PC keeps shutting down for no apparent reason

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1

I built my sister a PC a few months ago (amd64 3800+, 512mb ram, 80gb hdd, cd/dvd burner, 250watt power supply)

well, she’s been having a problem where out of nowhere, she’ll go to use it and the thing would be turned off. The light on the tower is on though. When I hit the power button, nothing happens. I have to actually hit the switch on the power supply off, then back on and it’ll work fine until the next time it does it.

I thought that maybe it was overheating and shutting itself down… but it seems to be getting decent airflow… all the fans are working properly. The Power supply is brand new too.

any ideas? I was thinking that it could possibly be a nasty virus or worm or something (she downloads alot of junk/aka software loaded with spyware on her machine that I keep telling her to avoid)… but I don’t see why I’d have to switch the PS off and on to get it to boot back up.

any ideas?

2

Replace the power supply man. Or swap for a known good one for a few weeks, and see if that does it.

Some of those weird brand powersupplys don’t throw enough power, not even close to what they are rated.

If its not the hardware, does she have the pc set to go to sleep, then its just not waking up properly?

3

its not a virus if its a power on/off issue.

overheating possibly, bad RAM perhaps.

not a good contact between the CPU and the heatsink?

If the power switch isnt attached correctly to the motherboard jumper, that would be a reason the front button wont work…

4

Maybe Windows is going into Sleep Mode and your mobo doesn’t like it. Check your power settings in Windows.

5

The power supply is the first thing that popped into my head upon reading those specs.

What are the temps that it’s running at?
Have you run any diagnostic software yet, to see if it finds any issues/it occurs there?

6

a 250watt psu sounds a little low imo