PC crashing...

[Lie-in King]

Hi guys - I really hope someone can help me here...

For the last couple of months, my PC has been shutting down completely & suddenly.

It occurred to me that it seemed to happen when I was watching something on YouTube - until last night, when I'd watched a clip on mamya's thread successfully & was trying to think of a track to post, when the screen suddenly gave the familiar message "No Signal Received".

I don't recall it happening without YouTube either currently or recently having been used.

On a few occasions, moving the mouse has brought the box back to life, otherwise the ONLY way back in is to power-off at the mains & restart. Both actions lead to the "Windows shut down unexpectedly..." message.

I've run MSE, Spybot & Malwarebytes & appear to be clear of oogly-booglies...

I've checked that my NVIDIA drivers are up to date & that there are no M'soft updates outstanding.

My box is (taken from the "System Information" screen) -

Packard Bell iXtreme M5722 x64
Intel Core2 Quad CPU - Q8300 @ 2.50 GHx, 2499 MHz
Windows 7 Home Premium, Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
6 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1GB
Driver Version - 8.17.12.9610

If you need any more info, I'm happy to provide it, if I know where to find it - fair warning, lol!

As always, thank you for your time & attention,

L-i K

[Old_Geezer]

Not overheating is it ? There are apps you can get that use internal monitors to display things like processor temperature, if you want to check that.

Alternatively it may just be a power supply fault.

[MarkRae]

First things first: "Windows shut down unexpectedly" will almost certainly have written one or more events into the machine's Event Log, which you can access from Control Panel (depending on the version of Windows). Does that shed any light on things...

[Lie-in King]

Hi OG - I've had the case off & vacuumed the crud & dust out - all looks ok now?..

[Old_Geezer]

Mark lokos like he has a better order of activity: but I will say that sometimes a simple vacuum doesn't get all the crud out of the fans. Doesn't hurt to dismantle and get to the "inside" of them.

[Lie-in King]

Hi Mark - I've just looked at the 'Event Log' - ah, erm, they look like English words, just not strung together in a fashion with which I'm familiar...

[MarkRae]

I'm sure that I or another can interpret them for you...

[Lie-in King]

Am I looking in the right place?

Apparently, under "Summary of Admin Events" (Critical), there's an 'Event ID' - 41, 'Source' - 'Kernel-Power'

I apologise for being a numpty...

[MarkRae]

Yes you are, but it's really the event message that will be apposite. However, a problem with kernel power (i.e. power to the CPU) could certainly cause a machine to shut itself down...

[Lie-in King]

Ok - is that resolvable by me, or do I need to check the local rag for a 'trouble-shooter'?

[MarkRae]

Not nearly enough to go on yet. Is there anywhere near you which you already know to be reliable? It could, as has been suggested, be a simple matter of over-heating, which might be solved by the replacement of a fan...

[Lie-in King]

I know I'm not giving enough info in the right order & apologise again...

People near? Yes - 24hr call-out, good rep, blah, blah...

The fans really did look ok & I'm nervous about taking things apart without help to hand - yes, turns out I'm a wuss as well...

[TheNovice]

L-I-K can you not cut and paste the event log as an answer on here so we can look more closely.

[Lie-in King]

What I don't get is the fact that I can sit - for example - on AB or other forums ALL day & nothing untoward happens.

When I hit a video link, the trouble starts - or not!?

[Lie-in King]

Hi TheNovice - no, it won't let me do that - I could try snipping it & posting it to PhotoBucket, but the window is a mini one & won't maximise, so I can't include all the info I see when I scroll down...

[TheNovice]

on the right hand side of the event log is an option to save the log (Save All Events As...), select this and then selectthe file type txt file. You should be able to cut and paste from the txt file. Not sure if this will help but the more info we have the better.

[Lie-in King]

Ok, TN - I think I've got what you suggested -

Level Date and Time Source Event ID Task Category
Critical 18/04/2012 01:13:26 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power 41 (6
3) The
system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Critical 17/04/2012 01:23:17 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power 41 (6
3) The
system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Critical 15/04/2012 13:53:49 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power 41 (6
3) The
system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

That's the top of a long, identical list - if I've got the wrong stuff, sorry...

[Lie-in King]

To me, that just says what happened, not why...?

[Mamyalynne]

As a totally non technical type, could I ask if this could have anything to do with Flash Player? Maybe the more knowledgeable could comment.

An overheating issue would not just present when viewing video surely.

[Old_Geezer]

It might if the extra processing put it over the top, heatwise.

I beleive I'f tried this in the past http://www.almico.com/sfscreenshots.php. (But the work PC won't allow me to check it properly.) May be worth trying even if just to rule things out.

[Lie-in King]

OG - I get a "404 Not Found" for that link?..