Computer shuts down by itself
"Lately my computer has been shutting down and rebooting for no apparent reason. When it restarts, it usually says it has recovered from a serious error. It SEEMS to happen when I am using my computer to listen to music."
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Baby, It's Hot in There
Most likely this is an overheating situation. Itunes, RealPlayer, Windows Media player, etc. require a lot of processing power to decompress and decode music files, which can cause the system to get hot.
If your CPU is running at over 60 degrees you might be at risk of burning it out. Some systems shut down automatically when the temperature reaches an unsafe level.
Every few weeks I open my system unit and clean the fins on the heat sink that sits under the CPU. When they collect dust it restricts the airflow and prevents proper cooling. I just did that on my system and the CPU temperature dropped by ten degrees!
Download the free Speedfan utility and it will tell you the temperature at which your CPU and hard drives are running.
Help, my memory is failing me!
If you determine that overheating is not the problem, the most likely suspect is bad memory. The best way to find the culprit is to pop open the system unit, remove (or replace) one RAM stick and see if the problem is solved. Run your system for a while and if the problem goes away, you win!
If not... lather, rinse and repeat for each RAM stick until you find the one that's misbehaving.
Posted by Bob Rankin on June 29, 2005 08:02 PM
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Most recent comments on "Computer shuts down by itself"
(See all 33 comments for this article.)|
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Why does my computer shut down and restart when I put DVD’s into my drive to record onto. Never used to do this before. It’s nothing to do with the computer heating up as it can be on all day then as soon as the disk is placed in the drawer it shuts down and reboots. EDITOR'S NOTE: I would re-install the software driver for the DVD drive. |
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I had a similar problem with my computer randomly shutting down. I replaced the Power Supply, RAM, HD, Video Card, Motherboard and CPU to no avail. |
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Hey my problem is also quite similar to the other people. My laptop ussually works quite fine. However every time i play a particular game (warcraft 3) for abit, my laptop just shuts down by itself. It doesn't shut down when im doing anything else on my laptop. It only occurs when i play that game. I have tried reformating my laptop and reinstalling the game. Just wondering if any one that has had this problem, help me out please! |
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Hey, my computer also had similar problems with all of yours. I had been playing a game for quite a few weeks and nothing had happened to my computer, but one day the screen suddenly just turned black. The light on the CPU was still on, but when I pressed the start button, there was no reaction. I had to hold it for a very long time before it went off and I could turn it on again. When it was turned on, the appearance of my computer had changed into Windows Classic mode I couldn't change it back. It continued to turn off at random intervals and today I saw this website and did a system restore, which actually worked. My computer is back to a normal xp interface. I'm not sure if it will continue shutting down, I sincerely hope not, but just wanted to share this with you guys in case any of you were stuck with windows classic mode too =/ |
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The Speedfan utility froze my computer and it crashed. EDITOR'S NOTE: It could have been some interaction between Speedfan and your computer, but it sounds like you have bigger problems. For now, assume that you DO have a high temp and try the other suggestions. |
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my computer started to shut down by itself for no specific reason, i did everything i even opened the powersupply case , for now it works for about 15 mins before it shuts down, anything you can suggest my card is "heat tube" radeon 1300" not the card , i dont wana screw up my computer or damage it more . thanks |
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My computer also started just shutting itself down. Like at random moments. Like sometimes it would do it once then other times twice at one time. I leave the side of the computer off. Is that bad? Does it cause it to get dustier? Which is bad? I scanned my computer with PC Doc Pro and it said I had 500 errors also. Some where serious. I really don't know how to great rid of them. I gotta buy PC Doc Pro for it to work right. EDITOR'S NOTE: When you say the "side" of the computer, I assume you mean the computer itself, rather than the monitor. That should not pose a problem with dust. Also, I've never heard of PC Doc Pro, and would be very skeptical of it. Try a spyware or anti-virus program from a well-known vendor. See http://askbobrankin.com/should_i_buy_antispyware_or_antivirus_software.html and http://askbobrankin.com/free_virus_scan.html for help there. |
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My computer was shutting down and rebooting by itself for no reason, one time during reboot it windows identified the problem as being caused by an update, then it shutdown again, on reboot it said the error that time was caused by the antivirus, that being Norton 360, I had updated Norton just that morning, I believe the problem was caused by a dodgy update, anywho to fix the problem I uninstalled and reinstalled Norton and as of yet today the problem hasn't occurred. |
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my desktop acer Aspire shut down twice this morning after i was on MSN hotmail chat? it did an automatic shut down and auto start up with scan boot (check disk for consistentcy? win fat...???) |
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My computer shuts down at 5pm everyday. It started this about a few weeks ago. It can run all day and then at 5pm it shuts down. It is not hot I have a gauge that shows me the temp. I checked the power control and everything is set not to shut down. What could be the problem? EDITOR'S NOTE: Do you get any messages prior to the shutdown? Does it just go "poof" or does it do a normal shutdown? It could be something in a power profile causing the computer to hibernate. Look in Control Panel for the Power Options (under Performance and Maint). |
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