Well crap...

[chayton]

So I had a bit of an issue with my computer a little while ago but was able to get it working and get some of my files backed up. Since then it's been acting up, I'll be happily (or not so happily) going about my daily routine when the computer just shuts itself off for no apparent reason. And then it's a bit of a hassle getting it to start back up.

I assumed that it was the power supply going, so today we popped out the power supply, took it down to the shop, bought a new one, came back and hooked it up......nothing. So possibly it wasn't the power supply after all. So now the computer is in the hospital and I pretty well can't do sweet FA until I get it back. Hopefully they can fix it and it's not the motherboard.

Anyhow, can anyone think of a reason other than the power supply that would cause something like that? There's no error or warning or anything - just boom black screen and the power light is out. Then it doesn't want to restart - the last couple times I was able to bring it back to life by forcing a keyboard error on startup, and usually then Windows would start up with no errors and it would run fine - until it shut down again. The last computer like this one I had the heatsink went and of course it's attached to the motherboard, so to replace it was more expensive than the computer was worth.

 

[dionysus]

Dying fan? Overheating? Do you have pets and apply compressed air to the fan to keep it clear?
All-in-one? Sometimes the cord in the back niggles out from the computer being jarred (mine does) like a cable connection not quite screwed in 'just' right?
Download music/movies/comics/porn? Maybe a virus?
gl though

 

[Swede]

Fan issues($10 to replace if you're capable and it seems you are) and overheating are very good guesses as the god of debauchery just mentioned. Fixing that in combination with a good cleaning solves most unexpected shutdown problems.

 

[incrediblestuff]

Remember i told you i had pc issues also?!
Mine is acting exactly the same! it is the worst when i use graphic programs, casinos and 3dgames, so i also figured it was the power supply, or the vid card, worse case scenario both.
I took them out and noticed the vid cards heat paste was totally burned to ash, and the power supply was in a metal case, which was welded shut , so i had too break two of the fan blades cause i saw a heap of dust that would make even a dust mite think twice
Well i cleaned that out and put everything back, and it helped a lot, but still reboots when i use more then one graphic program at a time
I think i should buy a new PWS and a vid card, but those were the most expensive [arts of my pc, and i dont have much to spare, so im avoiding it like the plague..
I also noticed that since then, the windows clock desymchromizes very wuickly, is that also the case with you?
That might be due to a bad memory parsec, or maybe my windows is slightly corrupted, or my cmos screwed.
Lol, it's still working just good enough for my daily dose of gambling, emailing and keeping up with some media
Let's hope we both hit a big one soon and throw the old bestids outta the window eh? ( pun intended )

 

[chayton]

I do clean it out fairly regularly since it's an old house with lots of dust and a long haired dog who sheds year round. Plus I'm a smoker and the computer sits in the same room as me. It was a little dusty inside but not too bad, and the fans all seem to be working, I had the side off last time I was able to boot it up and they all seemed to be running smoothly. We've already had to replace one of the fans a few months ago though. I've got decent virus protection and don't download movies or music and the closest thing I get to porn is playing Sneak-a-peek at MG!

Edit: "god of debauchery" lol...

 

[chayton]

Remember i told you i had pc issues also?!
Mine is acting exactly the same! it is the worst when i use graphic programs, casinos and 3dgames, so i also figured it was the power supply, or the vid card, worse case scenario both.
.....
Let's hope we both hit a big one soon and throw the old bestids outta the window eh? ( pun intended )

Mine shut down a couple of times just after waking up from sleep mode, once when I was losing in iNetBet, and a couple times just surfing the internet - once when I was logging in to casinomeister! It's never shut down when I've been working in Photoshop or Illustrator or watching youtube videos or playing at MG or anywhere else where the computer is actually doing something intensive. It's just weird.

Amen to winning the big one though, although I'm out of play money and can't play anything on this old laptop anyhow. Maybe you'll have to do the winning for both of us!

 

[anniemac]

I got nothing for ya, CindyLu.

Just lost 2 computers within a week doing the exact same thing. One was a little 10 inch HP notebook and it took it about a month to die. The other one was my big laptop. It got to where it wouldn't come on. Power was on and you could feel it trying to work but nothing. So off to the doctor I go with it. He blowed the thing out, said it was getting too hot cause it was clogged up. Worked for about a week and then turned up it's toes and died.

Took it to the Geek Squad and they said it was the video card and that it would cost more to repair than it was worth. It was only 5-6 years old. Can't imagine why he said that.

So, now I have a new laptop.

My suggestion, back up on disc everything you have if you ever get it to working again. I have pics on my old one that I have lost because my old one is really dead.

 

[chayton]

I actually have the hard drive from my previous computer hooked up as a slave drive on the one that just died, plus I've got my external drive with all sorts of backups. One day I imagine myself with a new computer with 14 old hard drives all connected to it somehow.

Anyhow the news from the computer hospital isn't good, they're pretty sure it's the motherboard, but I'll find out for sure tomorrow. If that turns out to be the case then it's bloody deja vu all over again.

So for the moment I have a borrowed laptop that's at least faster than what I have now, but I won't be able to install any of my graphics programs because the borrowed laptop is Windows 7 and all my stuff is for XP. So I'll be able to do email and surf the web but not be able do any work. Oh well it's not like I have any deadlines right now anyhow...but still it's a pisser. Maybe tomorrow they'll call and say, "oh wait, it's not the motherboard after all, it was just something simple."

 

[Balthazar]

Careful when playing casinos with laptops (especially entry-level ones). Flash will make your laptop work pretty hard (and it will become very hot if you're playing for long periods of time). I also broke a laptop the same way as all of you. At first it started freezing (obvious overheat) and then it went completely dead. It's not because it was "clogged", it's because MG killed it.

When you're playing online on laptops, after a while just put your hand under your laptop and see how hot it is. If it's too hot then you might want to take a break.

 

[chayton]

I'm typing this from the borrowed laptop, I actually quite like this machine, too bad I can't keep it. Windows 7 is pretty fast. Although it would get bogged down pretty quick with my stuff anyhow, but it's nice using something new even if it's just temporary! It's like when you're moving out of an apartment because it's too small and junky, then you get all your crap out of it and clean it and think, "Wow, this is a nice place, I'd like to live here!"

 

[anniemac]

I don't the gambling killed mine. I think old age did. LOL! But I'm sure that the hours it ran didn't help it any. It was just so strange that both died about the same time.

Never gambled on the little one. It was just mainly for travel and carrying around. It was newer than the big laptop I had.

What I think really killed both of them, we had been having alot of electricity surges for some reason about the time they started acting weird. Geeks told me that that could certainly contribute to the demise of computers. However, I don't think my electric company will see my point of view.

 

[kauphy]

chayton i had this happen to me and yes it was my fan i opened my computer blew it out real good cleaned the fan really really good and since then it has never happened again.

hope this helps.

 

[chayton]

Interestingly, when I packed up the computer the last time to take the whole thing into the shop I noticed that the plastic top of the thing looks like it's got a little dent right above the power supply - like the thing got really hot and melted the plastic almost. I didn't notice anything from the inside - although I wasn't really looking either. But the fact that there looked like this melted bit seemed to back up my theory that the power supply was overheating. But since I bought this computer second hand, maybe it was the second power supply already.

Anyhow...I'm off to download 32Red to see how it runs on this laptop and see if I can win a tourney. And after winning the tourney, I'll win more....then I'll win a progressive jackpot - then it will be new computers for everyone!

 

[maxd]

FWIW your problems sound very much like overheating to me. The shut-down-no-restart-until-later thing is (almost) a dead give-away that it's heat related.

As others have mentioned I've had probs like this in the past. Between a good cleaning, replacing the conducting cement between the CPU and its cooling fins, and improved+increased air-flow through the cabinet I haven't had those problems since. That was almost two years ago.

Motherboard? Maybe, but that sounds to me like tech talk for "no idea, let's start replacing parts". Of course it could be the MB and I'm just being a poop ... but in all my years of living on PCs -- that would be 25ish years (!) at this point -- my MB problems have all been of either the (a) "acting flaky, needed a good cleaning" variety, or (b) "WTF is wrong with this thing?"/"too many problems to list" variety, or the (c) "it's stone dead, time for a new computer" variety. When MBs tank they tend to go down hill pretty fast as opposed to lingering around with a bad cough.

Just my two cents, worth bugger all really since the trouble is in your hands and you need to deal with it. Good luck.

 

[chayton]

I am hoping you're right Max. Although my last computer they said it was the motherboard and sure enough they were right, once we pulled it out all the little capacitors or whatever they're called were actually all bulged out - like when Bugs Bunny ties a knot in the end of Elmer's rifle? But that computer was acting a lot different than this one before it went belly up and from just looking at the board it looks ok. I mean it's possible that it could be screwed without showing visible signs too. But I have my fingers crossed that it will be something simple - I need it to work for awhile longer....

Anyhow on another note....I had a hell of a time trying to install 32Red with Firefox. I'm pretty sure the issue is because the Flash player plugin isn't installed, but no luck trying to install that either! I can get them to download but then when I click the installer, there's just an invisible box and nothing happens. Finally I had to set IE as my default browser, install Flash, and then I got 32Red to install. I'm sure there's something I'm missing in the FF settings but it was frustrating me so much I went back to what I know. Is there a trick to installing stuff with FF?

 

[skiny]

I could just repeat everything Max said because that's what I was thinking before I read his post.

When a computer shuts off randomly it's almost always the safety built into the MB to keep anything from getting damaged when the cpu gets too hot. It's even more obvious if the longer you leave it off the longer it's able to stay on. That's just giving it time to cool.

I'm talking about just blinking off. No blue screens or messages. That's a different story.

I've had MBs go before but usually after frying something else like the power supply. If your other MB got so hot that it fried all the resisters or capacitors, the safety that's supposed to shut it off when it gets too hot might not have been working for some reason. I don't really know how they work.

Now that I think of it, my computer has 5 fans in it. Maybe I should check them.

 

[chayton]

This is interesting, just cleaning out my junk folder of Palace group spams again but this computer has a different antivirus and I see that two of the websites from that stupid spammer are being blocked as having malware. If it turns out that that's what caused my computer issue I'm going to be seriously pissed off. The only reason I was clicking on the links in the first place is to make sure the sites were still active so I could post them in that thread - theoretically so that they would actually do something about it.