Windows XP machine turning on and off randomly. pls help

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trydowave

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Feb 17, 2012
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Hi. My XP machine has started to turn itself on and of randomly? It started by turning itself on in the middle of the night from being completely shut down. In the end I had to turn the psu off from the back to get a proper nights sleep.

After that it would shut down and then shut off and then restart again on its own for no (as it seems) reason.
Today I decided to take it all apart and I changed Psus, gpus and i tested the ram with memtest, (memtest failed to complete on both occassions as the machine turned off before it could finish.

Pls help this is driving me nuts.

Specs:
XP SP3
P4 3.0ghz
2gb ram
nvidia FX5600 AGP
400 (and 300) watt psu cheap makes

 
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Check your Bios power management settings. It may be that the timers there have been set to switch the PC on at certain times. Just reset the Bios and see what happens.

 
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trydowave

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I've already disabled hibernation and low power modes etc. On top of this I've disconnected the battery to completely wipe the cmos and tried resetting the bios to defaults. None of this help.
I did try to go into bios this morning but before I could get to this point the PC turned off. That's how random it it. Last night it was on for an hour before turning off and resetting, today it turns off almost instantly and then it wont turn on again?
Must be gremlins.

Ps. I put the machine together ages ago. Do you think wiring up the front panel headers for reset or pwr could be the problem (if one was on the wrong pin for example?) I'm not sure if this is the case but the front panel wiring and cpu are the only components I didn't take apart when I dismantled it the other day.
 
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I don't know, this very strange. You coud try to update the bios firmware. Find your motherboard type, download the newest firmware and try to upgrade. Be careful though, because updating the bios is a risky business. Don't interrupt the power until it finishes.

If this fails, then I think you should call the Gostbusters. Just joking!

 
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Also check you CPU heatsink and the fan. You might also have an overheating problem.

 
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trydowave

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Ill have a look at the cpu/heatsink as well as checking the front panel header connections. Nothing to loose :)

Cheers
Tony
 
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Bassim Ansari

Bassim Ansari

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Dec 18, 2013
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If you have two RAMS...

Take out one RAM and try running on it . and then reverse the process with the other RAM...

But I think it's more an overheating issue... looks like..

Try running a temp test too ..
 
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trydowave

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Its very hard to test as the pc can either stay on for very long periods of time, small amounts of time, not turning on at all and turning on by itself.
I've recently updated bios, cleared cmos throught he jumpers on the mb, unplugged all header connections and other cables apart from power switch.
I changed ide cables and I'm using just one stick of ram.
So far so good. I've also ran speedfan and all temps and I never get much over 40c.
I would agree that it could be a heating issue but for the life of me I don't understand how the machine turns itself on? Off I understand but not on. Maybe the button is jammed? Could try another case.
I'm reading up on this but is it possible for any component to turn a pc on?
 
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The only way that a PC could power itself up, is through the bios power management settings, or through wake on lan by your network ethernet card. You could try to disable the wake on lan feature in your bios. Do you have a static or dynamic ISP IP?
 
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trydowave

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The pc turned off. Started a few times but now its only starting up for a few secs (cpu fan spins) and then it stops. Ive connected every single thing I can in order to see if theres a change. Nothing makes a difference, even down to the bare minimum GPU, 1 stick of ram, no hdds; the pc still wont start. I can't even get into bios now? I have changed any options to do with power and lan in bios before aswell as clearing cmos by ejecting the battery. I have dynamic ISP. As soon I get back into bios (if I can) ill have another look.
Cheers
Update: Managed to get it back into bios long enough to disable all power options and lan. It started up and got into windows so I thought it had worked. 10 mins into windows it shut down again and now wont start?
Also forgot to add to my specs the motherboard. It's an Asus P5VDC-X
Info can be found here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5VDCX/#specifications

UPDATE: I give up. I've ripped everything useful out of it and placed it into a lesser spec pc. It's only a storage/XP prog only machine anyway.

Thanx everyone for all of your advice :)
 
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