PC just switched itself off? Should I be worried? EDIT Done it 3 times!

catlou

Hi

Just had a bit of a fright! :eek:
Sat here typing I had firefox open with a few different windows, and microsoft works document and Thunderbird my pc made a beep sound nothing to do with anything that I was doing and then just completely switched itself off, tried and failed to reboot itself a couple of times??

On the third attempt it carried on and started up as normal and things look same as usual?

It's a 5 yr old Compaq SR1609UK that I added 1GB memory to a couple of weeks back. I have been really pleased with it and had noticed it was considerably faster! hope there's nothing else wrong now?

Never done anything like this before should I be concerned? I'm just running malwarebytes now in case it's anything like that?

Thanks!

MsHoarder

Next time its turned off have a quick check that the Ram is fully "clicked in". I've had a problem where a new card wasn't quite in right so had a faulty connection.

Another possible problem is overheating (especially as it took a while to reboot again). Possibly get a temperature monitoring program and keep an eye on it?

closed

backup.......

penrhyn

Backup...................Speccy will show you temperatures.

catlou

Just done it twice again! :eek:

BUT it rebooted itself first time both times. Does that rule out overheating?

I backed up before I added RAM 2 weeks ago - can't think of too much done since.

Is it likely to be the RAM loose? If so I will open it up and do that next?

penrhyn

Could be a virus? I had one once that caused the PC to reboot itself, however it was doing that soon after startup.

JasX

Monitor temperatures, look for anything going unusually high and/or you PC seems to repeatedly shutdown when a particular component reaches temperature X

worth explicitly testing the ram too -> google for and download memtest86+ (free) and make a boot CD/disk

catlou

Thanks.

Just downloaded Speccy it shows the temperature at 39 C and says that less than 50 C is ok?

aliEnRIK

RAM is the suspect with it being so close to the problem
Adding ram does add extra wattage usage, so it could be the PSUs on its limit
Obvious ones to check for first are the RAM sticks. Are the sockets dusty etc?

sho_me_da_money

RAM? Are you flipping kidding me?

The problem is the PSU or the Hard Drive.

I'm going to put my money on the PSU - OP go buy a decent watt PSU to support the power required by any upgrades.

With regards to the HDD, do you have a S.M.A.R.T enabled in the BIOS? - Is there a test you can run in the BIOS to eliminate the HDD out of the equation.

Temperatures are fine.

aliEnRIK

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

RAM? Are you flipping kidding me?

The problem is the PSU or the Hard Drive.

May I ask who your referring to?

And I put the PSU as being suspect in my post as RAM can easily had 5 Watts or more which can easily tip a PSU over its limit if its already running on its limit

Ive also dealt with dusty motherboards that have been troublesome with RAM in certain sockets (Completely failing to boot at times, and running fine randomly)