computer randomly shuts off

CandyStripes05

So my computer likes to randomly shut off... and it's not a daily occurrence, I'd say bi weekly at best but today it did it twice in a row

first time it happened was back in December and it wouldn't let me turn it back on right away. I took the side panel off let it cool down and eventually got it to turn on and I monitored the temp display on the front of the case and it would bounce around the high 90's to I think the highest I've seen it was 109 maybe 111

but today it allowed me to turn it on right away just to shut off again, I now have the side off and a tiny fan I use on my desk pointed into the case at the PSU and so far so good, the temp reads 94

I have a Cooler Master GX 750W power supply and the fan is not spinning on it right now, I hear that some only come on depending on the load passing through. Is the lack of fan my problem? and I should be looking to replace my PSU or is it something to do with the mobo?

any help is appreciated, thanks.


ps: it has never shut off on me while working on my 3D projects.. just while browsing online :S going to run a virus scan now to play it safe

ZacD

Is it 90c? That's very hot. The Cooler Master GX 750W doesn't look like a semi-fanless PSU, so it sounds like it should be spinning.

CandyStripes05

it's ferinheight, currently at 96.8F and the fan is now spinning

Axi5

Open up Event Viewer and check what is happening around the time it shuts off. Windows should write a log of it.

ZacD

Sounds like it could be your PSU or its fan is dying, pay attention to see if the fan stops spinning often or if it was just a weird fluke. Not turning back on right away and not getting a blue screen or an error or a total restart makes it seem like a PSU issue.

CandyStripes05

CandyStripes05

After the two shut downs today, I thought maybe I had too much plugged into the one power bar/wall outlet. So now It has it's own surge protector going to a different outlet... if that has anything to do with it I have no idea but I did it any ways :P

Axi5

haha, it wasn't a very useful log message was it.

I'd also check out ZacD's proposal that your PSU might be dying, do you live in an area where there might be frequent power issues? UPS might help there.

Process of elimination, you'll find out some time

Defonten

I experienced the same thing with my PC. I changed my PSU from 750 to 1000W and the problem was gone! In my case, it was videocard GTX 680 which required some extra power. So it is definitely your PSU.

Farfarer

If the PSU/power changes don't help, I'd look at running a diagnostic on your RAM. I had a bad stick before that didn't crash until I'd used enough RAM I hit the bad sector. So it took a while and seemed fairly random but it did coincide with high RAM usage.
Replaced the bad pair and the issue went.

CandyStripes05

I hope it's not the RAM : ( I wanted to add more and found out I couldn't do that without getting a new MOBO and pretty sure it's an older style stick where upgrading it was stupid pricey to the point where getting a new MOBO would be a better investment. Hate to replace something I want to upgrade, and not really rolling in the money right now to make the jump just yet : /

I'll look into running one though, thanks!

Xoliul

Farfarer wrote: »

If the PSU/power changes don't help, I'd look at running a diagnostic on your RAM. I had a bad stick before that didn't crash until I'd used enough RAM I hit the bad sector. So it took a while and seemed fairly random but it did coincide with high RAM usage.
Replaced the bad pair and the issue went.

I had the exact same thing. Until I would start a game or app that used that final b it of ram, it was fine. Another symptom of bad ram is that the crashes always tend to produce different random error messages.

It's kind of the best and easiest kind of hardware problem, just swap the stick out and you're good again.

Mark Dygert

If it's an overheating issue and it sounds like it is, you've done some damage that isn't likely to be undone. At best you can hope that it's an individual part that has taken most of the damage but more than likely everything has taken a hit. Probably even the motherboard is damaged in a way that might make it fruitless to swap out components.

Every part has a lifespan and overheating them on a consistent basis speeds up that life cycle. Even if they appear to function I wouldn't be too surprised if the PSU, CPU, GPU, RAM and the thing that connects them all together starts to fail.

This usually starts a long slow process of failure and replacement and sometimes its better and cheaper to just throw out everything and start over.

Bek

Might want to also look at upgrading your bios, rolling back any drivers you've changed recently.

Finalhart

You can still clean the dust inside it. My old laptop had the same temperature as yours, and kept shouting down a lot but after cleaning it the problem was solved.

Vailias

90F isn't that hot. 90c? yeah you'd have broken something.
Even 111f is only 43c, and even the crappiest CPU I ever had was good till at least 50c.

Personally I've had both the old or underpowered PSU and a dying ram stick issue do this to my systems over the years.

First, take a look at what's in your PC, then put that in here, http://powersupplycalculator.net/
See if your PSU is adequate. If your PSU is cheap(came with the case) and or several years old, then take 10-30% off its labeled capacity.
If its not adequate or borderline, get a new PSU.

But also run a memory diagnostic. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/diagnosing-memory-problems-on-your-computer

That will at least give you some reassurance as to what's up.

Another thing it *could* be, is your boot HD going bad in some way where the system isn't able to swap data to it when it needs to. I was getting some significant system locks, recently when I figured out an older HD of mine was starting to fail. Can get some idea of their condition with these http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/