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New Problem: PC Shutting down Randomly
RMS Oceanic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A bit of a story behind this one: On Monday my PC wouldn't turn on. Tried different plugs, different leads, nada. I took it to a computer shop, and they confirmed my suspicions that the PSU was borked, so they replaced it.
But then on Tuesday, after having it on for two hours, the computer shut off entirely. And then it happened again after one hour. And then thirty minutes. I suspected something was overheating. The computer shop again confirmed it: The thermal paste around my CPU had cracked and it was overheating, so they offered to replace it. For reasons unknown it took two days for them to get the paste despite apparently having a warehouse, but I digress.
I got the computer back 90 minutes ago, and when it turns on the Motherboard Splash Screen (An Asus P5K 87, incidentally) doesn't go away. Pressing delete for Setup or Tab for BIOS Post Message does nothing, even with a wired keyboard. Upon further inspection I found a disc with "Hirens 10.1" in the disc drive, which googling has revealed its identity as a Linux Platform of some sort.
(Also full disclosure, it was raining when I moved my PC from the car to the house, and while I was careful trying to avoid water getting in anywhere, I felt it may be a factor)
So does anyone have a clue what's happened? Is it whatever the computer guy did with Hiren, could water cause something like that without causing a short circuit, or is my motherboard borked?
But then on Tuesday, after having it on for two hours, the computer shut off entirely. And then it happened again after one hour. And then thirty minutes. I suspected something was overheating. The computer shop again confirmed it: The thermal paste around my CPU had cracked and it was overheating, so they offered to replace it. For reasons unknown it took two days for them to get the paste despite apparently having a warehouse, but I digress.
I got the computer back 90 minutes ago, and when it turns on the Motherboard Splash Screen (An Asus P5K 87, incidentally) doesn't go away. Pressing delete for Setup or Tab for BIOS Post Message does nothing, even with a wired keyboard. Upon further inspection I found a disc with "Hirens 10.1" in the disc drive, which googling has revealed its identity as a Linux Platform of some sort.
(Also full disclosure, it was raining when I moved my PC from the car to the house, and while I was careful trying to avoid water getting in anywhere, I felt it may be a factor)
So does anyone have a clue what's happened? Is it whatever the computer guy did with Hiren, could water cause something like that without causing a short circuit, or is my motherboard borked?
RMS Oceanic on
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So on the offchance you have the exact same issue I would say try unplugging every USB device and booting it up then.
I doubt the rain did anything unless like it was a full blown thunderstorm and you had to walk miles - but it is always a possibility I guess.
Now, if it were my computer I would unplug any IDE / SATA components and then try and power it on to see what happens - but the fact you went to a repair shop in the first place makes me think you probably won't be comfortable doing stuff like that, right?
Phoning them was Plan A, but they're closed for the day.
Yeah, I don't feel experienced enough to handle the innards of a computer.
Disconnected just about everything to rule out the USB problem, no change.
The only thing I can see is there is a card reader installed on it and it has two lights beneath its USB port, and they're constantly lit up.
And they returned it like that? Didn't even attempt to show you?
Sitting at bios usually means there's no bootable media. Or the motherboard/cpu are going.
It's almost not worth repairing. Too bad you don't feel comfortable poking about RMS.
Take out your ram sticks, put one in, if you've got two, switch them and see if you can't get it to boot.
try reseating all of the components, starting with the RAM/Memory sticks, and then the PCI cards, one by one.
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I wouldn't put too much thought into the disk. Even if they completely hosed your OS, you should be able to get in to the BIOS, so I doubt the two are related.
I would guess one of two things:
1. Something isn't seated right. My first thought would be to check the cables from your PSU to your CPU, then the main MoBo connector, then check the RAM seating.
2. I could also conceivably see someone mucking with the voltages in the BIOS in a misguided attempt to prevent overheating and screwing everything up. You might want to consider a BIOS reset. (Can usually be achieved by pulling the battery if you can't get into the BIOS).
1. Hiren's Boot CD is a fantastic tool that I've used for years (Even in professional environments). It allows you to access programs and features without the need for an operating system or even a hard drive. It's basically a suite of free tools that you can boot into for troubleshooting and recovery. It can also be used for some very shady operations, so it really depends on the intent of the user.
2. Your CMOS/BIOS has been changed, or the hardware in your system has been changed. You need to reset the BIOS. If you're uncomfortable doing this yourself, you can ask the same computer shop that put you in this situation to do it for you. If you'd like to do this yourself, it's fairly simple. I've spoilered the steps due to pictures.
On the side of the socket where the battery is connected, there's a small metal clip that you can press away from the battery to pop it out. Once the battery is popped out, set it aside. Next, you will need to find the CMOS CLR Jumper. It will look like this:
It may or may not be near the CMOS battery. 99% of the time it is blue, just like in the picture. It will be a small plastic housing over 2 pins, with a 3rd pin exposed. Simply lift the jumper off of the pins and move it over, so that it's covering the middle pin and the other pin that wasn't covered before. Let it sit for at least 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, place the jumper back in the original position, then pop the battery back in the socket. (The battery will be positive side up, or flat side up, either/or)
Once you've done this, the system SHOULD start back up and alert you to a cleared or changed CMOS and prompt you to press F1 to continue, or F2/DEL to enter CMOS to change your settings such as date and time.
Additional Edit: If this doesn't work, then it's most definitely a hardware failure related to the motherboard, RAM, or CPU. Some people above have mentioned card readers and USB devices. This can sometimes stop a system from booting properly, but after having someone run Hiren's on your computer as well as replacing 'cracked thermal compound'...I would highly doubt this.
The PC is shutting down entirely at random: Can be 2 minutes, can be 8-16 hours, or anything in between. Naturally I'm monitoring my CPU temperatures, but they're stable at 38-42°C. I took it to my computer shop and they didn't spot the problem happening over four days.
At one point after a shut down, it took thirty seconds before the PC would turn on again. Coincidentally, I noticed a new thing: When the computer wouldn't turn on, the sb_pwr light was off entirely. When I first started having problems (see OP), that light just blinked until the PSU was replaced. Once the light came on I could turn the PC on, but I kept an eye on that light. Sure enough, next time it shut down I managed to get a half-second glimpse of the light being off before turning on.
So is this a new quibble with the PSU, or is this more indicative of a motherboard problem? I've tried switching plugs around and which plug in my multitap I use, but that doesn't appear to address the problem. Also my Google-fu only reveals cases where the sb_pwr light blinks.
Now it works great!
I had a similar problem that was found to be caused by a defective graphics card that (I believe) screwed the motherboard - (the card was eventually reported as defective, but by that time the motherboard got to the point it wouldn't power on for more than 1 second).
Probably the next step to take, if you're going back to the same repair place, is to leave it with them for 24 hours and they can keep it on and an eye on it (I've done it with a PC, heck I did it with a car once to figure out it's ignition problems).