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Spontaneous Shutdowns

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rgm:
(SOLVED) Last September we had a long session with my Windows 7 problems, including Windows Update not updating and no Restore Points.  I got busy and didn't have a chance to respond to your last message (I think); sorry.  Anyhow, over the next two or three months, Windows started seemingly repairing itself, until it finally was working "normally" again.

More recently, my computer has been spontaneously shutting down — suddenly turning off the power completely, not the typical Windows crash or restart.  It did it in the middle of my long message here earlier, so I am now writing from Safe Mode, which seems to be working a lot better, which is a hint, I think, as to the problem.  I thought before maybe it was a PC issue, as my fan (I think) has been running loud (It doesn't seem to be on at all in Safe mode!  ??).

Anyhow, I've run tweaking.com's Windows Repair from Safe Mode, done a few chkdsk's (which run overnight and longer), scanned with Norton, Malwarebytes, SUPERAntiSpyware, a Registry repair, etc., but the spontaneous shutdowns seem to be getting more frequent.  Sometimes Windows seems to get slower and slower and then PC Off!!  Sometimes Windows stops altogether and then PC Off!!  Sometimes I go away for an hour or so and come back to the PC off!  Sometimes it seems to happen when I have several windows and/or programs open at once, but I don't think that's always the case.

When I was typing this before Safe Mode, the typing wouldn't keep up with me, and then PC Off!  It's typing as fast as I can type now, so I'm guessing you're going to tell me to try shutting down all programs that start automatically and then, if the PC doesn't shut off, start adding them back until it happens again.  However, I'm still going to ask, can Windows power off the PC like that?  Are there any other issues that could be doing it?
Thanks,

Richard

P.s. I put together an image of the items in the msconfig Start Up list and came back to attach it.

Boggin:
It sounds like an overheating problem.

If you are using a desktop pc then you should be able to see the temps in the BIOS but while in Safe Mode with Networking, download the free version of HWMonitor and that will show your temps as well as voltages.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

With a desktop pc, it can also be caused by a faulty Power Supply Unit (PSU).

Their output can be measured with a multimeter, but not having a desktop pc or ever having done that - not sure of the procedure.

In HWMonitor check that the 12, 5 and/or 3 volt rails are about those values.

You can run the program in Safe Mode to see what they are and compare in normal mode if you can stay on that long to start the program.

BTW - You don't need any programs under the Startup tab unless they are security monitoring programs - they'll work fine when you boot them up as required and then you won't be unnecessarily using up memory and power.

rgm:
Thanks.  I thought I had resolved the issue by disabling everything in msconfig's startup section and then just adding the basic things I wanted to the Startup folder.  This worked fine until today, when I had several IE windows open, Dreamweaver open with two files, FileZilla open with two tabs, and a couple of Notepad files open, and maybe Windows Mail.  Everything was going fine; I'd accomplished all my work and was writing an e-mail to a client about it, and the computer turned off.  (I am installing the monitor program now to check temps; I'm not sure how to find BIOS for temps.  ??)

Anyhow, my question becomes, does running a lot of programs at the same time increase the temperature of the computer????

Thanks again,

Richard

Boggin:
Well you are increasing the load the more windows you have open, but right click on the task bar and open Task Manager/Performance to see what your CPU and Memory are using.

rgm:
I took the side off my PC to see whether that would help cool it off before I downloaded and ran the monitor, so my temps may not be the same as they were with the side off; however, the last time it turned itself off, the side was off.  I did two monitor screenshots yesterday, one in Safe Mode and one in regular mode; then this morning, before turning on the computer, I dusted and vacuumed the insides and fans as much as I could, sprayed WD-40 into the fans (some dust puffed out!), and then ran the monitor after turning on the computer.  But I can't really get much out of the results (see attached comparison of all three test results side by side).

I usually have Task Manager running all the time, as it seems to help keep programs from freezing (my imagination?) and especially because I often need to End Task or End Process, really, Internet Explorer's extra iexplore.exe *32's to get the only page really there to work and sometimes end other frozen programs.  I know the memory and CPU is high when I have a lot of programs running.  However, I'm still unclear as to why the computer turns itself off.  In the past, having too many windows and programs open at the same time just froze the computer or occasionally crashed it with a memory dump, but it never used to turn off the power.  Can the CPU/memory overload actually shut off the PC?  Could it be there is a spot on the disk that somehow triggers shutoff? — Once or twice, Malwarebytes has gotten almost to the end of a long scan and then OFF!  And I think a Windows Essentials repair may have done that yesterday.  And it seems to me I have had that happen with another scanning program.  (I've done the chkdsk with the option to remove files from bad sectors, and it claims to fix errors it finds or that it hasn't found errors, so it would seem unlikely that there's a glitch on the drive.  On the other hand, sometimes it takes *forever* for Windows to get to the sign-in screen; sometimes it just freezes and I have to restart it.  Then other times it's just zip-zip sign-in/load.)

So in summary, three questions:
1. Can the CPU/memory overload actually shut off the PC power?
2. Could it be there is a spot on the disk that somehow triggers shutoff?
3. Does increased CPU/memory use increase heat?

Thanks, again.

Richard

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