Last night my computer was working fine, this morning it had shut off by itself. I tried to turn it on, everytime I do, it comes on, you hear the fan running loudly, then it turns off. I am by no means qualified to fix it, but I opened it up. It was dusty as heck. I vaccumed it out. It didn't seem to hurt or help it. What do ya'll think is wrong?
I did post over there, I got one response, which said it was the power supply, but it's not. I changed it and it still does the same thing. Just hoping someone could help.
That happened to my computer last year. I had to call a computer guy to fix it. It had some major virus. I lost most of my info.
My computer recently got a major virus. Hubby has been working on it for about a week to no avail. Any recommendations on where to take it and have a professional look at it?
How far does it actually make it? Does the machine post? IE do you get the initial BIOS bootup screen? If it's just powering up and then powering down, I'd probably do the following. 1 - Check to make sure your CPU fan is running. I just looked at an old AMD system that did the same thing and the CPU fan was toast (As was the processor) 2 - If 1 checks out, make sure your video card is seated properly. If you have a spare, try it in it's place. 3 - If you have multiple sticks of memory, pull them all out except one and try each one. I seriously doubt it's #3 but if you get past 1 and 2 and you already replaced the power supply, you're sort of running out of options. Good luck Jay
Start up disk Do you have a windows 98/ME start up floppy? If so try to start it up on that. If that works it is not your mother board.
Sounds like your CPU is overheating and your motherboard has an overheat shutdown protection. This can be 2 things, the CPU fan or your motherboard power regulator are bad. Have a tech look at it. This type of fault is normally not a software issue but a hardware issue. If you can get to your BIOS settings ... and ... If you are inclined to fix it ... To determine if it's a CPU heat problem go to your BIOS and up the setting for temp shutdown about 15 degrees. If it stays running longer it's the heat factor. Don't let it run long, this check can burn the CPU if your not careful.
Had the same problem with 2 computers and I found a 3rd thing...the fins of the heat sink can get LOADED with dust-bunnies and cause the same over-heating problem. She stated that the case was full of dirt so I suspect the heat sink is gunked up as well...remove 4 screws to check it and if that doesn't solve the problem then I would do whatever ddrdan says...he's the best I've seen on here so far.