A computer conundrum - sudden powerfailures

Captain Uglyhead

I'm accessing this site using safe mode from the administrator account on this pc. I first noticed the problem a couple of weeks ago, when the machine was suffering sudden power-losses without warning. I tried as many tricks as I could, virus scans and spyware scans, reverting to months-old system restore points, but it didn't work. Even if I logged into my regular account in safemode the power losses would occur. They eventually started happening sooner and sooner, within 15 or 20 minutes of startup, making it even more difficult to try to diagnose or fix things. Only just today did I think to try using the administrator account, before giving this machine up as lost.

For a while I thought it was a hardware problem, the power supply dying or something, because I managed to do a scan and remove some trojans when I first noticed the powerdowns, and thought that if they were the cause, the powerdowns should have stopped there. But it can't be a hardware problem, because the computer has been functioning for about an hour now in this administrator account, as I tried doing more scans and checks, with no power losses.

I reupdated my scanning tools just now and removed some more trojans, but I did that once before and it didn't solve the problem.

I'm going to log off admin now, to check if the power failures still happen even in my regular account's safe mode. Wish me luck. I just thought I'd post this up in case that doesn't do the trick.

Other notes: I updated my drivers soon after I noticed the power losses, thinking that it might help. It didn't. It's possible that the source of the problem may still be in my video card/video card software, because this admin account seems to use basic software rendering as opposed to my regular video card, so maybe that's what's letting the computer stay on long enough to let me post this at all.

MurphysParadox

Power failures are often the result of overheating of some component of the system. You could try pulling the system out into the fresh air and removing the side of the case to allow better air flow. Unfortunately, if this is a brand new event, it could be due to a failure on some piece of hardware (perhaps a cooling fan or heatsink connection) that is causing it to overheat. Alternatively, though less likely, it could be a temperature sensor is on the fritz.

Depending on the motherboard and graphics card and CPU, you may be able to find various pieces of software that can jack into the temperature readings and show you the numbers.

Fizban140

It could be a bad power supply check out your BIOS and see if anything is off, over or under.

If it isn't that it probably is overheating, make sure to clean out all of the fans pretty good. They can fill up with dust pretty quick.

Powerpuppies

This also happens if the cpu is not securely fastened to the motherboard. Did you do any hardware work shortly before the first power loss?

Captain Uglyhead

I recently used a co2 sprayer to blow some dust out of the fans and such, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try some more. There was another power failure in safe mode.

The possibility of it being a heat issue seems real again, though I had originally discounted it. The pc seems to stay on for longer if it is allowed to sit for a while after losing power, "cooling down" so to speak. I'll keep checking and trying things.

What do you mean by off, over or under, fizban? I've checked the bios a couple of times, but I'm not all that familiar with this kind of diagnosing work. Do you mean the voltage monitors? I think they seemed a little bit lower than their stated numbers, but I don't know if that's normal or not.

What kinds of temperatures are considered "normal" too, while we're talking about bios monitors?

Better post this before the power goes again.

Captain Uglyhead

alright, i rechecked the bios for temperatures and voltages and stuff

The cpu temp started at 43 degrees celsius, and kept rising. This seems a bit high.

The MB temp started at 12 degrees celsius and rose a little bit.

VCore voltage was around 1.360/1.376
3.3V was around 3.280
5V was around 4.945
12V was around 12.352

Are these values the source of the trouble, do you suppose?

Captain Uglyhead

After further observations, cpu temp climbed up to around 89 degrees celsius. This really may be the source of my problems. I've downloaded a program called Speedfan to try to help me evaluate this further.