Sudden unwanted shutdowns making PC useless

[GhettoBlaster]

My desktop has been expeiriencing this behavior intermiitently for some time now. At first it was just enough to be annoying, I tried a few things and then it seemed to go away for a while. Well now it is back and the PC isn't even useful for more than a few minutes. The shutdowns I am expeiriencing are just as if I clicked START and then shutdown and it ends process on running apps like Trillian.

I've run both Norton and AVG to check out for a virus. Spybot search and destroy and AdAware have been run too.

Specs are as follows:

AMD64 3000+
Epox 9NPA+
2x512 Crucial Value Ram DDR PC3200
Hitachi 160gb SATA150
Western Digital 80GB PATA
GeForce 6800

I am at a loss here. A lil help please!

 

[montag451]

Firstly,
Go, control panel, system, advanced, settings. Untick 'automatically restart'.

Second,
see if you get an error/blue screen. Note down exactly what it says and post back.

START
Run
msconfig - type that
startup
untick anything that you don't completely need. Is there a chance that a friend of yours is playing a joke on you by putting something on your computer that will shut down the system after a few minutes?

 

[GhettoBlaster]

well it's not restarting, it's shutting down as if I went through the normal shut procedure. I've even disconnect the PC from the net and the behavior continued so it doesn't look like someone is controlling it remotely and causing the nastiness. But I kind of agree with you, it's possible it was something a guest did. Laptops are really inexpensive these days if you want one for the sake of having a portable computer, freaking bring one, I will let you on my wireless network! But these are the same people that ask me "Why is your computer locked down? You hiding something?" No! It's to get people like you to ask before using the computer, I think it's rude just to start banging away.

When I get home I will check the 'automatically restart' setting. Could this still be the culprit even though the behavior is the PC shutting down like it would normally as opposed to a BSoD or some other nasty crash and power off?

 

[montag451]

Unlikely, just worth doing anyway.

Could be your kb is playing up - a sticking 'hibernate' or 'sleep' key?
Spilt anything nasty over your kb recently?

Try switching off all power options (acpi). This could cause some of what you are saying if the timings are very low. And, is the computer shutting down or hibernating - just to make sure?

 

[GhettoBlaster]

Good suggestion on the keyboard issue. I don't recall spilling anything on it but it's possible sure. The keyboard is a cheap emergency replacement bought from CompUSA for less than $10. For months CTRL + T wouldn't work in Firefox which drove me insane but recently it started working. I think it's time I buy a proper keyboard, heck I took the time and money to buy decent components for the internals of the machine I should buy proper keyboard.

Would an Antec SmartPower PSU cause any of this behavior if it detected any problems? I know in the old days a bad PSU would just striaght up cause a reboot or hard shut down but since it's "SmartPower" does it try and shut the system down properly?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

No, it will not try to shut the system down.

My question is does it completely shut down or does it reboot? Also, do you have a ups connected? Most ups devices have a shutdown feature if it is getting low on power

 

[GhettoBlaster]

It completely shuts down as in turns itself off just as if I manually initiated the shut down procedure to turn the PC off. There is no UPS attached. I am still at work so I have not had an oppurtunity to try any of the suggestions by montag.

It actually shutting down is what makes me think it is more software related rather than hardware.

 

[montag451]

Another avenue to explore......

I use software which, in the menu/preferences, gives the option to shutdown the machine after it has finished doing what it is doing.
This is always unticked in my options, but could you have some similar options in some of the sw you run?

 

[GhettoBlaster]

I check my power options as well as MSConfig and nothing fishy there. I was able to run Spybot last night and it did turn up a suspicious piece of spyware. I also noticed Windows update hadn't been run in about a month and had a .Net 2.0 framework update that fixed some hole allowing people to take control. The PC stayed up all night without a shutdown which is a good sign but it's done this before. I left it on while I am at work so we'll see if it's on when I get home. Thanks for all the advice guys!