computer keeps shutting off

hi

My computer theme colors will suddenly change to blue and then about a minute later the computer will shut down and restart on its own. It will occur both online or offline, it's happened while working on a Word document (offline); again a few days later while surfing the web. Once it happens the first time in one day it will occur a second time a few minutes after, I usually turn the computer off after the second time occurs. This started about a month ago.

I was sent to the software forum from the malware forum. No malware was detected.

I'm not sure if this is related but several months ago 5 Microsoft updates kept downloading over and over (4-5 times each) I had to uninstall these and switch to manual updates.

Here's some computer info, I'm not sure what else is needed:

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 3/6/2010 1:09:37 PM
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported)

System Model
HP-Pavilion NY464AA-ABA p6130y
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Processor a
2.40 gigahertz AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core
512 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
2048 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board b
Board: PEGATRON CORPORATION VIOLET 3.02
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 5.11 04/28/2009

Drives
750.15 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
668.95 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

ATAPI DVD A DH16AAL SCSI CdRom Device [Optical drive]

Generic- Compact Flash USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
Generic- SD/MMC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 1
Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
ST375052 8AS SCSI Disk Device (750.15 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 9VP0MR61, SMART Status: Healthy

Memory Modules c,d
7936 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB

Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) * 735.27 GB 666.79 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 0) 14.89 GB 2.16 GB free

 

If safe mode doesn't solve this, can you open your pc case and check if there's any dust inside?

I'm thinking this could be an overheating issue as well.

 

how do I test a graphics card? I did run a test during start up, which checks the memory and drives and such (everything worked well) but I'm not sure how to just check the graphics card.

I was trying the computer in safe mode, things seemed to work ok but when I finished and I tried a regular start up all my themes, not just the colors had changed to a partial safe mode state; you know the colors had gone gray and all menu appearances (like the control panel) were different.

I also ran a test to get a Windows Experience Index score and the theme colors changed during the test but the computer didn't shut down.

I think my computer's graphics card is integrated to the motherboard;
here's the graphics info:

Adapter type: NVIDIA GeForce 9100
Chip type: GeForce9100
DAC type: Integrated RAM DAC

I just cleaned out all the dust build up a few weeks ago.

 

Possible causes of the strange behavior include outdated drivers for the graphics card. Download updated drivers here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Also, make sure that graphics card fan is operational.

Otherwise, if updated drivers doesn't solve the problem then you're looking at replacing hardware, specifically,

1. replacing the graphics card if it's not integrate
2. upgrading your graphics card if the card is integrated and you have an available PCI Express x 16 expansion slot and you have an adequate PCU (power supply).
3. replacing the motherboard if the card is integrated.

There really doesn't appear to be any reason to directly test the graphics card since your normal computer usage is causing graphics to fail altogether. Nevertheless, if you want to test it, the only benchmarking tool for graphics cards (GPUs) that I know of is FurMark: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

I'd hate to pass you off to yet another forum but if updating the drivers doesn't solve the problem then you should really post this question in the hardware forum where you're more likely to get hardware specific assistance and advice.

 

you're right this is starting to look like a hardware problem. I'll try updating the drivers first but thanks for the other suggestions, I had no idea an integrated graphics card could be upgraded or that the motherboard could be replaced.

 

if I may make a suggestion, try replacing the ram... bad/defective ram can also cause your computer to shut off or automatically reboot...

 

My original reply was poorly stated and is confusing. You cannot upgrade an integrated graphics card. What I meant to say was that you could upgrade to (switch to) using a PCI graphics card instead of the integrated card. I apologize for the confusion. Moreover, although it's a possibility, it's way to early to start thinking about replacing the motherboard (a potential nightmare). I shouldn't have even mentioned that.

Oh, and I agree with kennie. You would be wise to rule out a bad RAM stick before replacing a graphics card. You can test your RAM outside of Windows using memtest86:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/memtest86.html

 

I updated the drivers and my computer seems to be working fine. It's been over a week and so far it hasn't shut down.

Thanks for clearing up the PCI graphics card thing.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.