COMPUTER QUESTION: Random Power Loss

Don't know much about computers but this use to happen to me. It was my power supply screwing up.

 

i used to have one that would randomly restart. never really fixed it but i wonder if it's the same problem.

 

There many reason why it would auto shut off....

I would first to check to see if anything is overheating, such as cpu or gpu. I tend to just unplug stuff, then "trial & error" to see which might be the problem. But it could be like oyu said a virus or some software having conflict with something. Maybe ask him did he install anything or doing anything before it crash.

I had this issue with crashing before (where It crash when I try to login or soemthing), but it wasn't a virus, just that I had to replace the system file (seem like one of them is either missing or broken). OR I had to uninstall a program (think it was having a conflict with some other program running on my pc.....)

anyway, if you can't figure whats wrong try running the recovery disk.

 

oh btw, try and give more detail on how/when it crash (like does the screen flicker? or it load while the OS is loading? or when the desktop is loading? etc)

google is your friend .

 

If you know how to open up a computer, have another computer, and have decent experience changing parts do this...

Download a different scanner for your other computer. Open up the problem computer and take out the harddrive.

Set the jumper pins (the black part on 2 of the 8 prongs) on the side of the harddrive to one of the center slots to make it a slave drive.

Put the harddrive into the spare computer as a slave drive (while plugging in the appropriate slots), and scan the drive. Then use chkdsk from the run command for any disk errors.

If nothing shows up at that point, I would back up all the stuff on the slave drive and then reformat the drive for a new windows installation.

If the problem persists, then you know it's a hardware problem which could range from your powersource, video card, cooling fan, or your RAM.

 

I had a similar problem and determined my HP printer was causing it. I still haven't fixed the problem but now I just keep it disconnected from the CPU unless I need to print, which is rare.

 

That's not necessarily a good idea. The system is powering down because something isn't right.

Go to your BIOS and check your voltages and make sure that they are within specified ranges. Often damaged or low quality memory running at incorrect voltages can cause sudden power downs.