Computer shutting down - tracing the cause
 

This week I have been leaving my pc on during the day for use as a recorder through a tv capture card. However, twice now i have come home and find that it has turned itself off for no apparent reason. Is there some sort of application I can use to track what is happening at the time to see what is causing this?

Cheers

David

Run a full virus scan (also the sasser tools) as it may be something nasty like that. Then go from there (PSU maybe if the PC does not come back up cleanly ?)

Dave

possibly an overheating issue. Can/do you monitor CPU and case temps? Is the CPU heatsink fitted correctly?

Next time you leave it on all day remove the cover and point a desktop fan at it to see if that has any effect.

if its overheating (and it is the time of year for this to happen) then you may want to look at this thread which is very recent...
http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...0&goto=newpost

A couple of thoughts:

1) Does this still happen if the TVC card is not running? I ask because they are notorious for causing problems.

2) At least as likely as heat is power problems. First of all, does the BIOS tell the comp to restart or shut down in the event of a power loss? Make sure it is set to "auto" or "last state". What are the full specs of the comp, and what PSU does it have?


In general heat usually makes computers lock up rather than shut down. And assuming you aren't overclocking then you are VERY unlikely to be getting near the temps needed to cause real problems. Not impossible though, and you should certainly try running with the case side off first.


M

Have just installed motherboard monitor on the pc in question and the cpu is running at 72 degrees celsius - is this a bad thing? :D

Think I may have just found the problem, mbm popped up to say the cpu fan had reached a speed of "0 rpm" which is below the specified limit, opened up the case and the cpu fan isnt spinning! gave it a nudge and its away again and temperatures have dropped to 30 degrees

72 is not good

me thinks you need a new fan. . . . .

as a temp fix, cleaning it out - or as a last resourt stick it in the dishwaher (make sure it's VERY dry) - make sure you power it up on something other than your PC (12 volts tho) just to make sure it's not shorting.

60mm or 80mm are cheap as chips from www.ebuyer.com

Which OS is it?

If it is Win2k / XP then use event viewer to see if anything has crashed and caused the PC to shut down?

72 degrees is too hot need more cooling fans