one about 50% larger (or better).
If you have a 300, get at least a 500.

Those numbers represent the Maximum peak power that the PSU can put out during the startup of the PC (about one or two seconds, to charge the capacitors on the mobo and start all the drives and fans).
That is NOT the all-day running wattage, , that will be up to 30% less than the wattage printed on the outside of the PSU.

By buying too small of a PSU for your PC, you're just setting yourself up for future problems. You can't go too big, so don't worry about that.

Good Luck!

The Doctor

 

[screwballl]

Sounds to me like the CPU is overheating or the power supply is dying. I would suggest installing SpeedFan and check your temps, and also look for a load inducing program like Prime95.

If it is overheating then clean up the fan or remove it and replace the thermal compound.
I also say the power supply because when Windows is fully loaded, it can also causes heavier loads on the power supply since the devices are being used.

Since it is not doing it in Safe Mode, either one could be a problem still, because SafeMode minimizes CPU usage so does not let it overheat, or does not fully use all hardware so does not put a strain on the power supply.

If they all seem OK, anther option is the hard drive is going bad (check the SMART monitoring in SpeedFan). Best test for this is get another hard drive and use it for testing.

 

[duo8675309]

Ok. Back again. I was using a thermaltake 500w power supply, replaced it with my dad's 400w dynex psu and it completely fixed the problem. For about 2 days. When it crashed, it rebooted saying there were disk errors on drive C and it attempted to repair them. It doesn't crash NEARLY as frequently though. Nothing is overheating, i'm positive of that. It's useable now it just will crash after about 30 min. Not exactly sure what to make of that though...

 

[DrWho]

It would sound to this old tech, like you've got a system there that's a real power HOG!

I'd stick in an Antec Earthwatts 650 and forget about the power problems.
I'm now running those on both of my PC's....the new one and the one that's already seven years old.

Any problem on the HD is probably due to the power supply crashing while the HD is writing to the disk.
That's a sure fire recipe for disaster.
Good Luck,
The Doctor

 

[Wutsigu]

I also had these strange shutdown problems until I replaced the PSU. First, I replaced it with the same model (same brand) and it kept shutting off. Switching to another model of a different brand completely solved the problem and my system has not shut down (by itself since then (several months).

Regards!

 

[Digger]

heat heat heat..... is the only thing that came to my mind... could be failing fan on psu ( which was my case, so double check that the PSU fan is running).... then the cpu fan, even tho its plugged it, it will not report any beep codes, only unless you have it monitored by bios. I had to rig up an 80mm on the PSU, warranty was out, and i wasnt going to get into the task of tearing it down, once i did that, no shutdowns. This happened a year ago or so, same psu with rigged fan still workin' .

 

[ronsapp]

Windows 7 automatically shutting down

I found that the power setting is not working quite right. Go to power settings and set the system shut down to never, monitor shut down to 15 or 30 minutes what ever you like. The system will hibernate with no problem.

 

[toastytheog]

try this

go into system in the control panel, go to advanced settings>>advanced system settings>>startup and recovery:Settings and turn off automatic restart.

then stick close to your computer, when it does restart, look at the BSOD

after I did that I noticed the BSOD said "END_OF_NT_EVALUATION"

I think you know what to do after you get that.

worth looking into.

 

[terrannova]

Random reboots or total shutdowns are usually attributed to the Power supply, overheating issues, RAM problems, motherboard with bursting capacitors or just any flaky motherboard, and sometimes even a hard disk drive.

Guess & test by removing all extra components from your system EXCEPT CPU, PSU, GPU, 1 stick of RAM, DVD-ROM. Boot into memtest and run a check. If that's ok, plug in your HDD and boot into windows. This entire time make sure the components have access to air and are not hiding in a corner behind your desk.

 

[toastytheog]

Is this solved yet? or are we just beating a dead horse?


i just re-read the OP and I change my vote to PSU. go into your bios and check the voltages that are being reported(write the averages over about a minute down). and then google the tolerance limits, compare them to what you wrote down. if they are all about right, I didn't read enough to figure out what your PSU wattage was, but it's possible it's not high enough for your specs. add all your crap up in an online PSU calc, if it's accurate, the 7 CD may have a memory tester on it, i know mine did. Try that, let it run for 30minutes to an hour. Check for errors. It's probably not the HD unless there is a serious electrical problem with the HD, but you were able to unzip that 6GB john mayer, so unless it just has a preference to alternative rock, it should have crashed then.

 

[macbloke]

A bit late I know but hey!

Right Click My Computer> Properties>Advanced> 3rd Settings Button

Uncheck Automatically Restart then click OK.

Now it won't restart if there are any errors.

 

[lightyear]

Nope, not the PSU...I have 2 completely different PC builds with not a single piece of hardware in common, and they are both shutting down randomly. I have absolutely no software installed (with the exception to vital drivers...video, etc.) except the copies of seven I downloaded directly from Microsoft's server on "Beta Day" I have the more powerful using 64 bit because it's got 6 GB of ram, while the old one that's basically just for browsing online is using 32 bit with 1 GB ram. I'm even using serials obtained when I downloaded the 2 copies...not some random serial posted online or anything.

To further eliminate hardware failure as a cause, both my pc's were running both XP Pro and Vista Ult. with exactly the same hardware, and the same drivers were even used when they ran Vista.

It's the exact same symptoms for my 2 pc's as in the first post, and now we're up to a count of 3 completely different computers (two of which have nothing but the OS installed) suffering from EXACTLY the same problem.

BTW, mine are build 7000 (one 32 bit, the other 64 bit)

 

[LoserDave]

I have been experiencing this problem,,, and i believe it may be due to overclocking the onboard graphics card.

I disabled overclocking on the IGP , and so far no shut down,,, however i will post further results after some time.

 

[LoserDave]

Ok it just did it again. But i have narrowed it down to Power supply or faulty surge protector.
Im leaning toward the surge protector because the power-supply is a quality product, a Antec True-power 650w
Going to replace surge protector ,, will update.