Computer Power Shut Down

A friend of mine bought a new computer because sometimes she was having problems with the CD drive and the DVD drive being recognized.

She gave me her old computer, a HP Pavillion 520n, running Windows XP.

Before I give the computer to someone in the community, I decided to restore it to its original format with the help of the HP support showing me how to restore it without a System Recovery disk.

I restored it and then updated Windows XP and it is in good running order. I don't seem to have any problems recognizing the CD or DVD drive.

My problem is, and I'm not sure if it is hardware, that occasionally it has powered down for no apparent reason.

Once when I moved the mouse after returning to do some more work on the machine, the system shut completely down. I was able to repower and the system came back up.

Another time I put in a CD and the system powered down on its own again. When I tried to reboot it, I received this error message: "Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and press enter." Well, of course, I don't have a System Disk, so I just powered it down and when I started it up again, Windows loaded normally.

My husband and I decided we would remove the panel and blow out any dust that was inside the tower, check to see if anything was loose, but couldn't find anything. The fan seems to be running but fairly quiet. We closed up the computer and it was running fine and thought we had the problem licked.

Everything was going fine today and the system was operating properly. I left it on and running and returned some time later to find the screen was black as the system powered down on its own again. I was able to repower it and the system came back up.

We are not sure what the problem is and not even convinced it is a hardware problem. We would appreciate any help you could provide to start troubleshooting this shut down problem.

Could this possibly be a thermal problem?

Thank you.

Jean

 

Hello Jean,

Good problem description, although I will ask some more questions. When you say "powered down ", is the main system LED on, off or maybe flashing? Does the LED on the monitor indicate it is receiving a signal or does it think the computer is powered off?

Yes, you should be able to go into the BIOS (Setup) settings at startup and look for temperature readouts. It should be by pressing the Delete or F1 key after powering up (just tap each alternately or it may tell you which key to press on the HP splash screen). You may need to run the system for a while and then check the temperatures from a Restart of Windows. Checking from a "cold" start might not tell you anything.

Check for dust blocking the fins of the heatsink under the CPU fan. Loosen any dust with a straightened paperclip, take the case outside and blow the dust out.

Check the power settings in Control Panel. If the hard drive is set to power down after a certain amount of time, reset it to Never.

Just another point on the hard drive, run Error Checking (see Help and Support) and set it to do a scan of the disk surface. This may take quite a long time, try setting it up to run overnight.

You have updated Windows. Have you updated the drivers? Find updates for the drivers at HP (particularly chipset drivers if you see them).

If "non original" hardware (PCI cards) have been added. Try removing them.

Check in Device Manager if any problems are identified.

Can't think of many more at the moment

Matt

 

You should also check Hibernation - if its enabled, disable it.

 

If that HP is actually powering off then I would suspect the power supply is failing. HP/Compaq went the same route as Emachine by installing Bestec power supplies. These power supplies are not only inadequate, but also have a high failure rate. Sometimes when these cheap power supplies fail they take out the motherboard and/or the hard drive logic board.

 

Thank you all for your prompt replies.

I'll try to answer some of your questions now but I know I will need to do more work later.

Matt,
When I said "powered down ", I meant the main system LED if OFF. The monitor indicates the computer is powered off. The hibernation is turned off also.

I did go into the BIOS and looked at the temperature readouts, the are changing from: CPU Fan Speed 4636 RPM and 4725 RPM. The System Fan Speed only allows Ignore (which is set) or N/A.

We haven't done anything with the "fins of the heatsink under the CPU fan." Don't know how to get to that yet.

The Power settings are set to "Never" for everything.

I ran Error Checking so don't know for sure if that did anything but it ran OK and then the computer rebooted.

I did update Windows but did not update the drivers earlier. I did go on the HP site and downloaded most of the drivers from this site:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=70999

I'm not sure what the chipset drivers are but I supposedly did an Bios Update, plus Graphic Driver, DVD Player, Modem Driver. I didn't update the Firmware or Operating Systems yet.

I checked the Device Manager and there are no problems listed there.

If we have to replace the power supply, I'm afraid we don't know how to do that so maybe will have to take it somewhere to be done.

I'm letting the computer stay on and we'll see if it powers off again. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for all the help.

Jean

 

You have investigated the suggestions well

Maybe for your reference, there is a photo of a CPU heatsink and fan here:
http://sewelldirect.com/kingwin-cpu-fan-and-heatsink.asp
The fan blows air down through the fins of the heatsink, and dust gets trapped in the fins. You may need to look carefully beneath the blades of the fan.

Those are fan speed readouts, maybe there are no temperature readouts. Do you see any readings in degrees Celsius or degrees Fahrenheit?

Hope you've nailed it.

Matt

 

Hi,
I haven't done anything with the CPU heatsink yet because I may have found the problem. I tried to plug in a camera hookup to the power strip and the system powered down again. I'm wondering if I didn't have a bad power strip. I replaced the power strip with a new one and for the last two days the computer did not turn off. I'm really hoping this was the problem but I plan to run and use the computer for a few more days to check it out before I give it away.

In any case, I'll let you know but I wanted to give an update to this situation.

By the way, there are no temperature readouts and I didn't see any readings in degrees Celsius or degrees Fahrenheit.

Thanks for all your help. I hope we have solved the problem.

Jean