Windows 7 Desktop PC shuts down 15 minutes after being powered on

Lee_Howden

My Windows 7 Desktop PC has started shutting itself down after it has been powered on 15 minutes previously. It shuts down cleanly with a warning, giving you a minute before it happens.

I've checked the Event Viewer and it tells me that the PC shut down for an unknown reason.

A Hardware Monitoring Tool has been installed to monitor temperatures of CPU etc but these all look fine.

Where shall I look next? PSU? Graphics Card? Memory? Hard Drive?

John_Gray

Have you cleaned the assorted dust and crud out of the system unit using an air blower can in the open air, outside (rather than risking a vacuum cleaner and static electricity)?
Reseated all the cards?
Removed each internal plug from its socket and replaced it again?
Checked that any visible internal fans are working?

As soon as the system unit shuts off, remove the mains plug and see whether there's any device inside the system unit which appears unduly hot to the (careful) touch.

Try locating an ordinary desk fan next to the open system unit, blowing at the interior. Does the power-off still occur after 15 minutes?

macman

If I was guessing, which I am, I'd say that if it's not overheating due to dust, fan failure etc, then a failing PSU is the most likely cause.
Yo can probably eliminate the memory by pulling one stick at a time and trying each slot in turn. Graphics card similarly by removing it and retesting using the onboard graphics, if available.
There aren't really any short cuts with this kind of fault, you've simply got to eliminate each component in turn

stator

Download a program called memtest. You burn it to a CD, then boot from the CD and it just runs memory tests constantly. Once it's gone through all the tests once you can see if there were any errors and it should help you see if it's overheating too

I_have_spoken

I had a PSU go bad, the 12V line would droop and the machine would crash

Lee_Howden

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look at it over the weekend, taking in your advice on here and report back.

Lee_Howden

I finally got round to looking further into this problem yesterday.

I ran memtest and that didn't show any errors. I checked the Hard Drive using the manufacturers diagnostic tools and that came back OK. I've also booted it into Safe Mode and run Malwarebytes and AVG on it. Malwarebytes found nothing of note. There were a few infections that AVG found (interestingly, it didn't find them in Normal Mode?). These are currently being dealt with hopefully.

Whilst the PC has been in Safe Mode, it hasn't started the Auto Shutdown. Presumably this could mean that the power supply might be OK?

stator

If you can run the computer in safe mode without it shutting down then I would say it's probably not the Power Supply.
If there were real viruses on the computer then I would backup your files then wipe the hard drive and restore from the original operating system cds

anotheruser

How annoying!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

stator wrote: »

If you can run the computer in safe mode without it shutting down then I would say it's probably not the Power Supply.
If there were real viruses on the computer then I would backup your files then wipe the hard drive and restore from the original operating system cds

Think this is overkill.


Sounds like system is hitting TJ max and shutting down to prevent damage to me.

Lee_Howden

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

Think this is overkill.


Sounds like system is hitting TJ max and shutting down to prevent damage to me.

Is there any way to prove if this is the case?

If this is the case, it is quite puzzling. The PC is mainly doing day to day stuff when the the Shutdown warning comes on. On one occasion, my wife had powered it on whilst she was getting ready for work and had just logged into Windows 7. There was only an Internet browser open