computer keeps shutting down

myclassy67 · August 12th, 2004, 07:22 PM

Hi, I hope someone can help me - My technical knowledge of computer hardware is very limited (I've exchanged a modem and cd drive and that's about it). A week or so ago, about a half hour after I turned on my computer it went dead on me - no warnings, funny sounds or errors - was just suddenly off. It would not turn back on the rest of the day, but when I tried the power button a couple days later - it turned on like normal and I was able to work on it, then it did the same thing - was just suddenly off and wouldn't turn back on. I've done a search on this forum and they talked about psu, harddrive, mobo, cpu failures - but none of the symptoms I've seen mentioned seem to be occuring. Since I don't know that much about hardware, I'm not sure how much info you'd need for this, but I'll give what I know (I'm typing this from work, and the original invoice is at home with all info on it)
Computer was built in October 2001 by EBC Computers
EPOX 8KTA3PRO 266FSB
CASEDGE 734 P4 325Watts
Win98

Thanks,
Sue

sweeper2 · August 12th, 2004, 07:25 PM

do you know if it happens to be dirty inside causing a heat problem....maybe alot of dust on the fans/cpu HS and HSF...

The Real Bingo · August 12th, 2004, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweeper2

do you know if it happens to be dirty inside causing a heat problem....maybe alot of dust on the fans/cpu HS and HSF...

I doubt that's it, seeing how it died so suddenly. I'd suspect the PSU.

Another thing it could be is the CPU, or the motherboard. Have you examined them for problems?

myclassy67 · August 12th, 2004, 07:46 PM

There was some dust in the case after the first shut down, but I used the canned air and sprayed that out, but it still did it again.

I had no clue it could be the mobo or cpu until reading this forum today, I haven't examined them at all (not sure I'd know what to look for) and up until this happened I was having no problems with the computer whatsoever. - wait I take that back - my husband said the day before this happened a fan sounded a little strained shortly before he was done using the computer - then when I used it the next morning, the fan sounded normal but then the problem of it shutting down happened.
Sue

sweeper2 · August 12th, 2004, 07:58 PM

possibly the fan on the PSU dying out or the HSF on the CPU and the cpu overheating causing the pc to shut off. (protective measures)

Same thing as i posted before, HEAT issue could be a possible problem, if not by dust etc, could be a dead fan.

myclassy67 · August 12th, 2004, 08:02 PM

I'm sorry - I've been able to figure out alot of the abbr. here, but what is the hs and hsf??

Sue

sweeper2 · August 12th, 2004, 08:17 PM

Heat sink (sits on top of the processor) HSF is the Heat sink Fan that sits on top of the Heat sink which is on top of the processor.

maybe try running while the side cover is off and see if it dies if you can pin point what the sound might be

myclassy67 · August 13th, 2004, 12:28 AM

Thanks for the info - and I'll try that thanks

sweeper2 · August 13th, 2004, 04:31 AM

let us know how it works out...hopefully with the side off, if you can hear the noise, you can pinpoint the problem... good luck...

Khallas · August 13th, 2004, 05:46 AM

I think you should look up the type of mother board you have, the CPU and the power source and see if any of them have a safety system against overheating. If they do and the computer suddenly turns off after 30 minutes and won't start up for several hours, it's probably an overhating problem in one of the items that has the overheating safety.

Probably the power source, when it gets too hot even with the fan working at max, it decides to shut down, to prevent damage.

So I suspect it's the power source overheating. What I would do to check that is simply open the case, turn on the PC and feel at the fan-grid on the bottom or back of the power source, if it sucks air, at least the fan is working, if it isn't your problem is a broken fan in the power source.

What could also be a problem, though I doubt it, would be power surges on the power net. Many computers have a power-surge protection. But if it was that I doubt it'd shut down after 30 minutes every time and it also woudn't refuse to turn on for a few hours or a day, it'd power up again after a minute or so.