# Yet Another Computer Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 15, 2004, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564 "2004-01-15T08:06:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/1 "2004-01-15T08:06:36Z")
My computer’s clean. Ad-aware, Spybot, Norton, all report nada.
Here’s the issue. When I wander away from my computer, it shuts down after an hour or so. I usually turn on my SETI@home screensaver, otherwise, nothing else is running. But it shuts down without me telling it to. I’m running Windows XP Pro with all the latest patches, etc. I’ve checked in the Power Management section of my Control Panel, and it’s set to a Home/Office Desk power scheme, with Turn Off Monitor, Turn Off Hard Disks, and System Standby all set to Never. Hibernate is not enabled. I haven’t changed any settings in my BIOS or downloaded anything recently.
This one’s got me stumped.
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### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/2 "2004-01-15T08:08:51Z")
Check the BIOS setting anyway…
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### Author:  [@GawnFishin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GawnFishin)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/3 "2004-01-15T08:34:00Z")
One possibility to consider is power, newer computers are more susceptible to power fluctuations. I’m not saying this is the answer to your problems but an Uninteruptable Power Supply or [UPS](http://www.apcc.com/products/category.cfm?paramcategory=13&web_displayed=all). I wouldn’t run a computer without one ever again. I’ve seen it save my computer and also my butt on a number of occasions. If something in your area is drawing a major power load, maybe a faulty clothes drier or a welder; you would possible see a ‘brown out’ when the lights fade but don’t go out. This could result in a significant drop in electrical current to your computer and it will shut down.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/4 "2004-01-15T11:41:15Z")
I am going to guess that it is overheating. Most motherboards are designed to shutdown when the CPU temperature exceeds the maximum safe operating temperature. Is your computer in one of those computer-desk cubby holes that restrict air movement? That can cause it to build up heat quickly; you should cut out the back of the computer compartment so that air can circulate. Another thing to try is open the case and blow out all the dust with a can of dry air; dust builds up on components, fans and filters to the point that it degrades the cooling system, overheating the CPU. Clean it out, and try running it with the cover off for a while, and see it it still shuts down. I’m betting it won’t.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/5 "2004-01-15T12:13:04Z")
Have you ever actually witnessed the shutting down? Does it happen gracefully? (i.e. the ‘windows is closing’ screen), or does it just shut off abruptly? (which will usually trigger a CHKDSK or ‘Windows has recovered from a serious error’" on next boot)
If the former, then it would seem to be some process or application (perhaps one that isn’t intended to be malicious and therefore is undetected by AV and spyware killers).
If the latter, then it sounds like a hardware problem; something like:
CPU overheating (as suggested by **Fear Itself**
Poorly seated RAM or PCI cards (being jostled by thermal expansion)
Faulty PSU
Faulty MoBo
Having said all that, my system occasionally shuts down abruptly and XP (when it recovers) tells me there was a problem with a driver, but it doesn’t say which one.
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### Author:  [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/6 "2004-01-15T14:49:16Z")
At the risk of being instantly pounded to a pulp, I’ll say that XP is not for me. I will freely admit that my experience with XP is somewhat limited, although I can honestly claim that I’ve used it a bit and installed (Pro and Home) on several 'puters. However, until Bill Gates comes up with something better, I’ll stick with Me.
My girlfriend/longtime pal owns legitimate (pronounced “expensive”) copies of both XP Home and XP Pro. She has experienced total meltdowns on both her 'puters within a month of installing either. The problems seem to be more pronounced with the Pro version. I have recently watched her erase the (XP Pro) hard drive on her main 'puter and install Me, just to get to a point where she had a 'puter that would boot and function.
Win98 was a landmark for Gates & Co., and Me is just 98 all gussied up. There’s just something about that NTFS stuff that doesn’t like me and mine. I’ve built 'puters for people as a sideline for about ten years, and only Win95 gave me or my customers even a fraction of the trouble I’ve seen from XP.
The problems I’ve seen are just like what the OP talks about – stuff you’d normally associate with the BIOS settings. I don’t have a ready solution. Maybe I just feel like bitching.
Good luck!
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/7 "2004-01-15T15:41:39Z")
I’m not going to pound you **TBone2** - your mileage clearly varies from mine; neither do I wish to turn this into a platform war …but… (and you knew there’d be a but) I think it is true to say that _most people’s_ experience of WinME is that it is less stable than 98SE and that XP (and indeed the NT family in general) is more stable than any of the 9x family - certainly applications occasionally crash in XP, but it is rare to see them drag the whole system down with them.
In any case, I suspect the culprit here is overheating, which isn’t likely to be less of a problem for any OS.
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### Author:  [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/8 "2004-01-15T16:14:07Z")
Try checking the power options for your computer.
Open control panel --\> power options.
It will have options like after x minutes shutdown harddrive. Despite this sounding like something for laptops, it is now also present on desktops(or at least mine).
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### Author:  [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/9 "2004-01-15T17:01:38Z")
I used to run a distributed computing project on this computer and it used a lot of CPU cycles when idle. My CPU temps did rise so it just may be that the machine is overheating.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/10 "2004-01-15T18:15:08Z")
Cooling shouldn’t be a problem, there’s space around the case for air to move, the fan’s as unobstructed as can be, though maybe the dust is the problem. There’s not too much dust on it, though, the case/casefan is fairly new.
It’s not the power, unless my UPS is failing.
Time to check the BIOS and play with the case. Then maybe keep the screensaver off and see if I can get it to shut down.
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### Author:  [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/11 "2004-01-15T18:25:49Z")
It could still be a heat problem… most modern PC’s (maybe all) have TWO fans. One for the whole case (the one you see in the back of the box) and one mounted on the CPU itself, which you DON’T see from the outside.
The phenomenon you have described is exactly what will happen if your CPU fan has died.
If you are brave, take the back of the computer and have a look-see at the CPU fan. See if it ever starts working.
Or, take it in to be checked. I don’t know how much a tech-hour costs where you live. But the fan itself shouldn’t be too exoensive (on the order of \< $25, I think fron my experience)
Hope this helps
Dani
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### Author:  [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/12 "2004-01-15T20:15:11Z")
THEORY: The extreme CPU load of SETI@home is causing your machine to overheat, triggering a non-software shutdown.
EXPERIMENT:
1. Leave your computer off overnight. First thing in the morning, boot it up and start running SETI@home. Measure the time, from a cold start, your computer takes to turn off. If possible, set your BIOS to “beep” when your computer begins to overheat, so you don’t have to sit in a room with it.
2. Repeat this two more times to get a mean, or proceed to (3) if you’re in hurry.
3. Leave your computer off overnight. First thing in the morning, boot it up and start running SETI@home. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and use the Task Manager to set the thread priority of the SETI@home client either higher or lower (higher will give you quicker results, but may be worse for your machine). Measure the time, from a cold start, your computer takes to initiate auto-shutdown. If you have set the thread priority lower, it’s possible the machine will _not_ auto-shutdown.
RESULTS:
If the computer took longer to shut down or did not shut down after step (3), then the problem is overheating. Otherwise, the problem is not overheating, and you should begin piecewise killing processes that might be causing problems.
CONCLUSIONS:
If overheating is the problem, consider (a) not running SETI@home, (b) running it at a lower priority, or © increasing the cooling and ventilation of your system.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/13 "2004-01-15T20:39:02Z")
I just checked the temperatures. MB is at 131, CPU is at 161 (all temperatures are Farenheit). The sites I checked indicated that that was well below the maxes for CPU and MoBo. I’ll hafta try **Jurph** ’s 'speriment.
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### Author:  [@Madness2MyMethod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madness2MyMethod)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-computer-question/224564/14 "2004-01-15T20:41:06Z")
> [@GMRyujin](#):
>
> My computer’s clean. Ad-aware, Spybot, Norton, all report nada.
>
> Here’s the issue. When I wander away from my computer, it shuts down after an hour or so. I usually turn on my SETI@home screensaver, otherwise, nothing else is running. But it shuts down without me telling it to. I’m running Windows XP Pro with all the latest patches, etc. I’ve checked in the Power Management section of my Control Panel, and it’s set to a Home/Office Desk power scheme, with Turn Off Monitor, Turn Off Hard Disks, and System Standby all set to Never. Hibernate is not enabled. I haven’t changed any settings in my BIOS or downloaded anything recently.
>
> This one’s got me stumped.
Look and see what processes are running in the task manager. Disable everything but the essentials, disconnect all network cables. Then disable the “Automatically Reboot” option in the startup and recovery menu (right-click my computer, go to properties, go to Advanced tab, click startup and recovery). Now if windows crashes, you get to see the pretty little “Blue screen of death” rather than a nice automatic reboot leaving you wondering what the F just happened (this “feature” is enabled by default). The blue screen of death can give you an idea as to what is causing the crash. Now I’d play the waiting game to see if it crashes again. If it doesn’t crash, then some crap you have running in the background is the culprit. If it does crash (without a blue screen), I’d suspect overheating, or virii. If it crashes with a blue screen of death, suspect windows. that’s how i’d approach it.