In your experience, what could cause a computer to randomly cut off?
by 
Zack Be Gone - All Hail Firebrand.
ANSWERS: 25
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My foot hitting the on/off switch on the power strip that it's plugged in to.
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The fan stopping and the tower overheating. a prank/virus that shuts down the pc after running an hour or so. The surge protector keeps resetting.
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Besides what other people said.... Windows?
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excess dust and lint built up inside case on the fans, power supply, etc which cause heat buildup faulty power switch (on/off switch) faulty power cord(as in not making good contact) connective usually is the #1 cause I look at first.some where a cable or cord isn't making good contact.
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The obvious did you pay the internet provider,check connections,trojan?
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Excessive heat, possibly caused by old/faulty fans, dust buildup, old computers running newer software, etc.
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Unplugging it.
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Over-heating and the many things that can cause that: faulty fans, power supply, CPU, etc.
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More likely your PSU going/gone bad or you have memory going/gone bad. Usually, RAM will cause the system to not boot at all or cause the system to reboot randomly, especially during a graphical load. However, RAM can give you this problem as well. You maybe overheating due to access dust or over-clocking. To check and see if your PC has been running hot, take the side off the PC (if your comfortable with that) and look at the capacitors on the motherboard. Usually the ones around the CPU go first in an overheat. The tops will split and leak (usually rusty in color). The tops are suppose to be silver. Also, make sure that they are not bulging either, that also is a sign. Please note that if you do not see any abnormal capacitors, that doesn't mean that you are NOT overheating. It may mean that it has just started and has not yet damaged the M/B or components. Good luck! A better motherboard with have solid capacitors around the CPU and better yet, the whole board.
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HEAT! If it's getting sluggish, slow access times, mouse lag and a funny odor, it could be burning up! You can get a free utility to monitor your computer's cpu, memory, and gpu temperatures here: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php If it is heat, you may just need to clean your fans. Or get them replaced if the SpeedFan utility can't make them run at high speed.
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I've had that same prob on 2 laptops. Both were fixed by having them cleaned out. I hired one of those onsite service companies to do it because I thought that might be it. The guy said "I don't think that's the issue but sure, I'll clean it out." When he opened them up, there was what looked like a dryer lint pad of dust bunnies, pet hair, etc, over the fan inside. Good as new afterward.
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Heat is a possibility, but there are a number of reasons this could occur. Other causes could be a computer virus, short in your power cord, or possibly you are drawing too much power from your power supply. For example if you have a power supply that provides 300 watts and you're processor, drives, and pci cards require 350+ watts.
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Might be over heating or some kind of virus...
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In my own experience it was a power supply problem. Another thing was overheating. I replaced the power supply and added a couple of case fans. This baby is happy now.
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A power outage
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Static from clothing (a toshiba laptop did that to me a lot)
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electrical storm, hackers, pushing the power button at random, etc
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1. A power supply that can't handle the draw. 2. A faulty graphics card. 3. Graphics drivers that aren't working quite right. 4. A virus. 5. Faulty RAM. 6. Overheating. 7. Boy, I wish I knew what else could do it, because I've addressed ALL those issues with my PC and it STILL randomly reboots without warning or BSOD.
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Its because of 1)falty ram 2)over heating 3)there is virus 4)some hidden installation process can change the regestry value that may be the problem
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Faulty RAM is rare and 99% of the time will result in an error message before shutting off. IN addition, a virus or any OS, Kernel or Software issues would have warning signs, such as errors, boot up issues, display anomalies, etc. 1. Verify that this is not a display problem on your laptop or desktop PC. Check cables, plugs, etc. 2. If it is a laptop, it is likely a power issue. Either the power converter/cord is going bad or the DC power jack connected to the motherboard is going bad. (Take it to any major computer store to test. 3. The other more likely issue is that the CPU/processor is overheating. When it overheats it automatically kills the power to prevent damage. This is almost always caused by a faulty fan or heat-sync in the laptop or Desktop PC. Again, any major computer chain can run diagnostics on these items and the board to test. (Also, if this is a Laptop with a AMD or Mobile processor: he AMD chips always run hot. It is bad news for laptops. Try getting a laptop "Chill Mat" that helps to keep the processor cool.
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It's probably an overheating problem with the CPU. Try checking the fan on the power supply AND the CPU itself.
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Can be a virus
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I imagine that you solved the problem by now, anyway if you could be more specific, is the computer just turning off by itself? rebooting? giving program errors and closing? a little more info should take you a long way next time :-)
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The number one cause of computers shutting off like this is...too much heat building up inside. This heat build up can come from: 1. Bad or failing fans 2. The heatsink not seated properly on the processor. 3. No thermal paste or bad thermal paste on the processor. 4.Too much dust, and dirt built up inside. I worked in the IT Dept, at a Casino, and we always had computers shutting off, or acting weird, and 9 times out of 10 it was because the inside was filled with dust etc. Many times we were able to clean them out real good, and they powered back up and ran fine. I once was given a laptop from a missionary to Africa, and she said it was going real slow, and would shut its self off a lot. I opened it up, and found it filled with dust, and dirt! Once it was cleaned out it ran like new. The number two reason for computers shutting off randomly, is because of a hardware issue, either bad RAM, failing power supply, (or a power supply that is not strong enough for the hardware you have), or failing motherboard, vid card etc. And to tell which one is just a matter of troubleshooting them one by one.
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Heart attack
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