pc keeps switching off

[icemantaz]

Help. Just this evening my pc has started completely shutting itself off. Not restarting or anything like that just switching off. Never had any issues with it in the 18 months its been running until 2nite.
its a
COre 2 quad
asus striker xtreme
2gb ocz ram
2 x 500gb hdds
enermax psu

now for some reason i think it could be the hard drives. is it possible for the hdds to cause the pc to completely switch off? i know its not overloading the psu and its not overheating so unless its the psu any more ideas?

[ibrien14]

what happens when you swithc it back on. does it then switch off quicker. it is unlikely to be the hdd as i have never heard of a pc powering off when that is at fault.

[peterb]

Fro your description it is looking like PSU, or mobo. My money would be on PSU or some internal (to the computer) connection problem

[watercooled]

Agreed. I saw I PC builder on Youtube replace his PSU because he thought it was faulty, something similar to your problem IIRC, but it turned out to be the motherboard so be sure to test both before RMAing. How often does it happen? If it happens very often it shouldn't be hard to find what is at fault - just try another PSU in your PC if possible. If the problem stays it's likely the motherboard, if it goes it's likely the PSU but again before RMAing be sure all connections are snug - my friend's PC failed to work for a while because a connector had come loose somehow possibly due to moving the PC.

[icemantaz]

sorry for late reply, went away last weekend and forgot when i got bk. It was only happening last friday thats all. happened about 5 times in total so switcjed my pc off and lef tit for the night. been running fine since. Wierdly enough 2nite it decides to do it again twice more. Now i dunno if its complete coincidence that exactly 7 days after it first happened then it did it again ??? last week it was pretty random. doesnt seem to be overheating. will see how things go and prolly look at a psu replacement.

[watercooled]

You will want to ensure it's the PSU at fault first - try another one in the PC if possible because the motherboard could also be faulty.

[icemantaz]

ok will do thanks to all for suggestions

[kompukare]

exactly 7 days sounds a bit suspect though. Does the PC switch off while logged into Windows?

If yes and it happens again on a repeatable scale, you should try booting of LiveCD like Ubuntu. If the PC's perfectly fine with that then your problem is most likely your Windows install rather than your hardware.

Of course, that could still leave it as being an onboard device which Ubuntu doesn't use.