desktop computer keeps shutting off randomly
 

i'm thinking my power supply is bad?

anyone else have experience with this sort of problem?

totally random when it decides to shut off, i could be using the computer hours then it turns off or i could be on it for 5 minutes and it turns off.

Yup, i have the same problem. Overheating. Put a big fan on it or clean the internal fan. I cant open my laptop without breaking it so i have a fan on it all day long. It blows <-- hehe

The power supply is the most likely culprit.

I had the same problem and it was the power supply. I changed it out and it worked fine after that.

Now see if you can help me with my problem. One of my home PCs takes FOREVER to start up. It will start the boot sequence and then gets to the black screen with a little underline cursor in the top left corner and stays there. It will stay there for about 10 minutes and then continue to boot.

It's the craziest shit ever. I have tried EVERYTHING and cannot figure out what the problem is.

Possibly your power supply but from my experience it could also be your motherboard.

I have seen this problem caused by just about anything, from a bad power supply, faulty video card, cpu over heating, bad ram, spyware/viral it is hard to say but one good place to start is if you are using windows 2000/xp right click on my computer and select manage look on the lrft side and select event viewer from there select system. You want to look for red errors or yellow warnings that might give you a clue as to whats going on. Use google for errors you don't understand. Boot into the bios from there most modern computers have a pc health option that will show you the curent temp of your cpu/motherboard fan speed and power supply voltage check those and make sure they are ok. These things are what most average Techs will do first before troubleshooting any further if you brought it to a repair shop. Chances are at the very least you'll get an idea as to what is causeing it.

Hope this helps.

Mostly likly overheating, but it can be software. Go to safemode, and leave it on, if it still shuts of ,then it its the fan.

thanks Franck, Rob, phooka, AdnerAdvertising and everyone else for your input

its appreciated

ok, so i went to the store and got some of that air spray in a can. i took one of the sides off of my cpu and sprayed all the fans off. ok i discovered that the fan on the power supply does NOT spin at all while the computer is turned on. so i believe this is my problem?? which is causing my shit to overhet and cut off...

can i just buy a new fan or do i need to buy a whole new power supply ?

Power supply.

Check your boards and dimms for creap too. Creep?

You know what I mean.

nobody fixes power supplies, you have to buy a new one, they're not that expensive though

a power supply with a fan that does not work can last a long time, you'll probably buy a new one and find out that the power supply was not the problem at all, it's just Murphy's law ;)

hah, yea, good ole Murphy's law , always fucking right.

Yes, you can.

A Power supply will cost you about 25.00, a fan about 3 dollars.

How To:

- Unplug your ps cables to drives and motherboards
- unscrew ps from case ( at the back - 4 screws )
- Open ps unscrewing the little screws
- unscrew the fan ( 1 tapping screws at each corner )
- cut the red & black wire, leaving a good lenght attached to the PS.
- Get replacement fan in any decent computer store ( example: http://www.megapc.com/product.asp?pf_id=fan%2Dzal01 but way too expensive)
- cut connector of new fan
- twist wires of the same color, cover joint with electrical tape
- re-assemble

Your are back in business.

You can try to clear the bios with the jumper on the mb

If that doesn;t work, you can try to repair your os intall.

If not, then reinstall the OS.

This is not a hardware issue.

Directfiesta is a true :pimp

I'm going to try that. Thanks for the advice. Everyone was trying to convince me that my drive was fuct.

note;It's clear CMOS ( which is same ) ....

check your boot sequence also..

True ... didn't think of that.

I had that problem on my old pc and the issue was that the CPU kept on over heating. Got a new heatsink/fan and it never happened again

i bet its the power supply if its just shutting off

Check your power supply or your fan..

You'll need to replace the power supply now due to overheating (due to bustedfan). The sudden power off could damage you mobo or HD.

As others have said if it's just suddenly shutting off, that's usually heat.

Check all the fans, make sure they're spinning, get a can of compressed air, spray out any dust or anything that might be inhibiting airflow. Add a fan or move it to a cooler spot. Make sure it can breath, move it further out from the wall, etc.