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The problem with people coming to me for computer support is that I'm a tier 2 guy at best, but they come to me anyway. My fiance has been having this problem for the past few days (4 or 5). Comp stats are:

AMD Athlon x2 64bit Dual Core processor 4200+
Gigabyte Motherboard - sorry, don't have the exact specs
3GB DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 256MB
450GB SATA HDD
Windows XP Pro SP3

The problem doesn't only happen when she is playing WoW, but it does always happen when she is playing WoW. At first I was concerned that it might be a heat issue from the video card, but we set up the temp monitors and they aren't throwing any error messages. I've run through the System Logs in the event viewer and there were no warnings about the system being shut down for any reason or even any warnings that the system had shut down unexpectedly.

What I did find, when I ran MalwareByte's Anti-Malware was the Vundo trojan. I set MBAM to remove the trojan and quarantine anything that it couldn't remove (it says it's been removed and subsequent scans have come up clean). I've also run Spybot S&D, which came up with about 20 more hits for Virtumonde and cleaned those, then restarted and checked again and the second scan came up clean. Also AVG Free 8.5, build dated 08/06/2009 and virus definitions updated as of today comes up clean. I ran chkdsk on startup last night and it came out clean, and again today with the option selected to check for and repair bad sectors, and it came up clean.

Also, I've downloaded and installed all of the Windows recommended updates, except for IE8, and we switched her over to Google Chrome instead of IE6 which she was running.

Still, her computer randomly shuts itself off. Any ideas? Is this all still part of Virtumonde or was that just a happy coincidence unrelated to the shutdown issue?

I'm probably a tier 16 guy, if you count as tier 2, but my reaction to this would be to reformat. Sometimes you just can't replace a clean box with a fresh installation.

Yeah, I'm leaning that way myself, but damn I hate reinstalling stupid Windows software. Well, that's not really the bad thing... what I really hate is listening to her bitch while she reinstalls every SimX, Sid Meier, Microsoft Age of X, Blizzard, and Ubisoft game known to man, then redownloading WoW and all of the upgrades and patches... that's what I hate.

Are you plugged into a UPS?

My computer was shutting off randomly for a long time and on a hunch I moved it from my UPS to a regular power strip and it hasn't randomly shut off since.

I'd suggest trying it with only 1 stick of ram. Then try the other.

Pojodan said:

Are you plugged into a UPS?

My computer was shutting off randomly for a long time and on a hunch I moved it from my UPS to a regular power strip and it hasn't randomly shut off since.

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Nope, regular power strip. And her computer is on the same circuit as mine, which doesn't randomly turn itself off (except when Vista does an update, which isn't really random), so it's not that either.

Gared;245281][quote=Pojodan said:

Are you plugged into a UPS?

My computer was shutting off randomly for a long time and on a hunch I moved it from my UPS to a regular power strip and it hasn't randomly shut off since.

Click to expand...

Nope, regular power strip. And her computer is on the same circuit as mine, which doesn't randomly turn itself off (except when Vista does an update, which isn't really random), so it's not that either.[/QUOTE]

Damn you simple solutions! Why must you fail me?!

Bad memory would be my next guess. Do a google search for 'RAM tester' and find one that creates a boot disc.

I'm gonna guess at this point that the RAM is the most likely culprit, and will be the next item in a long list of hardware replacements for this damn computer (it was a homebrew, and will be the last one I make myself, as it has been nothing but a pain in the ass). Every time I run the RAM test and the RAM gets close to maxing out, the computer shuts down.

I'm still kind of miffed though that XP Pro doesn't seem to have any issues with the computer turning off unexpectedly (it hasn't given us the "Windows didn't turn off correctly last time, do you want to boot into safe mode" startup screen and there's nothing in the system log).

I suppose I'll have to transfer all of her files to my harddrive tomorrow while the servers are down and wipe her computer, just in case a clean install of the OS fixes the issue, but I don't hold out much hope. Especially not now... now when you reboot the computer after a surprise shutdown, if you don't wait a couple of minutes, the computer makes the awful noise of hideousness (I really don't know how to describe it).

My Tier 0.5 knowledge would like to ask you if it isn't simply overheating?

I would have to say either overheating or a bad power supply.

Check for popped capacitors on the mother board. If you have one, replace MOBO and Power Supply.

If it is not overheating you should try checking the RAM. If that doesn't work you should try checking your power supply to make sure it is giving sufficient power. Also are there any errors listed in Event Viewer? If so what is the Event I.D. of the errors? Also something you may want to do is to download and run CCleaner and have it clean out your registry files.

hylian said:

If it is not overheating you should try checking the RAM. If that doesn't work you should try checking your power supply to make sure it is giving sufficient power. Also are there any errors listed in Event Viewer? If so what is the Event I.D. of the errors? Also something you may want to do is to download and run CCleaner and have it clean out your registry files.

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If it were ram I'd assume it'd through up a BSOD where overheating would just turn it off, so I'm with that crowd.

While RAM errors in my experience usually leads to BSOD's, RAM slot problems or erroneous BIOS RAM settings can result in continues reboots.

So, as with any computer problem, break it down and analyze.

Software
Seeing as the computer had a trojan and spyware, clean it up, if unable to, reinstall OS. A corrupted file somewhere is usually the most likely culprit when the OS has been infected, especially if you don't know for how long already. Possible hardware errors you ran into may just be a coincidence.

Hardware
Reset BIOS to factory defaults.
Test the RAM if you haven't already. Replace or take out faulty RAM modules.
If test is inconclusive, take out all RAM and put 1 stick back in. Stress the PC to see if it goes wrong again.
Try all slot / module combo's until you find a problem. Don't stop before you do. It's important to know if it's a RAM module problem or motherboard related.
If it's the motherboard then it is most likely a northbridge problem. If/When you replace it, make sure the northbridge will have enough airflow.
If it's a single RAM module, buy a new one.

If no problem is found, move on to other possible components and treat them in the same manner.

my limited skill tells me couple of things

1. Your Power supply is not putting out enough power and cause a shut down.
2. Your BIOS may have been set to shutdown if your system overheat to prevent damage.

I also note that it only happen when you play WoW. Do you have any other games that can use a lot of graphic power? What if you turn down all the high end graphics and play in low graphic mode?

Is it possible to change out video card? most store allow return (check with policy first) and buy one change it out and see if it crash.

Chibibar said:

I also note that it only happen when you play WoW.

Click to expand...

He said

The problem doesn't only happen when she is playing WoW, but it does always happen when she is playing WoW

Click to expand...

The fact that it always happens when she is playing WoW makes me suspect the memory.

I would second the RAM culprit. They're usually the cause of most random shutdowns. Considering an app like WoW would like find defects with how much it uses, that would explain why it's the repeat offender.

---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

Also, another odd thing is it might be the memory in the graphics card.

hylian;245425][quote=Chibibar said:

I also note that it only happen when you play WoW.

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He said

The problem doesn't only happen when she is playing WoW, but it does always happen when she is playing WoW

Click to expand...

[/QUOTE]

Ok... but that still means that intense use of graphic or RAM could cause the problem. I have similar problem and it was my video card issue (since my power supply is generating enough power) swap the video and I'm working again.

BUT my co-worker has the same issue but video card wasn't the issue. It was power supply.

This is why we need to test if it is video card, power supply or RAM (it could be but I rarely encounter those)

Chibibar;245545][quote=hylian;245425][quote=Chibibar said:

I also note that it only happen when you play WoW.

Click to expand...

He said

The problem doesn't only happen when she is playing WoW, but it does always happen when she is playing WoW

Click to expand...

[/quote]

Ok... but that still means that intense use of graphic or RAM could cause the problem. I have similar problem and it was my video card issue (since my power supply is generating enough power) swap the video and I'm working again.

BUT my co-worker has the same issue but video card wasn't the issue. It was power supply.

This is why we need to test if it is video card, power supply or RAM (it could be but I rarely encounter those)[/QUOTE]




I agree that it could be the intensive use of the graphic or ram durring games and stuff like WoW. I was just pointing out that it still happened when WoW was not in use.

If it's hitting a bad part of the RAM, it's just more likely when it's being used heavily. It's there to be hit by anything, but hardly reached by the other apps.

Ok, so here's what I've discovered so far. I'm leaning (rather heavily) to a blown RAM slot. I pulled both DIMMs (discovering in the process that she was running a 1GB DIMM at 533 and a 2GB DIMM at 800). Put the 1GB DIMM in the first slot, booted up the computer, and ran MemTest to 139% coverage. The computer booted and ran slowly but didn't die. I swapped the DIMM into the second slot and the computer booted like a dream and ran much faster, ran MemTest back up to 139% coverage and everything checked out.

Then I swapped DIMMs. I put the 2GB DIMM in the first slot and the computer threw a BSOD before ever reaching the desktop and rebooted itself, then refused to load to Windows. Swapped the DIMM into the second slot and again the computer booted like a dream and ran to the desktop in record time (for this computer at least) and MemTest is running fine on its way back to 139% coverage.

I also noticed when I pulled the DIMMs in the first place that the 2GB DIMM was in the first slot and the 1GB DIMM was in the second slot.

'computer turns off' is usually PSU/power related. First step would be to clean up this memory problem. Get some good quality RAM in there with consistent settings (all DDR2 800) and matched pair (2x1GB or 2x2GB) so that you know it's not the RAM. Then test the crap out of it.
Check the manual for that Mobo just to be sure...some require that RAM be installed in certain slots first, etc.--this might mean your slot isn't bad (but I wouldn't hold my breath).

Also check for the earlier capacitor issues. Bad caps can cause a slot connected to them to go dead.

--Patrick

Dudes, you're all missing the obvious. She's a computer nitwit. Gared, make sure she didn't set up ALT-F4 as a shortcut to call up her WoW chat window or something :tongue:


Ok, ok, slightly more serious, I'm in with the memory crowd. Patrick and Seraphyn are probably your best bets for superduper computer help

Well, since I pulled that 1GB DIMM and have just had her using the 2GB DIMM in the second slot, the computer has been doing much better. It still occasionally dies, but last time it died it waited for us to get all the way through a two-man UBRS run before choking. I'm sure the RAM will need to be replaced altogether, but then, the computer is 3 years old and a poorly cobbled together homebrew; so it needs to be replaced altogether, something that isn't going to happen until we have a couple thousand in the bank instead of a couple bucks.

Also, requisite postmortem info, when I had the case opened up to check the RAM I checked the capacitors and none of them were blown. There are no scorch marks on the board anywhere, and I dusted everything out. I do suspect that the powersupply is the real culprit, because I've been told the brand and model of powersupply that we have in there is total crap (Raidmax 630 watt to match the crappy Raidmax Ninja case that didn't provide enough cooling for her 512MB ATI card, causing the need to step down to the 256MB NVIDIA card which admittedly runs much better anyway).

Also, Bubble, I wouldn't quite call her a computer nitwit, and setting up a shortcut in WoW bound to Alt+F4 would only cause WoW to close, not the computer to turn off... but there's a reason I'm asking the questions. I've had to explain the difference between RAM and hard drive space one time too many...

Oh yea.. I forgot all about the bulging capacitor issues. I had a tons of Dell machine with that issue (not saying that your machine is a dell) but make sure look for that too. Even bulging capacitor is bad (which technically is blown just nothing gushing out yet)

Gared: it was more of a joke, I assure you :-P

Bubble181 said:

Gared: it was more of a joke, I assure you :-P

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I got that, I wasn't offended or anything.

Well, good. Wouldn't want to offend anyone even remotely looking like your avatar :-P