A couple of days ago my other PC started shutting itself down for no apparent reason. There seems no particular rhyme or reason to when it did it but it has got much worse. Now on this PC I have 2 hdds with different operating systems on them, and I managed to switch over from the bios screen during boot up but the problem is repeating itself on the alternative OS.
I am wondering if this is more likely to be a hardware fault such as a faulty power pack or if it could be a virus. I cannot even get the PC to get beyond the first 60 seconds of booting before it shuts down now, on the last attept it asked me for the wondoze installation disc because of a corrupt boot file.
This happened to my old comp, it might be overheating since mine starting shutting down randomly around summer time. Or your PC is dirty because I never, NEVER cleaned mine because I never knew I had to lol…
It’s possible. Run a boot time scan if you can to see if avast can find anything else wrong with your computer. A Malwarebytes scan and SAS scan might help find “baddies” too.
Shutting off randomly is often a heat or power supply issue, as indicated by previous posts.
Make sure the heatsinks and fans are clean, and if you’re handy with a voltage meter, you might try hooking it up to a molex connector on your computer, running some processor-intensive programs and watching the voltage.
There are power supply testers available too, but I usually use the old voltage meter method, as I don’t know if the power supply testers are accurate or not. I haven’t purchased one yet to find out…
I don’t know if you’re familiar with what a capacitor looks like, they are round and cylindrical in shape. It sort of looks like a big tic-tac, only with a flat top.
If you open your computer case, and look at the capacitors, (specifically near the CPU), and find any that are “ballooned” or not quite flat anymore, then your motherboard may be going bad. I used to work for Unisys, which was a company that did on-site service for Dell, and the GX270 models were known for that sort of thing.
Just a thought…
EDIT It’s not just Dell GX270’s that are known for this, I was just using it as an example. There are MANY other motherboards, and video cards that have this problem. Just check all capacitors that you see. If there is any kind of “powder” or liquid coming from the top of any ballooned capacitors, it’s probably bad.
One more thing to add to what everyone else said, I wouldn’t recommend using a vacuum unless it’s made for computer use as it might cause a problem with ESD (electrostatic discharge) which can fry a motherboard, A can of commpressed air would be a much better choice.
After cleaning, start the computer with the case open and make sure all the fans are working. I’ve seen a bad fan cause the same problems your having.
I’ve found that using a “Stinger” wet/dry vac (available at Home Depot for about $40 I think) with a hose in the “blow” hole, not the “suck hole” with a 1/4" adapter blows dust to HECK and back off of the components.
I use them to clean my clients school computers every summer, and it works FANTASTIC!
Of course, if you only have one computer to clean, a can of pressure duster will do the trick, but be sure to use short bursts with the can upright. Don’t let the can get very cold, and don’t let “frost” come out of the can (by turning it upside-down).