Computer randomly shuts off

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masteraj1991

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Mar 2, 2014
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My computer has just recently been shutting itself off. At random intervals it would shut itself off, but most recently it does it within 10 minutes of being on. It shuts off as if it just loses power. When I go to turn it back on, it will turn on but no signal will go to the monitor. I'll have to shut it off again and restart it for it to actually start. Just recently it came up with a screen during reboot that had this red pyramid at the top and said something about the DRAM needed to be lowered or something and then made me push F1 to continue.
If anyone can help me out that'd be great.

I have a HP Desktop
Windows 7
2.7GHz 6 Core AMD processor
Nvidia GTX 650 Graphics card
8GB Ram
1TB Hard Drive
650 Watt Coolermaster Power Supply
 
Solution
techgeek
Well two hours isn't exactly conclusive, overnight would have been better. Sometimes it takes awhile for errors to start appearing. I had a OCZ dual memory set that went 3.5 hours no errors. I went to bed an got up and tons of errors. I watched it and it consistently had errors in the same locations.

You could try booting to a Live CD like Ubuntu and just use the computer from there and see if it randomly shuts down.

Usually when a hard drive is failing you get BSOD's not shut downs. However just to rule it out, you could download a utility to check it out. If you have a Seagate drive, download SeaTools, if you have Western Digital download WD Diagnostics.
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techgeek

techgeek

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Apr 11, 2004
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That line right there would make me thing that the BIOS was saying that VDIMM was too high except this is an OEM system and it's unlikely that HP would give any control whatsoever over any voltages.

As for the crashes your describing here, I've seen this kind of thing caused by one of three things:

1. CPU / GPU is overheating.
2. PSU is failing
3. RAM has bad cells

Usually #3 produces BSOD's, but I have seen random shutdowns as well.

I would check to make sure all your fans are working. Check that your heatsinks are clean (CPU and graphics card). Most OEM systems don't work well with temperature monitoring software, but some do. If your one of the lucky ones monitor your CPU temps. As for your GPU Afterburner will work to monitor it's temperatures.

PSU failing can only really be tested with another PSU, so unless you've got a spare just lying around, you'll want to exhaust all other possibilities before trying a new PSU.

If it's RAM, you can download Memtest, burn it to CD\DVD and boot from it. Let it run for hours, even overnight, and see if it finds anything wrong.

One thing you don't want to get hung up on is that it worked fine for a year and now it's not. Everything that breaks goes from working to not working usually in the blink of an eye. Take it from me, I troubleshoot, repair and maintain electronics for a living. Electronics Engineering Technologist or EET.


 
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masteraj1991

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Mar 2, 2014
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Well, my computer started to work for a couple of days (i didn't change anything). But today it got a million times worse. I went to turn my computer on and it look like it was checking the hard drive. It was saying something was unreadable and shut itself off. When I turned it back in it took me to the screen where I start windows normally or startup repair. I chose to start windows normally first and it went through the process and then blue screened for a second before restarting. Then when I try to do startup repair it says attempting repairs for ever. If anyone can help me that'd be great. I just really want to play my games again.
 
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masteraj1991

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Mar 2, 2014
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4,510
Well, I just checked to make sure it wasn't the power supply and its not the problem. The same thing is happening with a brand new power supply I have access too.
If anyone has any other ideas, please help. Thanks.
 
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techgeek

techgeek

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Apr 11, 2004
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29,965
It could be the hard drive. Try downloading a Live CD such as Ubuntu. Run from it for awhile and see if you still experience the shutdowns.

Also have you tried downloading MemTest and running the tests overnight? This is an important step to verify it's not RAM.
 
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techgeek

techgeek

Splendid
Apr 11, 2004
5,297
9
29,965
Well two hours isn't exactly conclusive, overnight would have been better. Sometimes it takes awhile for errors to start appearing. I had a OCZ dual memory set that went 3.5 hours no errors. I went to bed an got up and tons of errors. I watched it and it consistently had errors in the same locations.

You could try booting to a Live CD like Ubuntu and just use the computer from there and see if it randomly shuts down.

Usually when a hard drive is failing you get BSOD's not shut downs. However just to rule it out, you could download a utility to check it out. If you have a Seagate drive, download SeaTools, if you have Western Digital download WD Diagnostics.
 
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