Pc Start Up - Then Shuts Down Instantly

Percy1983

First thing is to hoover it out, unfortunately its near impossible to diagnose without a look myself.

You say its shutting down, is it blue screening first?

PeterPerfect

Automatic shutdown sounds more of a hardware issue. Overheating is one of the most usual, Make sure there is plenty of ventilation and that the internals are clean of dust and dirt. Problems with memory modules can cause a system to shutdown. Can you get into the system BIOS before any operating system?. Check out the event viewer logs for errors if you can get into the system. An exception in a program can cause a crash. But this is usually through a Blue Screen.

AirCooledHeaven

Does it manage to get into windows before it shuts down? If the CPU fan has gone kaput you should get about 3-4 minutes before the overheat shutdown kicks in, more than long enough to boot into windows. If it shuts down immediately within 30 seconds of switching on I'd be more inclined to think the PSU is faulty.

asininity

When I had this problem it was the motherboard, but the only way of finding out for definite is to troubleshoot it by taking it apart and building it back up one piece at a time till you find it.

The other way is replacing parts with spare known working ones, which you dont have. Either way its taking it apart.

ianjamie7

I cancelled the pc repair man and got the hoover out and cleaned the vents which were all completely blocked and after several attempts to get back online my Pc to my complete surprise loaded and is now working fine, so thanks for everyone who suggested using the hoover. I would never have thought of that but my pc now works a treat.

ianjamie7

Wig wrote: »

How long does it take to turn off after being left off over night? If it takes slightly longer to turn off then it's probably a cooling issue.

My PC did the same thing, I cleaned with a hoover inside and all the heat sinks (covered & clogged with dust), and I held the hoover nozzle over the CPU heatsink and turned the computer on, the computer stayed on because the hoover was drawing a load of heat away from the heatsink.

It worked fine after that.

You could look at getting a better CPU heatsink or CPU fan assuming it's not a laptop.

I cancelled the pc repair man and got the hoover out and cleaned the vents which were all completely blocked and after several attempts to get back online my Pc to my complete surprise loaded and is now working fine, so thanks for everyone who suggested using the hoover. I would never have thought of that but my pc now works a treat.

I spoke too soon.

Percy1983

Glad you got it sorted at no expense, it is the simply things sometimes.

Wig

Well done!

If you have a fan ontop of the CPU heatsink, you can, if you feel a little more adventurous, unscrew the fan from the heat sink, and clean underneath it with the hoover/tissue etc then screw the fan back into place. I remember now that I did this on mine to get at the dust underneath the fan.

ianjamie7

AirCooledHeaven wrote: »

Does it turn off and stay off or is it in a continuous shut down & restart loop?

Once it shuts down , it stays off.

ianjamie7

Percy1983 wrote: »

First thing is to hoover it out, unfortunately its near impossible to diagnose without a look myself.

You say its shutting down, is it blue screening first?

It`s not blue screening when shutting down.