Hmmm im having a bit of a problem. I bought all the parts and put together a brand new computer about a month or so ago. Things have been working great since then (REALLY well, huge improvement over my old computer) but just about 3 days ago I started having something happen. My computer has started just randomly shutting off. Im not sure what is causing it, but am aware that overheating would be a good first place to look. Yesterday when this happened I immediately opened BIOS and checked the motherboard temp, which was about 33 degrees C - well within normal range. I also have a program called CPUID HWmonitor, which I can open up once booting up and check temps on other things. For some reason, it only has one of my 2 graphics cards show up (im not sure why), but that one tends to be around 45 degrees C.
Whats the next step to diagnose this, and then solve it?
Hi, Lots of possible reasons for the shutting down…lets try and figure out if it's likely hardware or software/operating system related.
Download a live distro of Linux ( Linux Puppy is good) burn the .iso as an image (it must be an image, a straight copy wont work) set your computer to boot from the CD/DVD as first priority.
Boot from the Live distro (don't install it, for example Puppy will operate completely within RAM and will not write anything to your hard drive (unless you ask it to…)
Give Puppy a good workout you will be able to access the net (use an ethernet cable not wireless) view the photos on your hard drive etc…. see if the machine works Ok without shutting down whilst using Puppy.
If it still shuts down then its pointing to a hardware issue and we can focus our attentions on that
if it doesn't shut down when using puppy then its pointing to a Windows or software issue so we will know where to look next!
