Why Did My Computer Force Shut Down By Itself?

[CWB]

good idea ... getting excited never fixed nothing (just like the word "sorry") .

some strange things can happen and one can poke and prod until the cows come home and still be barking up the wrong tree .

(wow , two metaphors is the same sentence !)

 

about three years ago the machine i am using to write this on took a fit and started shutting down for no apparent reason .

i checked the swmps , ram , HDD , etc ... nothing .

i even popped another HD in and reloaded the OS ... same ol' song and dance .

i put the old drive back in and the machine shut down 4 or 5 more times and has run fine ever since .

[blackdove83]

Kind of mysterious to me still. Perhaps the power button itself is mechanically broken and intermittently sends a shutdown signal? The header to the switch on the motherboard?

Could be a small hardware failure like that i guess.

I would personally re run malwarebytes antirootkit and get the latest malicious software removal tool from www.microsoft.com and run a quick scan.

[daledoc1]

I would personally re run malwarebytes antirootkit and get the latest malicious software removal tool from www.microsoft.com and run a quick scan.

 

The OP just finished up working with AdvancedSetup over in the malware removal section.

 

daledoc1

[Anne__Burns]

Way back at message #'s 21 and 22 I did use a rootkit tool and nothing suspicious came up. This thread is 4 pages long and I got a lot of suggestions which I did follow through with. If it is something like, as blackdove suggested, a faulty power button I will take a wait and see approach for now. Thanks to all. 

[Anne__Burns]

Hello,

 

I finally found the answer to the sudden shut downs. It is a key board short cut!!!! On the top row of keys, on the right side of the keyboard next to the function keys are three keys. The first one is Power, second is Sleep, and the third is Wake Up (at least on my keyboard).

 

I even used the key and the machine shut down suddenly as it always did. On the second row with the numbers on the end is the key for Back Space. It is close enough to the Power key that I was probably hitting the power key instead .

 

Problem solved!

 

Anne

[John L. Galt]

Glad you found out the problem.  It's one that most of us would not have thought of right off the bat, unless one of us had a KB with a similar layout as yours.

 

Now that you know, you could look in your KB settings (assuming it came with its own drivers and / or customization software) to disable that particular function if you so desire.

 

I think Ron can finally close this thread out too

 

Happy surfing!

[Anne__Burns]

Hello John,

 

Yes! I think we can say- case closed.

 

Anne

[CWB]

you are making progress ; two "problems" sorted out .

 

yep ... sometimes i wonder about the guys who figure out which-button-goes-where .

the positioning on laptops of the "delete" key is one of my pet peeves ... it is usually *somewhere* in the upper right quadrant ... grrrr .

[Anne__Burns]

Hello,

 

Misplaced keys make me go 'grrrr' too CWB..

 

John- I looked at my keyboard settings window and did not see anything regarding disabling the Power button on my keyboard, but thanks for the suggestion,

 

Anne 

[CWB]

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-change-the-way-the-power-button-behaves-in-.html

 

i set my power options on my laptop to shut down when i press the power button .

you may want to set yours to "ask me what i want to do" .

 

i also have my laptop set to "sleep" when i close the lid .

this seems to have been a problem with your machine in the past .

to ensure a *real* shutdown , make sure that you do not close the lid until the machine is indeed "shut down" .

elsewise , the "sleep" function , when it works , is great for saving battery life on a short term basis .

 

also ... i believe there is an option to turn off the display when the lid is closed , you definitely want this to happen .

 

some manufacturers put in those customized "power option" programs that are for the most part redundant and get in the road of the windows power/button options .

if you have this option installed/activated on your laptop you will/may have to use it to set up the options .

[Anne__Burns]

Hello CWB,

 

For a thread that was ready to be closed we're still taking care of business.

 

I went to the Dummies website and promptly bookmarked the website for further use. Thank you for sending me there and leading me to the solution to my power button dilemma.

 

My laptop is good to go. Even with the lid up, the machine goes to sleep if it is inactive for about 8-10 minutes. 

 

Anne

[CWB]

i am glad you found the site useful if not entertaining .

[Anne__Burns]

Entertaining and useful. What more can you ask for? 

[ffwfire]

Hate to tell you this, but your PSU fan is not the main fan.  If the fan on your CPU cooler is not working, it will cause the CPU to overheat and shut down - and yes, that will be via the motherboard, which will (usually) send a shutdown code to the operating system to shut down.

 

The PSU fan has not been the main / only fan in the computer since back in the days of the original generation Pentium CPUs.  I'm talking mid 90s at the earliest, and certainly 15 years ago. (1999, just before the rise of Windows XP).

 

 

He said it was the main fan and believe me when that thing wasn't working I felt the top of the computer and it was really really hot.  The computer was a Windows XP which was purchased in 2004.  Believe me without that fan working inside the computer everything was hot.

[John L. Galt]

And I'm telling you it was not.  You replaced the main fan and the problem did not go away until you replaced the PSU, correct?

 

The CPU fan keeps the CPU cooled off, dissipating heat built up from the CPU.  The PSU (usually, certainly in most PSUs nowadays) has it's own fan that attempts to keep the PSU components kewl is most PSUs as well.

 

However, in really older computers, such as yours, it is possible that there was, in fact, only a single fan (hard to believe, as my 1997 Pentium Pro 200 MHz from HP had 3 fans in it by itself, but I suppose some manufacturers did skimp to on proper cooling).

[CWB]

cooling in older comps ...

i have an *old* dell desktop that is reminiscent of a pop-up toaster (W '95 OS) that has but one fan in totality .

this fan sucks air in from the outside world , cools the swmps and then this air is used to cool the cpu and finally exits the case , removing some of the heat generated by the motherboard .

there is no case fan per se .

i don't feel like digging through the bone-pile in shed #2 to get the model number .

[ffwfire]

And I'm telling you it was not.  You replaced the main fan and the problem did not go away until you replaced the PSU, correct?

 

The CPU fan keeps the CPU cooled off, dissipating heat built up from the CPU.  The PSU (usually, certainly in most PSUs nowadays) has it's own fan that attempts to keep the PSU components kewl is most PSUs as well.

 

However, in really older computers, such as yours, it is possible that there was, in fact, only a single fan (hard to believe, as my 1997 Pentium Pro 200 MHz from HP had 3 fans in it by itself, but I suppose some manufacturers did skimp to on proper cooling).

Wrong after the power supply was changed the problem went away.

[ffwfire]

We only replaced the power supply only and that corrected the problem.  We didn't touch anything else.

 

Sorry I don't see an edit button.

[daledoc1]

All:

 

As the OP's problem was long ago resolved, and as this topic has now drifted off-topic, the mod team will likely be locking it soon.

 

Thanks everyone,