PC shutdown diagnostic

[zorzi]

Hi everyone,

Since a few days, my desktop computer sometimes shuts down without reason.

How can I identify reasons for that ? I'm not really expert in checking logs etc.

Thanks.

[Eadwine Rose]

I would start with checking temperatures to begin with. Sometimes the bios will show, and you can also install lm-sensors to check the temperatures of your CPU, motherboard, harddrive (hddtemp) and other things.

My mind is a bog right now, but I am sure someone will come by to explain this :)

[j2mcgreg]

I'd open the case and look for dust build up on the CPU's heat sink and on any cooling / exhaust fans. Use a can of compressed air to remove it. If this is an AMD based system, you should add extra exhaust fans in any case.

[zorzi]

Thanks for advice.

I checked with lm-sensors. Nothing worrying. I will keep an eye.

[zorzi]

I'd open the case and look for dust build up on the CPU's heat sink and on any cooling / exhaust fans. Use a can of compressed air to remove it. If this is an AMD based system, you should add extra exhaust fans in any case.

I thought about it. I had cleaned and removed dust two months ago. Will keep an eye on CPU temperature.

Thanks.

[Stevo]

You can put widgets in the taskbar that will let you keep an eye on those temps in realtime.

Do you know if the machine is doing anything to cause a high load on the CPU when it shuts down? There's a widget for that, too.

[penguin]

check memory ram.

[zorzi]

You can put widgets in the taskbar that will let you keep an eye on those temps in realtime.

Do you know if the machine is doing anything to cause a high load on the CPU when it shuts down? There's a widget for that, too.

Yesterday, I was using VirtualBox with probably too heavy settings for my hardware. This morning, I was just watching a youtube video.

@penguin: You're right. I will check with memtest first.

Thanks

[antiX-Dave]

I have one computer that does this. It is dual cpu and have changed all ram, both cpu, graphics cards, limited storage to one new sata drive, removing all floppy/disk drives. I was at a loss and figured it was the motherboard. Found another machine that had no psu and moved the psu to it and found that it had the same problem. As it is a special psu that is quite expensive I modified a standard one to test and the problem went away. I have no idea how a psu could cause the issue, but it seems that is what was causing the random shutdown in that case. So do not rule out a bad power supply just because it seems to run ok other than some random times.

[Gordon Cooper]

PSU problems are not frequent, but are certainly possible. it takes only one temperature sensitive component or a 'dry' soldered joint in the switch mode converter
to cause intermittent failures. Well worth giving psu a good dust out as well as the cpu assembly. At least psu access is sufficiently screened to keep out mice
looking for a warm place to nest.