[bo130]

Hi all - newbie here with some recent trouble that I hope someone could offer some insight on.

My newest (homebuilt) PC is now two years old, and up to about three months ago it operated flawlessly. Never an issue. Recently, however, the computer began to shut itself down shortly after startup reaches the point of having the desktop open.

The strange aspect to this problem is that once I hit the power button to turn the computer back on, the system loads up fine and there are no problems. I can use the computer for hours and it gives me no problems on any level.

The shutdown does not happen, however, if I have the computer turned off for a few hours and then come back to it and turn it back on again. This only happens if I have not used the computer for longer than say 10 hours (overnight and so forth).

I guess I am just concerned because while in a way I can deal with this problem (even though it's very annoying) I'm also worried about it potentially getting worse.

For those of you who want to know, I went in and checked to see if the computer is overheating and everything appears to be completely normal. That was the first thing that came to mind but that doesn't seem to be the source of the problem. I don't know if this relates at all to the hard drive being bad, or the memory or cpu being bad, but any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!

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Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Random reboots are usually caused by heat, memory, driver issues or the power supply. They can be very exasperating to troubleshoot because you have to work your way through each potential cause to either rule it out or correct it. Open the case, clean out the dust bunnies and use some canned air to blow the dust out of the cpu fan and heat sink. Go into the bios and check the cpu temp once it boots up. You can also download speedfan (google for it, it is free) and use that to check temps. You can test the memory with memtesti86 (get it at http://www.memtest.org/ ). Driver issues are a little more difficult. You can use the event viewer and M$ knowledge base to see if it can give a clue as to the cause. Go to my computer, right click manage, event viewer. Look for events with a time/date corresponding to the reboot event. Right click on it, view properties. You can send a report to M$ and view their knowledge base for addtional information. Lastly, do not overlook the power supply as a cause. I would investigate all the others first, the power supply last. Here is a link to excellent information on power supplies. http://www.hardforum...isplay.php?f=93 See the sticky posts at the top of the forum.

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Random reboots are usually caused by heat, memory, driver issues or the power supply. They can be very exasperating to troubleshoot because you have to work your way through each potential cause to either rule it out or correct it. Open the case, clean out the dust bunnies and use some canned air to blow the dust out of the cpu fan and heat sink. Go into the bios and check the cpu temp once it boots up. You can also download speedfan (google for it, it is free) and use that to check temps. You can test the memory with memtesti86 (get it at http://www.memtest.org/ ). Driver issues are a little more difficult. You can use the event viewer and M$ knowledge base to see if it can give a clue as to the cause. Go to my computer, right click manage, event viewer. Look for events with a time/date corresponding to the reboot event. Right click on it, view properties. You can send a report to M$ and view their knowledge base for addtional information. Lastly, do not overlook the power supply as a cause. I would investigate all the others first, the power supply last. Here is a link to excellent information on power supplies. http://www.hardforum...isplay.php?f=93 See the sticky posts at the top of the forum.

[bo130]

Hi and thanks for the response, Austin O. A few things: What's happening with the computer is definetly not a random restart (actually it has always been a shutdown) when it's actually been predictable as noted in my first post. I did check out the temperature of the cpu - it is within the "Safe" area, but even so the trouble happens after the computer has been shut off overnight or for a very long time.

I guess I am left with checking out the memory, or possibly the power supply (it is two years old).

[austin_o]

The link I gave you on power supplies has lots of info, including calculators to help you figure out if yours is adequate, which PSUs to aviod etc. I had a problem with random lock ups, sometimes re-boots, which turned out to be due to the power supply. The 420 W Raidmax that came with my Raidmax case was actually only capable of delivering about 290 W. I got me a 550 W Forton and problem went away.

By all means, test the memory! Memtest86 is free, and does a good job.

Edited by austin_o, 24 February 2007 - 03:56 PM.