My PC just turned off as if the power had been cut off. Apparently it also happened earlier today when no one was using the machine. The other things plugged into the power strip remained on, so no problem there. Pushed the power button on the PC and it booted right back up.
I’ve got Windows Vista Home Premium as my OS. Is it possible the recent slough of updates it downloaded is involved? The latest Norton spyware/virus scan was clean.
What might cause the machine to suddenly turn off like that? Is it more likely to be a hardware or software issue? There was no warning or clue as to what the cause was - it just popped off. Any idea where to start looking for trouble would help.
Overheating can often cause spontaneous shutdown. Usually there are logs somewhere that would indicate this (not sure where they would be on a Windows box).
I vote overheating as well. Is this a laptop or desktop? In either case, find the vents and blow all the dust out of them. Inspect any fans on the case, motherboard, or on installed (especially video) cards, and make sure they’re all turning; many times fans can be replaced inexpensively if they’ve malfunctioned. Make sure the machine case vents are not blocked by nearby objects.
these are all good suggestions, also if you have a tower (as opposed to a laptop) I’d check to make sure that all the fans are plugged in, and dust 'em all.
Most likely one of your fans burned out and needs to be replaced. fans are super cheap though
I have a TV computer running Windows Media Centre. Once a year it will reboot spontaneously. The cure (so far) is blowing the dust out of it. I don’t even bother with canned air, I just pick the biggest bits of crap out and blow as much as I can out. That sounds really dirty.
A suggestion: when you’re doing this, have a desk fan or similar gently blowing across the case. Then, when you blow, the air current will carry more of the dust away rather than redistribute much of it around the case.
I’d go for overheating as well, but with a twist: the power supply thinks it’s overheating. Overheating is such a potential disaster that it’s one of the sensors that’s designed to be able to just shut everything down now. So, either your power supply is overheating or its overheating sensor thinks it’s overheating. In any case, the problem is likely that you need to replace the power supply.
BTW: This problem bedeviled me for several weeks about a year ago. I tried everything in the book, but could never figure it out. Just about everything else that might start shutting down the computer would have left some sort of evidence of what was going on. The tech guy, wasting a moment to use the voice of Yoda, said that the lack of any other error message was a clear sign that it could only be one of the problems that leaves no error message, such as the power supply.
Not sure how to verify this at home, but a power supply is less expensive to replace than a motherboard.
Overheating makes a lot of sense. My tower sits in a little space under my desk, and despite having cut out a section to allow better airflow, it still seems to get warm fast. Thanks for the help. I’ll break open the case and see what bits are covered in dust and such!
My SO had a setup similar to yours. A tower case under his desk, where the airflow was minimal. After verifying that all the internal fans were working, he ended up taking the face off the case, and running a small desk fan blowing air past the open side.
I know that if there’s a Window’s security update and you don’t restart your computer after a certain amount of time or click the popup asking you do you want to turn it off later, then the computer will automatically restart itself. That happened to me this morning for a security update, but then it doesn’t turn off, it just restarts itself and you just have to log back on.
I had a similar set up when I was in high school. I ended up taking a saw to the back of the desk where the PC case was (my dad was non-to-pleased), removing the face panel and aiming a desk fan at it so it’d blow through the whole compartment
This started happening to me when my motherboard was dying. The shutdowns became more frequent over a fortnight then one day it switched off and wouldn;t turn back on.
I just assumed it was a bad power supply so went out and bought a nice one but that didn’t help. Eventually pulled out the motherboard giving it a good looking over and noticed one of the capacitor’s little tops was popped upwards. Mystery solved.
Anyway my point is don’t just assume it’s whatever or you’ll end up wasting money.
Definitely sounds like a hardware issue though. I’d start by taking the side off your PC case and setting a desk fan to blow inside it. That’ll keep things nice and cool so you can possibly rule out overheating.