oblongmelon

My best friends daughter is at Stonybrook..she was fidgeting around with her computer one time when it was giving her problems and she told her mom that the time on her computer was off..(battery?) ..I mentioned that maybe her battery was bad if the time was off so the girl opened up her case and changed her battery without knowing jack sh|t about the inside of a computer..ever since, she has had problems with the computer shutting off on her when she is using it which makes me think that maybe she loosed up a cable or unset a card somehow when she was messing in there..I told her to call IT at the school but they said that she would have to take the computer off campus to have it looked at because they were too busy with network stuff (I've never heard this excuse at a school before)..anyway..any suggestions on why her computer is shutting down? she ran a virus scan and it showed nothing (AVG)..also..she changed all of her external cables and surge protectors but is still having the problem..i told her to STAY OUT OF THE CASE until further notice..she didnt say if it shuts off when she is cruising the net or if she is working on Windows Office..she has XP and the computer is only two years old..not sure of the kind but she bought it at staples..to the best of my knowledge she didnt get any kind of insurance on the system or its parts..help please?
TYIA
~ob

sizemic1

Is it restarting or completely shutting down?
Is there any forewarning that it's gonna shut down or restart or or does the machine just die?

My first guess would be that the battery thing is just a coincidence. I would be more inclined to believe that the powersupply is getting hot and turning off. I would suggest opening the case back up, and spraying all of the dust out of the power supply box (where all of the power cables lead to) and fan. And for good measure, spray out the CPU heatsink and fan.

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oblongmelon

thanks..I'll pass it on..

AlpineJay

I second the hot power supply idea. I'm not entirely sure how she found and replaced the BIOS battery on the motherboard, but that I don't think would affect the erratic shutting down. Sounds like overheating to me.

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oblongmelon

She bought a system at Staples before she went to school-and paid about 800 bucks for it..it was called a Northeastern, or Northwestern, something like that..not a brand I ever heard of..she was an easy target that's for sure. They sold her "extras' that she would never need in this lifetime..apparently the system she got (which are no longer being sold at Staples =go figure) has a battery that snaps in like a watch battery and does not need to be soddered in like the way they used to be..according to her mother-she opened up the case to see where the battery was because she called staples and the guy told her the battery was a watch battery..she saw it-got it out..and put a new one in..that's why i thought maybe she had knocked some cables loose or something..
So besides cleaning the insides with air-is there something more she can do to keep things cool? what about leaving her case off? (and keeping the darn thing off the floor) and blowing some kind of fan into the area when she's using it? hmm?

AlpineJay

All are good ideas although I'm afraid they'll only temporarily solve the problem. Most motherboards now do have a snap-on mercury battery similar to those going on a watch - but it's hard to find the exact one if you're not being careful, so that's why I was curious. Blowing a fan into the open case (while horribly ghetto) may alleviate some of the problems but this definitely does sound like an erratic/overheating power supply. Doing anything to keep cool will do, although I would wait and see if a thoroughly cleaning using a can of air will get rid of her issues.

My only other thought is that something on the motherboard is shorting due to dust, so a thorough cleaning of the case overall may help her quite a bit. Most erratic shutdown issues come from power supplies, so in the worst case scenario it may need to be replaced.

Grimm

It's possible she knocked a case fan power connecter loose. She should verify all the fans are turning when the computer is running.

oblongmelon

I got an email from my friend this morning and she said her daughter called her and said her computer is completely dead-she really should just take it somewhere and have it overhauled..
But thanks for all your input!

tupacboy

tell her to get a quote first... its 2 years old... a dell deal might be worth the upgrade

Grimm

I'm betting it was the PSU. It could have just quietly died. But there is a strong chance that it spiked when it died and took several components with it. PSUs are sore losers, they like to take other things to the grave with them.

Should just replace the PSU and if it doesn't work, trash it (except for the hard drive). If you can hook the hard drive to the new system and it works she can get her data.