PC keeps shutting down

[dshepsman]

hiya guys

im hoping someone can confirm my suspicions about my PC

since late friday night, by PC has been randomly shutting down.
its not like it turns off straight away, but actually says "windows is shutting down"
woke up on sat to find my PC off, then i turned it on and was fine for a few hours, when it shut off again.

on sunday, turned it on, after a few mins turned off - happended a few times.
but when i use it, it seems ok.

there are no power settings to switch it off after a certain time period, CPU/mobo temps are well below boiling - 27 to 33 degs for cpu, 33-35 for mobo.
the 12v on the voltage seems to be fluctuating very slightly - all other rails are flat.

no spyware (havent checked for virus' yet), and ran a scandisk on all drives and they seem ok.

any ideas??

[Nick F]

There are some virus' out there that can shut down your PC, apart from that I would say that the PSU could be the fault. Have you tried to go back to a system restore point before the problems started.

[dshepsman]

There are some virus' out there that can shut down your PC, apart from that I would say that the PSU could be the fault. Have you tried to go back to a system restore point before the problems started.

hmm... havent tried a system restore - but the only thing ive changed was the RAM - and that was 2 weeks ago.

i forgot to mention that when the PC starts up again, there is a problem with the USB extigy - it seems as it is not detecting it properly.
turning the extigy off and on resolves this <-- linked?? maybe

i have a feeling its the psu. im using a thermaltake 420 and have done for 2 years. i dont really wanna but another just yet

[Nick F]

ah there might be a problem with the USB power, my pc always used to shut down when I had my webcam running off my mac keyboard because of power issues. Try another USB port and make sure you have the latest drivers for the device.

[dshepsman]

the extigy is self powered and been in that port for.... since i installed the mobo a few months ago.

will try when i get home

[EvilMunky]

Personally would reckon it to be a virus or service failure. for example i beleive you can shut the machine down by crashing the rpc service - little window comes up saying machine shuttin down in 30 secs - and there is no cancel.

[dshepsman]

ok, after leaving my PC off for 24 hours.. i 'think' i know what the problem is....

not a virus, not a faulty psu or any other hardware device.

i feel really silly now but i hope others can learn from it.

I have a nebula digital TV card. it has the option to use a sleep timer - which is re-occuring (didnt know, thought it was a 1 time jobbie) and i accidentally told the PVR software to turn off the PC instead of just closing down the software

The moral of this story - always check the basics

thanks for all the help guys

[HKPolice]

Hehe, might wanna replace the PSU if the 12v flux