windows Computer randomly shuts down

[ajnl]

Hey, so two days ago I was transferring about 100GB of music from my external hard drive to my desktop computer. When I came back the computer screen was completely frozen. I tried restarting and the computer would restart but my monitor stayed on "saving power mode".

 

I waited a couple hours and tried again, this time the computer started up. I first started up in safe mode to check if everything was working than restarted. It worked fine, but after playing Starcraft 2 for about an hour, my computer restarted by itself. And again the monitor was stuck on saving power mode.

 

I tried putting it my old video card, which didn't make a difference. What could possibly be make this problem?

 

My desktop runs windows 7 professional. 1TB hard drive, 6GB of ddr2 ram, triple core AMD processor 2.1GHz, and a ENGTS250 1GB video card.

 

Any help is welcome, I'm wondering if I should try re-installing everything, and maybe upgrading my motherboard, processor, and RAM.

Edited September 1, 2011 by ajnl

[JoeDirt]

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump\ and upload the minidump.dmp file and I can analyze it to see if it is driver related, or you can always check the Event Viewer (located in the Control Panel/Administrative Tools) and check under Windows Logs/System

[rolf]

Upgrading is always good You say that an old video card haven't made a difference, does that mean you still get frozen Windows?

 

I assume your pc did run 'quite well' for a few weeks at least? Did you do any recent changes for the hardware (which might include updating drivers, bios update, etc)? Reset those back, if possible.

 

Anyway, I suggest you check your ram. With the current USB/CD Linux Distro's, there's a memcheck in it which works quite well. You might consider to leave it run for a few hours (although, commonly, memory errors are found in a few minutes). It's a quite easy test luckily, and it solved my recent BSOD issues (from 6GB back to 2GB unfortunately ). If you get an error, remove one memory module, test again and if no errors then check in Windows if it solves the problem (yes, pc will be slower, but it will run anyway).

 

he fact that it wouldn't restart immediately might be indicating another issue, among other possibilities close to broken hardware, but you can check a lot of different parts. Furthermore, if your pc is overclocked, reset it to default values. You might even consider setting a lower FSB (that makes it generally easier for your CPU) or playing with the Vcore (but avoid that if you don't really know what you're doing).

 

As you might see, I generally assume that the error is not in Windows, I guess others can give you better hints with those kind of problems.

[ajnl]

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump\ and upload the minidump.dmp file and I can analyze it to see if it is driver related, or you can always check the Event Viewer (located in the Control Panel/Administrative Tools) and check under Windows Logs/System

 

Alright, i'll do that, where should I upload it to for you to see?

 

I was able to start it up again and it gave me a "DQS training failed on previous boot". I checked the bios, but couldn't find any DQS settings. Right now i'm trying to update my bios and see if that makes a difference.

 

Upgrading is always good You say that an old video card haven't made a difference, does that mean you still get frozen Windows?

 

I assume your pc did run 'quite well' for a few weeks at least? Did you do any recent changes for the hardware (which might include updating drivers, bios update, etc)? Reset those back, if possible.

 

Anyway, I suggest you check your ram. With the current USB/CD Linux Distro's, there's a memcheck in it which works quite well. You might consider to leave it run for a few hours (although, commonly, memory errors are found in a few minutes). It's a quite easy test luckily, and it solved my recent BSOD issues (from 6GB back to 2GB unfortunately ). If you get an error, remove one memory module, test again and if no errors then check in Windows if it solves the problem (yes, pc will be slower, but it will run anyway).

 

he fact that it wouldn't restart immediately might be indicating another issue, among other possibilities close to broken hardware, but you can check a lot of different parts. Furthermore, if your pc is overclocked, reset it to default values. You might even consider setting a lower FSB (that makes it generally easier for your CPU) or playing with the Vcore (but avoid that if you don't really know what you're doing).

 

As you might see, I generally assume that the error is not in Windows, I guess others can give you better hints with those kind of problems.

 

Two months ago before I left for the summer, everything ran great. I had no problems playing any game for hours. I got my video card about 3 to 4 months ago. Its been off for the past two months and now its giving me problems. So no hardware or software differences between now and then.

 

Yep, I did have my video card overclocked, but I reset that as well. When I checked the SC2 settings, it recommends ultra graphics, but put them down to the second lowest and still have the same problems.

[JoeDirt]

Depending on the size upload it to forums if small and if its bigger upload it to a file sharing website and post the link

[ajnl]

I can't find the minidump.dmp file.

[ajnl]

I also thought it might be a virus. But i've scanned with avast, spybot search&destroy, and Malwarebytes. None of them found anything.

[Vanaraud]

3-4 month is enough time for dustbunnies to gather So regular fans cleanup wouldn´t hurt.

[rolf]

Ah, off for a long time. That's apparently exactly what killed my memory (only 1.5week for me). I would check the memory, as I said it's quite easy

[ajnl]

Thx for ur guys help. I just pulled out the fans, ram and video card and cleaned out all the dust. Now its working again, haven't had any crashes while played SC2 or Just Cause 2. Thx again!

[JohnWayne]

 

nothing like a clean machine

[basje]

You should also consider downloading speedfan.

Speedfan is a program which can show you your computer temperatures, maybe did your pc got too hot?

You can google for it.