[OP]
Member
Hey all, my PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 and it shuts off after a few minutes of use. It does however stay on for extended periods in safe mode. I ran virus scans and nothing showed up. Whats the chance it's my power supply? Thankfully I have my laptop to use until I figure out what I'm going to do with the PC. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Sean
Member
The chance of it being the power supply is slim. If it will stay on in safe mode, that is a good indication there is a faulty or conflicting driver or a virus of some sort. A pro could probably fix a problem like that, but it is beyond me. You could try installing windows to see if that will repair the problem.
Member
Driver or virus almost for sure.
Paul
Member
Could be a power supply... could be overheating. Crack it open and make sure the fans aren't covered in dust bunnies. Blow everything out with compressed air if you have it. We just had to fix a computer at work doing the same thing you describe. In our case it was one of the CPU fans was a little slow (dual CPU raster image processing server) and the power supply was toast. The power supply had some puffed and leaking capacitors in it.
Yours is not really an uncommon problem actually....
In safe mode nothing is taxing your system. In normal mode it draws more power and generates more heat.
[OP]
Member
It does sound like it's working harder in normal mode than safe mode.Originally Posted by Bryan Morgan
Moderator
+1 vote for virus or driver. I'm IT mgr for my company; been there b4 and here's what I'd do if it were me.
The 1st thing to try (I'm assuming yr using XP on a Dimension 8300) is to boot in safemode and then restore to a previous point. If that doesn't work, then I'd just buy a new machine. I believe the 8300 is about 7 years old? For $500 you can get a new, clean machine good for another 5-7 years. Donate the machine to a church, and use the writeoff on yr taxes.
If that's out of yr budget, then I'd reformat from scratch.
Of course, use safemode to get all yr data off the harddrive first.
In the future, I'd also advise getting an external harddrive to which you periodically backup yr critical data files (if yr not already doing this).
Member
+1
I had a "roaring" fan not too long ago. It was not shutting down, but had become very unresponsive. I cleaned it out, and now it is quiet and purring right along.
"Live like no one else, so later, you can LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!"
- Dave Ramsey
Contributor
What OS are you running? I recall Vista had a problem with random shutdowns.
Member
+1 for an external drive for data backup!
Contributor
[QUOTE=Shawn Patel;1399304 Donate the machine to a church, and use the writeoff on yr taxes.[/QUOTE]
I used to serve on the Office Systems Comittee at my church. People were always trying to give us their old computers for a tax writeoff. Again and again, we had to tell them, "No thanks". They got pretty steamed since all the financial magazines recommended doing this.
A church typically has no use for an obsolete computer. There are many software programs written just for churches and they require modern computers running a modern OS. If the church accepts an old computer anyway, they will likely have to pay to have it recycled. In most areas, it's against the law to just throw away a computer. This isn't practical just so people can get a tax writeoff.
Moderator
Yup, I understand, Pat. That did happen to me when I tried to donate an OLD computer. However, his Dimension is 7 yrs old, probably running XP and is still in fine working order for an IT type who wishes to reformat it.
[OP]
Member
Yep, windows XP. I can't find any registry errors, viruses,bad drivers, start up errors, missing .dll files anything out of the ordinary, thats why I was thinking power supply. I haven't changed or added anything for quite awhile either.
Member
I would blow out all the holes on the laptop to start with. You would be surprised how much dust gets in there and how much harder/hotter it makes your pc work.
Secondly run malwarebytes. this will do much more than the typical AV software. http://www dot malwarebytes dot org it is free and very good.
Thirdly use something like CC Cleaner and clean out the 'junk files' and also run the registry cleaner. Be sure to make the backup it suggests prior to running the registry cleaner.
good luck,
jim
[OP]
Member
It's actually the PC giving me the troubles. I did all you mentioned plus more. I started the reformat process and if that works, great, if not, oh well, I still have the laptop. Sean
Contributor
I'd crack the case and give it a good blow off, then carefully check all the connections and make sure the harness are seated firmly. My great aunt recently had some issues and I was assuming that she got somewhere she shouldn't have, eventually pulled the case off and the IDE cable to the harddrive had wiggled out. She moved about a year prior and the tower sat down by her feet and probably got kicked occassionally. Connected the cable and it worked great.
If you don't find anything with the cables and then reinstalling XP doesn't help, start looking for a new one if you can afford it. $500 will get a computer that will do almost everything the average user needs it to, add another 100 bucks for an external HDD as already mentioned and you'll be good for 5-7 more years hopefully.
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