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matchiz · Dec 11, 2009, 11:05 AM

All right, here's the problem :

When I turn on my PC it will run fine. Boot up fine and everything will be smooth. Then suddenly it will shut off, Randomly it could be days or hours. The Motherboards LED's will still be on but the PC is shut down cold. I have to hit the power button to turn it back on. Sometimes when I turn it back on, it will run fine again for a random amount of time and shut off again sometimes days sometimes hours BUT sometimes it will turn off just after booting up and loading the BIOS.

What I have done :

I have; blown out the dust, Cleaned and reapplied thermal paste, Reseated the heatsink, Bought brand new corsair ram and placed that in alone (Removed all previous ram), Ran speedfan (CPU and GPU between 47 and 52C), Ran CHK Disk, and memory test (all fine), I have AVG and Spybot running at all times.

MY PC :

Chasis : ANTEC 900 Case (5 Fans on High at all times)
CPU : Intel core 2 duo 2.93 GHZ
RAM : Corsair DDR2 6400
VIDEO CARD : XFX NVIDIA GEFORCE 8600
MOTHERBOARD : XFX 680i SLI
HD : Western Digital 750 GB
PSU : Thermaltake 1100 Watt

Side note : I have my PC plugged in running through a surge protector and, I think I dropped a screw into the fan opening of the PSU. So this is my PC's history. Let me know if you have anything. I'm reaching out here.

twinkiedooter · Dec 11, 2009, 08:13 PM

You may need to replace the power supply totally. My PC would do the same thing until I replaced the power supply. One day my PC would just not turn on. I suspected the power supply as the unit would turn itself completely off and I would have to try to turn it back on with the ON button. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it would take several attempts to get it back up.

I would definitely suggest that you change out the power supply. It can easily be tested to see if it's bad or not. It does help to blow out the dust but once the power supply innards gets coated it's hard to blow that dust out as the power supply literally attracts dust. Power supplies do go bad.

I took my tower to a local computer store. I had a new power supply installed and out the door in less than 1 1/2 hours at a cost of less than $100.

Clough · Dec 11, 2009, 09:29 PM

Hi, matchiz!

I think that twinkie's made some excellent points about the power supply! I've had that same problem with a number of computers that would just quit running. Before spending the money on a new power supply and on a technician's time though, if you have any friends that have old computers with power supplies that are compatible with your computer, you might want to ask and see if they might lend you a power supply to see if it will work.

Thanks!

matchiz · Dec 12, 2009, 12:39 PM

Just to clarify, so LED's are not powered by the PSU? and I could have made it go bad by not cleaning the inside of my PC enough (The dust ended up corrupting my PSU's innards)?. this is my first self made PC and she is great whens she's great but I have had so many off wall problems with her that I should be an expert by now.

twinkiedooter · Dec 12, 2009, 06:31 PM

Power supplies can go bad due to power surges, spikes, blackouts, etc. Be sure to always use a good power surge protector between your computer and the wall outlet.

InfoJunkie4Life · Dec 13, 2009, 08:34 AM

LED's use the power supply. However, if the computer shuts itself off, usually everything shuts off. When the power supply malfunctions, sometimes it will allow power to some areas, or limited power, and then none elsewhere.

The dust itself is rarely the cause of the failure. Most of the dust related failures are due to over heating or a burnt out fan caused by dust. Dust can act as both an inhibitor and insulation.

This doesn't mean that your power supply failed because of dust. It could have been to any number of reasons including not a high enough wattage for the equipment your are running, or just wear and tear.

I think that this is irrelevant until we determine that the power supply is truly the issue here.