Random Shutdowns (and CaseMod thread)

ScrumYummy · bunnyhunches of scrums Gender: Joined: 29 Jun 2005

No, my bios is fine. For the most part, it seems like my software and hardware are fine, there's just a heating issue, which could be caused by the dust in it, which is why cleaning it out would be a good idea. And the WE crashing is just because Windows is a sucky operating system

You problem sounds like it's your motherboard. Do you know what model you have in it and how old it is? What version of Windows do you have? What exactly does your computer do when you start it up, from start to finish?

Ryukku · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 7:37 pm Post subject:

Well sometimes it boots ok and then sometimes is doesn't reconize the BIOS and sometimes it freezes in the middle of booting up. All these problems seem to be temporaraly fixed by turning it on it's side...

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

System resets are most commonly cause by a couple of things. One of the most common is a failing power supply. As the power supply starts to degrade, the PC will reset itself, sometimes at random intervals. Another common problem is heat, as you mentioned. If your laptop never had issues before, it could actually be a buildup of dust inside.

Dust can be very detrimental to good case airflow. I've seen plenty of workstations in my company develop mysterious rebooting probelms that disappear after a good dusting. Get yourself some canned air, and go to town blowing out every crevasse you can find. Especially all the vents and fan.

Another possibility is a driver instability. Have you changed any drivers lately? This is another common problem, I've run into it myself. If you upgraded any drivers recently, try rolling them back to a previous version and see if that helps.

Let me know how you do, if none of these solutions works, we can try something else.

ScrumYummy · bunnyhunches of scrums Gender: Joined: 29 Jun 2005

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

You can probably get by without opening the case, just use almost a whole can of air blowing out every free space you can reach. There aren't a whole lot of free spaces inside your average laptop, just the ones that allow for cooling and airflow. I have a feeling that will help.

As for the tablet driver, I wouldn't suspect it of causing an instability, but anything is possible. Let us know how the dusting works out.

BWS-1 · Otaku Lord Gender: Joined: 25 Sep 2002

I've been having the same problem here. I haven't posted in before because I was trying to find out what to do to make it stop on my own, reading the advices posted here, and hoping to find something to add later on. Well, I might have something.

Some ''random shutdown'' issues can also be caused by a faulty keyboard. Yup, a damn keyboard. Or power supply defect. I know that I've had these random shutdowns latly, and yet I have had no signs of viral infection. One thing tho, when I did tests with my PC at my friend's computer shop, I didn't crash once, and I had different keyboards. First I thought it was the power cord, but then my friend told me it could seriously just be the keyboard causing the instability. Last time the powersupply was the cause of the shut downs, it was because the fan broke, and well, it just overheated untill it finnaly shut down for good.

I too am a ''memory killer'' cause I tend to run 3 bajillions (

ah, ''bajillion'' that word makes me giggle ^^; ) programs at once, and latly I've been 1) low on memory 2) low in space on all my 3 harddrives. Maybe that's also related to the problems I have and maybe yours as well.

But in the end, my diagnostic for my own PC is: I think it's dying.

Yup, I don't know how long it'll last, but I can't garanty it'll live to see an imported version PSU this december :p

I hope it isn't the case for you, but if things can be changed to make your PC stop crashing, and that nothing has worked to this day, then maybe it'd be either your keyboard or power supply. It could even be your keyboard and mouse port that are screwed up, go figure, the easy solution for that is getting a USB keyboard and mouse. Of course I hope you'd be able to test as much ''alternative solutions'' mentioned here as possible before starting to actually go out and buy all that equipment ^^;

ScrumYummy · bunnyhunches of scrums Gender: Joined: 29 Jun 2005

Ryukku · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject:

Uh heh heh.. does anyone know what might be causeing my shut downs? If ya'll can fix Scrum than shurly you could help me....

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

Ryukku · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:06 pm Post subject:

I'm useing a... um... If you tell me where to look all tell you the model info All I see is a bunch of numbers. I know it's a dell and it has had some custom work done...