Pc shuts down randomly except in safe mode/networking

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Just recently bought a custom built tower off my friend, got a new power supply, hooked it up and turned it on. Needed password from when he had it but couldn't remember it so I ran windows 7 on it again and rebooted etc. Ran updates and drivers but started to randomly shut down but not reboot itself. It was random times and I thought it was only when browsing but it does when trying to update as well. So I started it up in safe mode with networking and it ran all night. Also when i was updating windows, it took 3 tries to install SP1 then shut down on 3rd try and when rebooted said it was installed, and it keeps adding more "important updates" to the list after installing them.

Sorry that's a lot to read just wanted to lay everything out, thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum Zach These kind of random problems can be really hard to track down as they can have many different causes so expect to dig your heels in if you wish to find the problem as you will only find it by a process of elimination.

First describe the shutdown,does it actually shutdown through the shutdown sequence,does it power off or does the screen freeze,describe it in detail.

I'm not quite clear but by "ran windows" you mean a fresh windows 7 install? I'll assume so which means the problem is most likely hardware related,especially if you experience the problem during the installation process.

Since the computer works in safe mode this automatically leads me to assume it's a problem with your video card so straight away try reinstalling the video card driver.

Video card driver doesn't explain any problems during the windows install process but its standard procedure when safe mode works.

Go to control panel,system,advanced,startup and recovery 'settings' and uncheck automatically restart and set for small memory dump.

Go to control panel,admin tools,event viewer,custom views admin events,look for errors at the time of the last problem,if you can't find one or are unsure of the time use the computer until the error happens then check event viewer again,post the error and the code if there is one.

Go to c:windows/minidump and look for a minidump files and attach the latest 4 to your next posts,you may need to post twice.

Go to control panel,device manager and look for any yellow explanation marks or red crosses.

The next thing to eliminate are each subsystem system memory,hard drive,cpu,video card which I will go into later once we confirm it is a hardware issue.

Also for reference run speccy and add a system report as an attachment with your next post.

Good luck and again welcome

 

I believe it's my graphics card, now it randomly stops displaying and now it won't display at all, even used both ports and still nothing. Would this be the cause of my computer shutting down? And when it used to shut down it would just cut off, no warning or freezes just a complete shut down instantly.

 

If the video card is faulty it could be but the most likely cause of an instant shutdown is a power supply issue,most likely your power supply is switching off to protect itself due to your card drawing too much current.

If you want our help post your system specs with speccy and the information on the side of your power supply.

 

Don't know all the specs..I do know it has Amd athalon x2 4600+ processor, 4x 2gb ram sticks, 500 watt power supply, XFX GeForce 8800 GS Video Card - 384MB DDR3 (which I tried using another graphics card, still wouldnt display) 3 hard drives but unplugged 2 to see if that would be less on the supply..it also has a sound card, that's really all I know spec wise.

I've tried both ports on my graphics card, I've used a different graphics card, I've used different monitors and cords, still won't display at all now