Computer down`

[Donna Adams]

my compuer was on, then it just shut off all on it's own. Now it comes one then shuts right off. I am using my husband's in his office at the church. We have no clue what's wrong with ours.

:basic04

[Joel Merrill]

Is it plugged into a UPS unit by chance? The battery went bad in my UPS unit a couple weeks ago and it did that. It did give me a warning message though.

Joel

[Glenn Harris]

You didn't say when it shut down. Immediately after turning on or when it tries to go into windows. (do you get the blue loading windows screen)

If it shuts down after it goes to the blue windows screen the most likely culpret is a virus. (do you have a current anti-virus software loaded?)

If it never gets that far the next step would be to see how far it gets in the boot-up sequence before shutting down. If it shuts down immediately the most common culpret is the cpu fan. (you can take the case off, power it up and see if the fan mounted on the cpu starts running) They burn up and if the fan doesn't start running the computer will automatically shut off to prevent damage to the cpu. One of the biggest banes of my existence is the "silent boot" settings on the cpu. (that and the quick boot) It allows the computer to boot up faster by eliminating the memory check and it doesn't show you where the system is in boot up. I always go into setup and turn it off because as a technician, if there is a problem I want to know where it failed at, not just somewhere between on and working. If it is a bootup sequence problem it may give you a beep code (a series of short and long beeps) that, depending on the make and model of the computer, is a diagnostic tool to tell you where in the boot sequence it failed. (It's called the POST test, short for power on sequence test and is designed to let people know where the problem is if it never gives you any indication on the screen.