Computer turns self off and on or just off!!

**tammy1999** · October 30th, 2005, 03:27 PM

I really don't know what catagory this would go under. I have a Windows XP computer AMD Athlong 2100 CPU, Abit KX7-333R motherboard, AMD thermal colling system, 1 gb ram, 80 gb hd slave, 80 gb hd master, DVD drive and burnerATI all in wonder radion 8500DV 64MB video card. This computer will either shut itself off and on by itself or completely turn it self off. I thought the problem was because my wall electric plug in was not grounded (which I had fixed), but it still seems to enjoy doing this!! I have had the computer checked out by a tech and he couldn't find anything wrong with it. The only time it does this is when I am either working with video editing or with photos. I also have a monitor to tell me if its overheating and no problem there. Can anyone please help me with this problem! Thanks

**Garak** · October 30th, 2005, 08:29 PM

Hi Tammy, Welcome to windrivers. It sounds like a driver issue combined with Wake On Lan.

I have had several problems with third party ATI cards 7000 - 9200 series with 2k/ XP and have found that it either hung or rebooted the system. You could try installing the latest drivers for your card and see if that helps. As for the starting up of the PC - I would look into the BIOS (usually DEL or F2 on boot up) under advanced settins or periphials and disable WAKE ON LAN.

I hope this helps...

Good Luck.

**tammy1999** · October 31st, 2005, 09:10 AM

Thanks so much for your advice. I have been trying to find out what the problem could be for 3 years now!! If after I download the drivers and check the WAKE ON LAN and it still is having problems, do you suggest maybe getting a new graphics card? I am willing to put another graphics card in and all I do is photo editing and video editing, no gaming. I have changed everything in my computer except the graphics card and the power supply, but I had a tech tell me the power supply was fine and not heating up. (This is the same guy that told me there wasn't anything wrong with my computer and he could never get it to turn off at all). Thanks, Tammy

**tammy1999** · October 31st, 2005, 01:23 PM

the WAKE ON LAN was disabled and I am not finding any drivers for my ATI card. Do you have any other suggestions? I am on that computer now and as long as I am doing stuff like web surfing or just general work, it never shuts down. Thanks

**BOB IROC** · October 31st, 2005, 02:38 PM

I would check the power supply. Something could be drawing too much juice and the PSU could be a problem if it has become faulty in some way.

**NooNoo** · October 31st, 2005, 02:50 PM

XP is set by default to reboot when it has a problem

Turn off this by right clicking my computer, properties, advanced tab, startup and recovery button - uncheck the automatically restart box...

Next time it decides to restart, it will BSOD (blue screen of death) then you can see what XP has a problem with. Make an accurate note of entire message and post it here.

**tammy1999** · October 31st, 2005, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by BOB IROC

I would check the power supply. Something could be drawing too much juice and the PSU could be a problem if it has become faulty in some way.

Thanks but the power supply was checked and ok.

**BOB IROC** · October 31st, 2005, 03:09 PM

Just a thought as I have run into many situations where power supply appears to be OK, but it was actually the problem of the BSOD's and power cutoff problems. Usually when a computer comes on automatically when plugged in, there is a problem with the PSU, Motherboard, or power switch.

**NooNoo** · October 31st, 2005, 03:16 PM

Did you try my suggestion yet?

**tammy1999** · November 5th, 2005, 06:29 PM

Hi, yes I did and it was working fine for me the other day. I was doing some really ruff graphics. Then in a couple of days I started it up again, was just surfing the net and it shut down. No blue screen and I checked and the Automatice Start Up is unchecked. Any other suggestions? Thanks

**NooNoo** · November 5th, 2005, 06:36 PM

Control panel, administrative tools - event viewer. Any red or yellow warnings?

**tammy1999** · November 5th, 2005, 07:24 PM

there are none that I can see

**tammy1999** · November 5th, 2005, 07:27 PM

oh..........I take that back........there are yellow warnings in the system folder and one of them isn't a yellow warning but it said this at the time it shut down.......The WMI Performance Adapter service entered the stopped state. Does that help?

**TripleRLtd** · November 5th, 2005, 10:22 PM

No it doesn't .Typically WMI has no issues in XP...unless there is a problem with your video card, or the like. Like Noo said, there should be a BSOD and/or an event log of the issue. Be patient and wait for it. THEN we can help you...when we really know what the problem is.

**houseisland** · November 5th, 2005, 11:18 PM

It is a long shot, but sometimes the cheap little power and reset switches in the case cause this kind of behaviour.

Try disconnecting the power switch and the reset switch.

You can use the end of a screw driver (very carefully) to short the power switch connector to start your system. If the problem continues, the the switches are probably OK. Hook them back up, and move on to other diagnostics.

If the problem goes away, hook up the power switch. If the problem comes back, it's probably the power switch. If the problem doesn't come back, hook up the reset switch and see what happens.

I have seen systems that spontaneously start themselves, spontaneously reboot themselves, spontaneously shut themselves down, or spontaneously start to POST and immediately reboot and reboot and reboot.

A neglected K62 toy Linux box started up in my home office all on its own one day. It beeped during POST, then rebooted itself, beeped again, and shut itself down. It performed variations on this theme all afternoon and drove my wife to a state of alarm. When she found what was making the beeping, she started paging me at work. The problem was a flaky power switch.