My computer turns off when starting up

[Harbourboy]

My PC is about 18 months old. Over the last few weeks it has started doing something wierd. Sometimes, within a few minutes of starting up, it turns itself off and starts starting up all over again.

This only happens when starting up. If it makes it past the first 10 minutes, then it will happily stay on all day. This is very annoying.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[illram]

Try running memtest. It's a new computer but that problem sounds like similar troubles I've had in the past with faulty RAM. Or, your BIOS might have built in diagnostics that you can access at startup to test stuff. Try those.

 

[Chieftess]

Dead CPU fan, maybe? (or you might need a new power supply - the same thing happened to me once).

 

[Rheinmetall]

Dried electrolyte capacitors on motherboard might also cause aforementioned problems. (Unstable CPU voltage)

 

[Harbourboy]

Thanks for the ideas, but what do I do about it? Take it to a shop?

 

[GenMarshall]

Hopefully your computer is still under warranty since they can repair it at no cost.

 

[Rheinmetall]

Ask the shop. Different components may have different warranty periods.

 

[Strider]

Heatsink may have come loose also. There are, quite literally, dozens of possible reasons for your problem.

 

[warpus]

start > control panel > administrative tools > event viewer

check system and application logs

 

[Harbourboy]

I got a vacuum cleaner and cleaned a lot of dust from inside the box, and it seems to be working better now. Stupid dust.

 

[ainwood]

If heat is your problem (sounds like it), then I would suggest trying Motherboard monitor. It can detect and monitor temperatures on most motherboard (especially one that is only 18 months old).

Plus, try to keep the amount of dust in your rooms down a bit!

 

[Harbourboy]

It was only ever a problem within 10 minutes of starting up. It never turned off in the middle of the day, only at the start.

It's amazing how shiny the computer looks now though.

 

[Harbourboy]

That Event Viewer doesn't seem to show anything interesting, other than showing all the startup programs starting up multiple times (each time the PC restarted itself).

 

[ainwood]

What you could also do is:

1. Open the control panel.
2. Open system
3. Click the advanced tab.
4. In the startup and recovery section, click the settings button.
5. Under system failure, make sure that automatically restart is not checked.

This will mean that if there is a hardware failure, you will get a blue screen of death rather than an automatic reboot. It makes it easier to see info about what has failed.

 

[lutzj]

YAY! Nothing like having a problem so serious you need to initiate a BSOD just to diagnose it!

 

[warpus]

YAY! Nothing like having a problem so serious you need to initiate a BSOD just to diagnose it!

Hey, 2 months ago I had to do that very thing.. wait for my computer to BSOD, write down the codes, then reboot and analyze the memory dump files with a program that consumed a lot of my time but didn't help at all.

 

[Harbourboy]

Now my power supply fan makes this constant clicking noise. Do you think that could be related? It's almost more annoying than the shut down / restart dramas.

 

[ainwood]

Try cleaning all the dust and other stuff off it. But don't pull the PSU apart to do that, and make sure its unplugged from the wall first!

SOunds like you really need to get your PC into a low-dust environment. How often do you vacuum clean your house / room?

 

[Harbourboy]

I did brave the inside of my PC and give it a good vacuum the other day. Now the noise of the power supply fan is even worse. It sounds like a bored prisoner rattling his enamel mug along the bars of his cell.

 

[El_Guappo]

It's odd that your PS fan started making noise after you vacuumed your case. It sounds to me like you may have inadvertently nudged a cable too close to your fan and it's getting tapped by the fan blade. You might want to open the case back up and take a peek, just to be sure.