Computer Randomly Shuts Down

So about 2 days ago my computer randomly shuts itself off. I was in a bit of confusion as to why because I had just built it if not about 2-3 months ago with new parts and everything. So I try to turn it back on and it loads up windows and everything but then approximately 10 minutes later the computer shuts off abruptly. So yet again I attempt to turn it on and it only boots up for about 5 seconds and then shuts off. I try the switch again and nothing. So then I wonder if my power strip was the issue and I reset that and try again. It goes on once again but then shuts off about 5 seconds into it. But soon after it's not so much the problem and later shuts off after logging into windows regularly.

I'm pretty aggravated at the moment because like the majority of people I lack the patience for troubleshooting hardware. The computer doesn't turn on unless I reset the power switch. Although thats not the case because I later found out if I just switch my PSU off and then on again the computer boots up. I take a peek inside my computer and it's pretty damn dusty, so I thought that could be an issue with overheating my cpu and whatnot. After I blow out the dust with compressed air, I come back and this time I'm only plugging in my keyboard, ethernet, and monitor cables into my computer. I turn it back on and it makes it through windows and loads up all my settings and programs in the OS. Around ten minutes later, the computer abruptly shuts off. Shat.

I boot it up again and check my comp temperature in bios. It's about normal I assume? (around 33c/91f?) both case and cpu temps ranging in the same area. So I figured it probably isn't an issue with overheating. I get out of bios and this time load windows up in safe mode. Hoping to Zeus it doesn't shut off again. After about 10 minutes into it and running a virus scanner, it stays on! I run the Avast virus scanner and it runs in "thorough" mode, and the scan is pretty deep into scanning most of my files. I quit the scan (which was probably stupid and a half *** thing to do) and figure that it's an issue with windows. The computer stays on in safe mode just fine.

With only the monitor, Ethernet, keyboard, and power cord plugged in, I assume other cables and components aren't the issue at hand. So that's where the fuzzyness of focusing on what is making the computer shut down. Could it be a Software issue? If so, would I have to restore or completely wipe all data from my hd(which I wouldn't like to do because I need to back up alot of recent work.)? Or could it be a virus that I haphazardly intended on finding? What are some diagnosis for symptoms such as this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello Hippo, welcome to Major Geeks.

Let me be the first to introduce you to the ancient Geek custom of acquainting other Geeks with the minor, insignificant and irrelevant details of your PC and operating system, so that we can ignore all the information supplied to better help out.

 

It would be helpful if you posted your computer statistics, but from what i read its probably a software issue, i would recommend using system restore to roll back prior to when you started having these problems, also did you install or uninstall anything before this started happening? I cannot explain the 5 second shutdown, that may be a hardware issue related to this problem or seperate.

I would recommend giving your computer a complete virus scan and I would recommend doing a spyware scan to. If you dont already have on Spybot Search and Destorty is good and so is Ad-Aware SE (I think they have 2007 out now).

 

Also see here