pc turns itself on and off

bubbles0169

ive scanned it a few times for virus but nothing comes up
i completly shut it down but it comes on by itself, i have turned off automatic start up
it also turns itself off on its own, tries to restart but shuts off after 2-3 seconds
it does come back on and last awhile, sometimes hours but then itll shut down again
my desktop icons also move to different areas of the screen after this happens
does naybody know what could be cuasing it
it windows vista, IE 8 if thats any use

fwor

There are quite a few things that ~could~ cause this sort of behaviour - one being overheating. Have you checked that the fan(s) are running and heatsink(s) are clear of dust?

However, the powering itself on thing is puzzling. There are usually options in the BIOS, both to power-on when mains is applied, and to power-on at specific times, but it's doubtful that you would have changed those accidentally.

IanSkinner

sounds to me like a hardware issue - have you added anything to it recently like a printer/graphics card/new hard drive etc?

a simple test could be to remove everything but the keyboard and mouse and see how it floats.

often in my experience these kind of problems are caused by external components like usb hard drives.

bubbles0169

thanks both, hoovered it all out so its not dusty anymore, tried to take the PSU out to hoover in there but couldnt see how to get it out further, everything(the fans) were running fine
not installed any new hardwear

aliEnRIK

Never experienced that particular fault myself, but if it was properly shut down (ie, not in hybernation) then I cant see how it can turn itself back on unless the main power switch was faulty somehow (Which would also explain why it turns itself off)

debitcardmayhem

Have a look in event viewer , errrrm i'm running on Linux at the mo... Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Evtent Viewer. Look for power on / power down events in System Events / Windows Events. Sorry to be vague, really need to go to bed and cannot justify rebooting into windows at the moment perhaps Alienrik will help me out there (Hi rik happy new year btw)

aliEnRIK

Happy New Year Debit

Im a bit too ill to be looking through event logs im afraid. Sorry

aliEnRIK

I had a quick look so (And I might get shot down here) once in event viewer:
Goto WINDOWS LOGS and SYSTEM and click either EVENT ID or look through dates/times (depends how easy it is to look for you)
Your looking specifically for IDs 12 (start up) and 13 (stopping) so far as I can tell. So if they coincide with each time its powered up and down, that to me points to the faulty power switch. As I dont power down with the power switch im not 100% sure about that though (id have to trial it, and I dont really want to be doing that on my computer)

John_Gray

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Never experienced that particular fault myself, but if it was properly shut down (ie, not in hibernation) then I cant see how it can turn itself back on unless the main power switch was faulty somehow (Which would also explain why it turns itself off)

A very outside chance for turning a PC on would be Wake-on-LAN!

Lil306

Did you install all the motherboard stand offs.

I had an issue with it and it's because I didn't install them all and it was shorting out electronically on the metal causing it to power on.

pitkin2020

Could be a faulty PSU, hardware or even a faulty power button. Have had the same thing before where it kept turning it self on everyone said it was impossible lol, changed the power switch and it was fine after. Damn annoying though.