Random shutdown problem

thamos · Mar 13, 2014

Hello all,

This site has helped me a lot in the past in choices for parts and troubleshooting so i thought i'd ask for advice here myself now.

I'm fixing an old computer for a friend and have encountered the dreaded random shutdown. I get no beeps, and after shutdown i have to switch of the pc before i am able to restart it again. If it doesn't shut down, the system works fine.

i have ruled out cpu, gpu and coolers as problem, and tend to think that the problem should somewhere be with psu or on the motherboard itself.

I also removed ram and put in my older ones. at that time i was prompted windows had to be reinstalled. I did get a system 32 cmd error.
A clean install of windows gives me a more stable build at this point , but i have encountered the shutdowns twice since.

i have read about the capacitators being the culprit and since my motherboard is constant at a 65° and i have found a slightly tilted capacitator i'm guessing that could be the problem although i wondered why the system seems more stable now after a clean install.

I was wondering if any of you guys have your fifty cent on the matter, or now some way i can test with software of with a multimeter to check my psu' voltage or my motherboard's integrity.

If you want additional info, just ask and i'll post it here, since i don't know what kind of overviews you'd want.

Thank you and greets!

Dom_79 · Mar 13, 2014

Please edit your post and hide the report details as "spoilers" so those that are interested in seeing them can and the rest don't have pages of info to scroll through (might help get some responses

)

thamos · Mar 15, 2014

apparantly not though :/

Dom_79 · Mar 15, 2014

Sorry thamos, since no one else is chimming in I'll give my 2 cents (although I'm by far not the expert many here at Tom's are...

)

The temp of the motherboard does seem off. Is the case properly/well ventilated? As to the titled capacitor, that isn't really a sign of damage. Bloated or burst capacitor tops is what would be considered damaged. As long as the capacitor is still making proper contact to the board (it would have to be a considerable "tilt" - 60 degrees+ - to start causing problems) it should be working normally.

The PSU can be tested with a multi-meter although I don't know how and I'm not sure how revealing it would be (would have to have it connected and monitoring it when a shut-down happened to see if there was a voltage drop, I believe - don't quote me) The easiest way to check would be to hook-up a confirmed working PSU (even if it doesn't fit in the case, as long as it is able to be hooked up and on a level, non-conductive surface for safety).

It seems as though you have well eliminated the RAM as the culprit (leaving the motherboard having some hidden issue or...). Have you considered the HDD? Since it has recently been formatted and had a fresh OS install, would it be possible to try with another, confirmed working drive?

Sorry for the lack of responses, this seems like a very tricky issue that is most likely a hardware problem that won't be easy to track down and may result in a newer PC for your friend being the most frugal and least time consuming choice (That's obviously not what you or your friend want to hear but given the nature of buying and sourcing older components... that's just the way I see it and by no means a rule).

I hope you are able to get things sorted, best of luck! Cheers!

thamos · Mar 15, 2014

Dom_79 :

Sorry thamos, since no one else is chimming in I'll give my 2 cents (although I'm by far not the expert many here at Tom's are...

)

The temp of the motherboard does seem off. Is the case properly/well ventilated? As to the titled capacitor, that isn't really a sign of damage. Bloated or burst capacitor tops is what would be considered damaged. As long as the capacitor is still making proper contact to the board (it would have to be a considerable "tilt" - 60 degrees+ - to start causing problems) it should be working normally.

The PSU can be tested with a multi-meter although I don't know how and I'm not sure how revealing it would be (would have to have it connected and monitoring it when a shut-down happened to see if there was a voltage drop, I believe - don't quote me) The easiest way to check would be to hook-up a confirmed working PSU (even if it doesn't fit in the case, as long as it is able to be hooked up and on a level, non-conductive surface for safety).

It seems as though you have well eliminated the RAM as the culprit (leaving the motherboard having some hidden issue or...). Have you considered the HDD? Since it has recently been formatted and had a fresh OS install, would it be possible to try with another, confirmed working drive?

Sorry for the lack of responses, this seems like a very tricky issue that is most likely a hardware problem that won't be easy to track down and may result in a newer PC for your friend being the most frugal and least time consuming choice (That's obviously not what you or your friend want to hear but given the nature of buying and sourcing older components... that's just the way I see it and by no means a rule).

I hope you are able to get things sorted, best of luck! Cheers!

i'll check for HDD,
i know it's a fairly old pc so, i guess he'll have to find a budget if he wants to go top notch

anyway thanks for your reply, i know this issue would be easier to fix if i was better at hardware components, i'm more of the software kind of guy
greets!

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