My PC switches off without my consent

Hi Guys, My computer is behaving strangely these days. When the hard disk is doing a major activity, like disk clean-up or a system scan, it suddenly goes off (even electrically) without doing a shutdown and I have to switch-on again from the Power button. I have already discussed this with the other guys in the malware section (Micah 6:8) who helped me remove the bugs, but everything shows that this effect is related to hardware. The PC is a Compaq N1000V laptop, 256MB RAM. Any idea what can it be?

Could be something as simple as your Power Management settings.
Right-click on any empty area of your desktop and Select - Properties to access your Display Properties
Select the Screen Saver Tab
Select Monitor Power by pressing the Power button
You will then see options - Turn of Monitor - Turn off Disks - System Standy
and you will have the option for setting your preferred amount of time of Keyboard Inactivity before the machine automatically "Turns off" the related setting.
Be sure that your Settings allow for sufficient Time to complete your Scan or CleanUp while the machine is "unattended" (unattended means the time period that the routine runs without your input from the Keyboard)
You can select "Never" for the scheme that relates to use of the machine while plugged into A/C power. That way, your longer running tasks may complete without the machine trying to turn itself off.

Next:
Consider Heat
Are your Fans running briskly and pushing plenty of air?
Feeling the exhausted air will likely find that the air is "hot" but not unpleasant to the touch.
Similarly, placing your hand on the bottom of the machine - opposite side from keyboard - will likely fell "hot" but again, not unpleasant to the touch.

Check for dust accumulation at the "air intake" and at the "fan exhaust"

Next consider Memory failure:
A problem in your RAM can cause this behaviour.
Run MemTest86. You can download it here: http://www.memtest86.com/

Next consider Hard Drive failure:
Go to the Hard Drive manufacturer's website and download their Hard Drive diagnostic software to investigate.

If you need specific information to determine what Hard Drive you have, you can use the excellent system inventory tool: Everest 2.20 (free) Download here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

When you Run Everest you can also get a Read-Out of Temperatures and voltages of your systems current functioning. If the Temperatures or Voltages suggest a problem, post the information here for further examination.

The above may get you started on figuring this problem out.
Please post back with your progress.

Best Regards

Dear Dough, Thanks for your reply. I am currently at work but when I'm home I'll follow your instructions. I'm sure it's not related to power management settings since I already checked those. Yes, one of the PC fans goes on a few minutes before the black-out, but it is usual that the fan goes on during heavy data traffic. Maybe this time it's not cooling the CPU enough. Thanks again for the help I'll post the results late in the day. Stephen

Hi Dough, Tried the Memtest86 but PC goes off during this test too. (Tried 3 times with same results.) No errors had been detected prior to switch-off though) Tried removing RAM and placing it in the other slot, just in case it was a contact problem but this was not a solution. Downloaded the Everest and ran a report. Nothing wrong as far as I could see. Temperatures were as follows: Motherboard 59 °C (138 °F) CPU 54 °C (129 °F) FUJITSU MHR2030AT 41 °C (106 °F) The PC is quite hot at the bottom and near the extractor vents but not unbearable. The room temperature is around 30°C so that makes the PC quite uncomfortable (and even me). I did try to blow into the vents to see if they are clogged. (I'm not that confident to open the laptop at the moment.) I tried to find the diagnostic software for my hard drive. First I found out that the type of hardrive is discontinued but that shouldn't be a surprise since PC hardware have a rapid evolution and 4/5 years feel like a century. The software I found seems quite old to my liking, mentioning DOS 5.0 in Win 98 environment, thus I'm not so sure whether I should run it or not. At this point I'm a bit stuck, so any more suggestions are welcome. If you want me to paste some other part of the Everest report, tell me. I thought it was too long to post as a whole. Thanks again, Stephen

Those temps are hotter than I'd like, but it is a laptop and 30degrees would make me and any machine uncomfortable. What Hard Drive are you running. By the way, Hard Drive diagnostic tools often run in a pre-boot environment from a Floppy, is that what you've found?

Hi Dough,

The hard drive is a Fujitsu MHR2030AT 30 GB, 4200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100.
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computi…_mhr2030at.html

Software found was the Ver 6.3 (see link below)
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computi…html#diagnostic

Yes actually the program seems to be a boot-disk type. Should I run it?

Thanks,
Stephen

Sure, you'll not cause any harm and may identify sector problems that can be repaired.
It will take forever to run.

Here's an alternative:

IN your BIOS, Set the order to boot from the CD Rom 1st and the Hard drive 2nd.

Put your Windows CD in the tray, then "Exit with Saving" the settings (far right tab)

1. Boot with your windows CD
2. Type R to Enter the Recovery Console
3. Enter the Administrator password (if there is one)
4. Type: chkdsk c: /r and press Enter << 5. Once completed (if no errors of unrecovery) Type: chkdsk c: /p and press Enter
6. Type: fixboot c: and press Enter
7. Boot Normally

Return your Boot Order to its previous setting.

CHKDSK also takes a long time, but may be quicker.

Best Regards,
Doug

Do you have a wire rack or some means of raising the laptop up from the surface it's resting on, to increase ventilation? How about a desk fan directed at it?

Hi Dough, Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try that tomorrow since now I have to go to bed as in a few hours I'll have to wake up for work. Did try the hard disk diagnostic program, but after I booted with the floppy, I tried to write C: to access the hard disk and run the software but it replied that the drive C: could not be found. Maybe I'll have to go through the software ReadMe again and practice the DOS commands as it's ages that I haven't used them. My fear is that the PC goes OFF during the surface scan or CHKDSK and the hard disk goes berserk. Will update you tomorrow. Thanks Stephen

I presume you are running from A/C power supply during this process. Have you checked your Power Settings to indicate "Never" shut off. Do you have options is BIOS to set CPU speed to 80% or 66%? If you do (those are the settings laptops typically default to when running from battery power) Selecting one of those settings may reduce temperature. Are there any events in Event Log that would shed any light? And good night. There'll be Members with suggestions to help out tomorrow if needed. Best Regards

Hi Dough, Yes the PC is on AC power during the process. When i'm back home this evening, I'll check again the power settings and CPU speed options in BIOS. I'm not a frequent BIOS checker so I have no idea what options there are. Regarding the event log, I don't understand to which log you are referring to. Is it something from the Everest software? Thanks for you help, Stephen

Here's an overview of how to use Event Viewer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/

Event logs can be confusing, but you're looking for something that creates an Error at about the time that you experience the machine failure.

Best Regards

Hi Dough I did go through the event log but nothing related to PC switch off. However found out that my CD ROM seems to have a problem regarding a bad block as seen in the message below: "The device, \Device\CdRom0, has a bad block." Now I am quite sure that the problem is the heat. Have run the programs which are causing the PC to go off while monitoring the temperature with Everest. Managed to run these programs without switch-off by going in a cooler room and by putting some CD boxes under the laptop to elevate it from the table top and enabling a better airflow. At some points the temperatures were as follows: Motherboard 76 °C, CPU 72 °C These are obviously too high and higher temperatures were probably causing the switch off when I was in the hotter room and without elevation. So yes you were probably right from the start to suspect the heat. I still have to check the BIOS settings. I'll give you an update later. Thanks, Stephen

Hi sbuttigieg, Sorry to hear about the Temps, but glad you've got it narrowed down. Are you ambitious enough to try opening up the case of that Lappie? You can go to the Compaq website and search for N1000V laptop. In Product or Support tabs you will probably be able to find a "scematic diagram" that demonstrates how to open the bottom and top to get at the guts of the machine. Unfortunately, there are generally a b-zillion tiny screws to remove, and then the various "pieces" do not necessarily "open" or come off without releasing specific "catches" and "tabs" in the correct order. It is actually quite "doable" but requires a large clear workspace and a lot of patience. The reason I'm asking about opening up the case, is that it is terribly difficult to clean the laptop without opening it. In fact, using compressed air at the airvents and fan exhaust can actually "compact" the dust bunnies, thereby blocking the small airways that the machine relies on for ventilation. You may want to replace one or more fan. You will certainly want to inspect the heatsinks for dust accumulation, especially the one on your Video Card if the machine has a separate video card. While you're at it, you should consider Adding More RAM, since 256MB is below what even your XP will hog. That means that any Application, has to share CPU cycles and the RAM has to Swap out to the Paging File system on your Hard Drive, causing even more Hard Drive activity, and thereby heating up and slowing it down at the same time. If it were me, I'd open it up and clean it out, replace any fan that I felt capable of tackling, and Add More RAM. Best Regards

Hi Dough, Yes I was actually thinking of opening it up. I am not afraid of the tiny screws. It's more the cleverly hidden plastic clips which I fear. These tend to break… and it seems that my fingers are quite good at that. I'll go to the Compaq website to check…nice suggestion. About the RAM, here in my country it's still very expensive to buy laptop RAM. I'll try to buy via internet. I always longed to have a 1GB so that my windows retains its multi-tasking abililties. I guess you can close this thread now. I'll send an e-mail in case I need to re-open it. I already put in a donation. Thanks a lot for your help. You are a great bunch of helpful guys Stephen