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Random power-off, but only on Vista???

Last response: in Windows Vista
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I have an HP Pavilion a6230n desktop computer that I dual boot. XP is on one physical HD, and Vista (the original OS) is on another. I had not used Vista for several years, so I performed a factory reset, re-installing back to out of the box status. The problem is that while running vista, it randomly (& instantly) powers off. No warning, no "shut-down". Just an instant loss of power.

The really odd part is that this NEVER happens when I boot into XP!!!! It can (and does) run for days-on-end on XP.

I thought it could be temperature related and that somehow Vista was causing the CPU to overheat, I cleaned the heatsink and CPU and applied fresh thermal paste. But the problem continues. The fans are all working fine and there is no dust whatsoever inside the machine.

I installed a temperature monitoring program and the CPU core temps (AMD 5000 dual core) were never above 40 C. Usual temperature was around 28 C.

Any thoughts, troubleshooting tips?

More about : random power vista

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The problem exists when I load Windows 7 also:. I wiped the factory HD and installed Window 7 from CD. It seemed to be running on, but after performing the Windows Updates (Important only) the problem started all over again.

Back to XP, it runs for days.

I checked the event logs and nothing obvious (or consistent) is being recorded prior to the shutdown.

hang-the-9 said:
Check event log for any driver crashes in Vista. If it was a hardware issue, it would be shutting down all the time not just in one OS.



Thank you. I cannot find any entries that are similar or consistent prior to the shutdown.
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