HP e-pc cutting off

[jackal70058]

Someone recent brought me an HP e-pc and ask if I can fix it for them. It had a lot of problem with the softwar so I was doing some things and then it just cuts off. It will turn off and then I will have to unplug it and wait a few hours before it starts back again. It is not the power supply because it has external power supply and I tried using others but that did not help. The owner said it has done this a little over a year but she could get it to stay on for days beofre it cut off. One it off, it sometimes tries to come back but the lights flash and the speakers pop but it dosen't work.

Any idea?

[lumis]

its probably getting too hot. you might check and see if there is something in the bios settings that you can change to prevent it from "cutting off".

[redwudz]

And try blowing the dust and grunge out of it. The heat sink may be plugged up or the CPU fan may be inoperative. Unfortunately some PCs have marginal cooling. I have seen HP desktop PCs that have just a passive CPU heat sink, no CPU fan. They used the power supply fan for cooling. That was with a Celeron CPU that doesn't need much cooling, but if they tried that with a P4 it would be a disaster in the making.

[jackal70058]

I'd already thought It could be a heat problem. When I opened it there was not a lot of dust and cleaning it didnt do anything for the problem. The fan works.

The BIOS I check that too and there is no settings there that make it go off.

[lumis]

could be the ram. if it has only 1 stick, replace it. if it has 2, try removing one and see how it runs, and then vise-versa

[jackal70058]

There has one stick of memory inside I'll have to check it. Can the memory really have cause this problem? I don't have an extra stick and my old computer uses different type of memory I'll have to buy an extra one.

Could it be a virus? I do a virus scan but they Norton subscription has run out I don't know how old it is.

[lumis]

i'd be surprised if it were a virus.. and yes, memory can do that to you.

if you want to follow up on your virus lead, download a new trial version of norton, or try the mcafee trial.

[redwudz]

I didn't see where you stated the OS on the computer. XP has some diagnostic help. The one I use the most is Task Manager. Check what the CPU usage is. And the memory usage. Probably no help there, though.

Also study the processes running. This is from a direction of a software problem. Look for anything odd. You can kill all processes, though if you kill the OS processes, it will crash. But no loss, just reboot.

I think hardware is more likely. Memory is number one, if you have eliminated the PS and apparently, overheating.

If possible, maybe go ahead and reformat the HD and start over with a new OS install. If the computer is dysfunctional, you have little to lose.

From there it's usually MB replacement, not so bad with some of the all-in-one micro ATX boards now. It's only worth spending a little time with these type of problems.

I'm assuming a desktop PC here.

[jackal70058]

It a Microsoft Windows XP Professional computer. I couldn't get System Information to come up but that is problems that they're in the computer that I cannot fix until it stays on long enough.

I don't think I can reinstall operating system I don't have the original discus and as I said before it's not actually my computer. I ask the owner if the discs are here she says she does not know if she has them. She got this computer from someone else, and her uncle did the upgrade to the Windows XP Professional from the original system I do not know what the original was. I think it was Microsoft Windows 2000.

If I get extra time I will get a cheap memory stick and try that. If it don work, I know someone else who has computer with the same type of memory he can have it.

I add this to say about the virus scan: I cannot get the computer on long enough to complete virus scan. It find a few but then it cuts off before completion.