Computer turned off by itself.

VG_Addict

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Last week, I was gone for almost an hour, and my computer tower shut off. I turned it on, the boot screen showed, and my tabs were still up. It did it again this week. Then, the other day, when I was helping my mom get furniture, it fell asleep. When I moved the mouse to wake it up, it made the noise it makes when I shut it off by pressing the power button on the tower and shut off. It turned on again after I pressed the button, and went to the boot screen, and my tabs were saved. Should I be worried?
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Maybe, are you on a uninterruptible power supply? You can also check the event viewer to find logs and see if the power down was unexpected or not. If it was unexpected then that means your machine lost power for some reason, otherwise... well, it did turn itself off and you need to check for other causes, like maybe something in your power settings to power down, or a backup that is running and set to turn the machine off after its finished.
 

VG_Addict

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Worgen said:
Maybe, are you on a uninterruptible power supply? You can also check the event viewer to find logs and see if the power down was unexpected or not. If it was unexpected then that means your machine lost power for some reason, otherwise... well, it did turn itself off and you need to check for other causes, like maybe something in your power settings to power down, or a backup that is running and set to turn the machine off after its finished.
I already looked at the event viewer, and didn't see anything.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
VG_Addict said:
Worgen said:
Maybe, are you on a uninterruptible power supply? You can also check the event viewer to find logs and see if the power down was unexpected or not. If it was unexpected then that means your machine lost power for some reason, otherwise... well, it did turn itself off and you need to check for other causes, like maybe something in your power settings to power down, or a backup that is running and set to turn the machine off after its finished.
I already looked at the event viewer, and didn't see anything.
Well, its possible its a virus but that is rather unlikely, you could still dl and run malwarebytes to be sure, its one of the best removal programs around but not that great as a primary anti-virus. Could be over heating, but since you said it happens when its idle that makes me think that is also unlikely. I would make sure the power settings/bios were set to prevent it from going into hibernation since sometimes some machines have a hard time waking from that and will look like they are powered down when they aren't but I mainly encountered that with older dell machines. You could open the command prompt and run it in administrator mode then run 'sfc /scan now' that will check on your dll files, I've had it fix some problems before although not related to random power downs. You can also check on your task scheduler to make sure nothing on it is set to power things down at certain times.
 

EvilRoy

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I've experienced similar issues my my computer - have you done anything with your motherboard related to power settings or overclocking? Or is it a motherboard that "automatically" overclocks? Previously I've had issues where a windows update adjusts how the OS interacts with the power settings, but since the motherboard power settings are a separate system from the OS, when one or the other changes it can cause issues.

My solution was to initially stop overclocking, and then later on run a BIOS update.
 

VG_Addict

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Worgen said:
VG_Addict said:
Worgen said:
Maybe, are you on a uninterruptible power supply? You can also check the event viewer to find logs and see if the power down was unexpected or not. If it was unexpected then that means your machine lost power for some reason, otherwise... well, it did turn itself off and you need to check for other causes, like maybe something in your power settings to power down, or a backup that is running and set to turn the machine off after its finished.
I already looked at the event viewer, and didn't see anything.
Well, its possible its a virus but that is rather unlikely, you could still dl and run malwarebytes to be sure, its one of the best removal programs around but not that great as a primary anti-virus. Could be over heating, but since you said it happens when its idle that makes me think that is also unlikely. I would make sure the power settings/bios were set to prevent it from going into hibernation since sometimes some machines have a hard time waking from that and will look like they are powered down when they aren't but I mainly encountered that with older dell machines. You could open the command prompt and run it in administrator mode then run 'sfc /scan now' that will check on your dll files, I've had it fix some problems before although not related to random power downs. You can also check on your task scheduler to make sure nothing on it is set to power things down at certain times.
It's probably not a big deal?
 

Worgen

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VG_Addict said:
Worgen said:
VG_Addict said:
Worgen said:
Maybe, are you on a uninterruptible power supply? You can also check the event viewer to find logs and see if the power down was unexpected or not. If it was unexpected then that means your machine lost power for some reason, otherwise... well, it did turn itself off and you need to check for other causes, like maybe something in your power settings to power down, or a backup that is running and set to turn the machine off after its finished.
I already looked at the event viewer, and didn't see anything.
Well, its possible its a virus but that is rather unlikely, you could still dl and run malwarebytes to be sure, its one of the best removal programs around but not that great as a primary anti-virus. Could be over heating, but since you said it happens when its idle that makes me think that is also unlikely. I would make sure the power settings/bios were set to prevent it from going into hibernation since sometimes some machines have a hard time waking from that and will look like they are powered down when they aren't but I mainly encountered that with older dell machines. You could open the command prompt and run it in administrator mode then run 'sfc /scan now' that will check on your dll files, I've had it fix some problems before although not related to random power downs. You can also check on your task scheduler to make sure nothing on it is set to power things down at certain times.
It's probably not a big deal?
Well, I'm not sure yet, it depends on the cause, but if you aren't getting any power error messages in the event viewer then its probably not hardware or the power outlet. I suppose its always possible for it to be a dying motherboard since you can get really weird errors when one of those dies slowly but since you don't see power errors I think thats unlikely.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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You're not really providing a lot of information. Is the computer hibernating? The tabs still up means browser tabs I assume. If the computer is booting back to where everything was (browser and other programs open), it's hibernating. If you have to turn it on and open up everything again, it's straight up turning off. The fact that it sounds like it's hibernating (since no events either) is a good thing because if something goes wrong, it'll just plain turn off. Check the power options and set sleep and hibernation to never. Laptops, by default, hibernate once the battery gets too low. If it is a laptop (barely any info provided) that's plugged in, maybe somethings wrong with the charger or the charging jack. Or if the laptop is on battery, and it's hibernating that fast (in an hour), then the battery is getting pretty bad (if it isn't the power settings). Laptops also switch their power settings when plugged in and on battery by default (unless you change them to match obviously).
 

VG_Addict

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Phoenixmgs said:
You're not really providing a lot of information. Is the computer hibernating? The tabs still up means browser tabs I assume. If the computer is booting back to where everything was (browser and other programs open), it's hibernating. If you have to turn it on and open up everything again, it's straight up turning off. The fact that it sounds like it's hibernating (since no events either) is a good thing because if something goes wrong, it'll just plain turn off. Check the power options and set sleep and hibernation to never. Laptops, by default, hibernate once the battery gets too low. If it is a laptop (barely any info provided) that's plugged in, maybe somethings wrong with the charger or the charging jack. Or if the laptop is on battery, and it's hibernating that fast (in an hour), then the battery is getting pretty bad (if it isn't the power settings). Laptops also switch their power settings when plugged in and on battery by default (unless you change them to match obviously).
I haven't seen any error messages,
 

VG_Addict

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BTW, when I say boot screen, I mean the screen I see when I first turn on the computer. The screen that shows the manufacturer logo (In my case, Dell), and a loading symbol.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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VG_Addict said:
BTW, when I say boot screen, I mean the screen I see when I first turn on the computer. The screen that shows the manufacturer logo (In my case, Dell), and a loading symbol.
The computer will show the boot screen if the PC is turning on normally (after a shutdown) or if it goes into hibernation mode. If it's hibernating, it's some setting. If the PC is straight turning off, then it could be a number of things (from plain dust buildup to the power supply to a board issue). You said your tabs (browser tabs?) were still up so it sounds like it's hibernating after x amount of time.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Phoenixmgs said:
VG_Addict said:
BTW, when I say boot screen, I mean the screen I see when I first turn on the computer. The screen that shows the manufacturer logo (In my case, Dell), and a loading symbol.
The computer will show the boot screen if the PC is turning on normally (after a shutdown) or if it goes into hibernation mode. If it's hibernating, it's some setting. If the PC is straight turning off, then it could be a number of things (from plain dust buildup to the power supply to a board issue). You said your tabs (browser tabs?) were still up so it sounds like it's hibernating after x amount of time.
I wouldn't count on browser tabs being up to mean anything since you can set it so they stick where you last left off. Dust buildup would result in a heat shutdown but it sounds like the machine is idle and if it was overheating I would expect that when he was playing a game or something. I think its an issue with hibernation, I have seen that problem in dells before, so he would need to turn that off in the power settings and probably the bios also.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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Worgen said:
Phoenixmgs said:
VG_Addict said:
BTW, when I say boot screen, I mean the screen I see when I first turn on the computer. The screen that shows the manufacturer logo (In my case, Dell), and a loading symbol.
The computer will show the boot screen if the PC is turning on normally (after a shutdown) or if it goes into hibernation mode. If it's hibernating, it's some setting. If the PC is straight turning off, then it could be a number of things (from plain dust buildup to the power supply to a board issue). You said your tabs (browser tabs?) were still up so it sounds like it's hibernating after x amount of time.
I wouldn't count on browser tabs being up to mean anything since you can set it so they stick where you last left off. Dust buildup would result in a heat shutdown but it sounds like the machine is idle and if it was overheating I would expect that when he was playing a game or something. I think its an issue with hibernation, I have seen that problem in dells before, so he would need to turn that off in the power settings and probably the bios also.
I know, the question is if the browser (and other programs) are already open on sign-in or they have to be launched.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Phoenixmgs said:
Worgen said:
Phoenixmgs said:
VG_Addict said:
BTW, when I say boot screen, I mean the screen I see when I first turn on the computer. The screen that shows the manufacturer logo (In my case, Dell), and a loading symbol.
The computer will show the boot screen if the PC is turning on normally (after a shutdown) or if it goes into hibernation mode. If it's hibernating, it's some setting. If the PC is straight turning off, then it could be a number of things (from plain dust buildup to the power supply to a board issue). You said your tabs (browser tabs?) were still up so it sounds like it's hibernating after x amount of time.
I wouldn't count on browser tabs being up to mean anything since you can set it so they stick where you last left off. Dust buildup would result in a heat shutdown but it sounds like the machine is idle and if it was overheating I would expect that when he was playing a game or something. I think its an issue with hibernation, I have seen that problem in dells before, so he would need to turn that off in the power settings and probably the bios also.
I know, the question is if the browser (and other programs) are already open on sign-in or they have to be launched.
Well, thats still not as straight forward as you would think. Some browsers and programs will automatically open if the machine was shutdown with them open. Chrome tends to do this, so does the office suite.
 

VG_Addict

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OK, my computer shut off while it was on the boot screen.

Is my computer dying?

I felt the sides of the tower to see if it's overheating, but the sides are cold.

Does that mean it's not overheating?
 

Worgen

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VG_Addict said:
OK, my computer shut off while it was on the boot screen.

Is my computer dying?

I felt the sides of the tower to see if it's overheating, but the sides are cold.

Does that mean it's not overheating?
Depends on what screen you mean, if it was the bios screen then that's not good, if it was the windows login, that's still not good but not as bad, possibly. You can go into the bios and you might have a temp counter in there somewhere so you could see if it is overheating. You won't be able to feel anything from the case, you need bios or a program like speccy that will tell you what the cpu is running at. It is possible that your motherboard is going, in which case you will probably need to look for a new machine or at least take it to someone who can actually examine it, only so much I can do with the descriptions you're giving.