Shutdown Problems
Question:I have a BIG problem with my computer. It will shut down at any random minute and then you have to cut of the power to get it back on. I have formatted this computer many, many times and it will still shut down on me. When I TRY to run a virus scan it will shut down before it ends. One time it didn't even fully boot up before it shut down. I have no idea what to do. Will you help me?
Answer:
Since you said you have formatted your computer many times we would
have to say its most likely not a software problem. Formatting would
have gotten rid of any viruses and spyware. When you formatted did you
boot from the Windows CD and do it that way?
Hardware problems can
cause random shutdowns and reboots but can be difficult to diagnose. If
your power supply is going bad then that will definitely cause this to
happen. If the computer is older you may want to consider replacing it
or swapping it out with one from another computer. You can go here for instructions.
Another thing that could case this is
if your processor is getting too hot and shutting the computer down.
Many computers have this feature to save the processor from overheating
and ruining it. You may want to take off the cover and power on the
computer and make sure the fan over the processor is running. You can
also go into your BIOS and it may tell you the processor (CPU)
temperature and speed of the fan. Just because the fan is moving doesn't
mean its moving fast enough. You can also make sure the fan on your
power supply is working.
Another option is to remove
unnecessary hardware devices one at a time to see if it affects it. You
can remove the network card or sound card if they are not built in. Bad
memory (RAM) could also be a culprit. If you have more than one stick
you may be able to take some out and run it with one stick at a time.
You can also check your Event Viewer log and see if there is any helpful information in there. Here are instructions for that.
