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Pc Shuts Down After A Few Seconds

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PC shuts down after a few seconds --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here is the situation, about 2 weeks ago one of my computers stopped in the middle of a game and shut down. That was it. I restarted the computer and it powered up and went into the normal startup sequence, it did hit the BIOS screen, then powered down unexpectedly. After that it could be turned on, but then immediately shut down, staying on no longer than about 4 seconds. The system worked flawlessly for about 2 years before this problem.System Specs: AMD 2000 on an ECS K7S5A mb with appropriate RAM and a 300 W psu. I searched the net, found out it could/most likely was, a power supply problem. I bought a new power supply (a 320 psu), swapped it out and nothing changed. I have a couple other computers with similar configurations so I swapped out components looking for the 'defective' part. The CPU/RAM were easy enough, but did nothing, finally I tried a new motherboard (ASUS A7N8X-X), again nothing. I eventually swapped everything out into a new case, using the same RAM/CPU/Video card. (Please note: I have not had the hard drive plugged in since early in this debugging period, as I cannot get to the BIOS, I did not figure having the HD plugged in would help in any way.)I still figured the RAM/CPU must be bad so I put in spares, and I put in an old PCI video card just for good measure too. It still powered down before hitting the BIOS. What the heck? There was not one original piece of hardware in the box and I had the same problem. Then I made a terrible mistake. I took the original RAM/CPU and plugged them into a machine I knew to be working (on an ASUS A7N8X board). Guess what? Now that computer exibits the same behaviour, it simply will not boot up. It shuts down after a mere 2-3 seconds. The fans start, the leds go on, then it shuts off.I have tried clearing the CMOS on both systems to no avail.I am getting paranoid about some sort of a RAM virus and that I inadvertently infected a 'good' computer with it by mistake.Does any of this sound remotely like something anyone else has ever heard of?

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I lost two good laptops that way back in 1997 due to BIOS virus that was going around that year. And during my reading, I would have quickly replied with, ?yes, it?s your BIOS problem.? However, when you mentioned that you placed your original, thought to be faulty, CPU into your working computer and the same symptom exhibited, it got me wondering if a virus can exist within CPU?s cache?So, tracking from your steps you took, I believe there?s something wrong with your original CPU. And this CPU is probably causing some kind of short circuit that causes motherboard to ?fry.? My reasoning is that you changed out to a new motherboard but used your old CPU. And you used that same CPU on a working system as well. Ergo, both of your systems are inoperative. Further question I have for your is any sign(s) or error beep(s)? When you start your machine without at least having a CPU, RAM and video card you will hear error beeps in codes (this will also denote that a part is defective).Hopefully someone from this forum would see this thread and come up with a right answer.Cheers.

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No such thing as a RAM virus. Once you power off your system nothing resides in RAM so a virus cannot infect the RAM, the closest thing to a RAM virus would be a virus that loads in a TSR (terminally stay resident) program.You seem to have eliminated a good number of problems, but I have to ask, have you eliminated the power source (not supply) as your problem. Is it possible that the PC's are plugged into a bad outlet? I know it seems like such a silly thing, but I have seen it before where an unreliable outlet would power up for a few seconds then shut down the second the PC tried to draw any more power. Try plugging into a different outlet, using a different power bar or UPS. If your power outlet is off it may also be frying your powersupplies, and that could be why the comptuer you knew was working is now exhibiting similar symptoms.

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What you have is: Blaster.worm/Lovesan.wormSearch for: Blaster.worm/Lovesan.worm removal ToolsThey are made by Microsoft and Symantecm should be free. I got the oficial 'free' CD here.

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Hi
While it's entirely possible you could have a virus or worm that causes a shutdown .. It's unlikely that it could be affecting BOTH computers .. UNLESS you previously had them on the same network with "file sharing" enabled OR transfered files via the internet between the two computers.
If you did'nt.. then.. practically the only cause left is the CPU/RAM which you transfered between the two puters..most likely the CPU.

I took the original RAM/CPU and plugged them into a machine I knew to be working (on an ASUS A7N8X board). Guess what? Now that computer exibits the same behaviour, it simply will not boot up. It shuts down after a mere 2-3 seconds. The fans start, the leds go on, then it shuts off.

Get a linux boot up & troubleshooting CD to test the CPU.. if it has any functioning circuits left on it at all. If it doesn't.. then you'll get the same shutdown result when you try to boot up with the CD.Hope this helps
RGPHNX

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A few moths ago I had the same problem. I try the same solutions but nothing.At last I found the problemMy AGP port crasshes with my graphic card because the speed of my AGP was slower than the speed of my card.I try to set up my card with a slower speed like 4x and the problem was goneI hope this case will be useful for u.

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I am currently having this same problem with two different Motherboards -- an MSI KT4AV with an AMD Duron 1800 processor, and an ABIT KV7 with an AMD Athlon XP 3200+. Both systems have AGP video cards based on vastly differing generations (one geforce 6600GT, one geforce 2 mx400) Both Computers run fine in Windows 2000 until I play America's Army for a while -- the time can vary. The shutdown is sudden and without warning -- then the speaker beeps an alternating High/Low tone like a European police siren. I can't reboot them immediately, but I only have to wait about 30 seconds before they will boot successfully. If I immediately check the CPU temp with the BIOS, it is 40-49 deg. C. -- so it seems unlikely that this is a temperature problem, unless the CPU's are reliably failing well below their rated max temps. I have had the problem on one of the systems where I couldn't even boot to windows - just like this other fellow, but I seem to have solved that by clearing CMOS memory -- that was on the MSI KT4AV. My experiments (planned out, not haphazard by the way) have ruled out power supplies, CPU chips, video cards, wall power supply, memory, motherboards, temperature, and phase of the moon. By the way, both of these systems will run for days with no problem if I stay away from games.I've researched this extensively on the net, and generally people have no idea what this is caused by. I have almost 30 years of experience with microprocessors (starting in 1976 with an Altair 8800), and I haven't seen this before -- now I've got it on two systems -- how unlikely is that if it's a hardware problem? I've only found three people on the net that spoke about this with any confidence: two mentioned a virus, and the other mentioned AGP speed. Because of everything I just mentioned, I am now virtually certain that this is caused by a virus. Let me explain:If you dismount the heatsink from an AMD Athlon or Duron Socket A processor and turn on the system, it will immediately fail with this behavior (tried it!) -- so this is a legitimate CPU failure alarm.Thus, many of the reports of this failure are probably just that -- CPU Failure. But that doesn't explain those of us who have sudden outbreaks of this problem on multiple systems.I can also stop this problem by slowing the processor down to about half its rated speed.With those facts in mind, imagine some semi-intelligent sociopath figures out that you can give an AMD CPU a certain series of instructions that confuse it enough that motherboards with AMI bioses think that it has failed -- or that actually cause the processor to fail suddenly, but not permanently. Then let's say that maybe this only works when the CPU is already stressed out by, say, a CPU intensive game program (that would explain why it isn't effective at half clock speed).I have no explanation for the systems that simply won't boot, and transfer the infection without the disk drive attached. That's one for the AMD people to tackle.As for me, I'm going to to looking for fixes to the Blaster/Lovesan worms, because I have nothing better to do -- my system crashes if I play games! :P

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PC shuts down after a few seconds

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Here is the situation, about 2 weeks ago one of my computers stopped in the middle of a game and shut down. That was it. I restarted the computer and it powered up and went into the normal startup sequence, it did hit the BIOS screen, then powered down unexpectedly. After that it could be turned on, but then immediately shut down, staying on no longer than about 4 seconds. The system worked flawlessly for about 2 years before this problem.

 

System Specs: AMD 2000 on an ECS K7S5A mb with appropriate RAM and a 300 W psu.

 

I searched the net, found out it could/most likely was, a power supply problem. I bought a new power supply (a 320 psu), swapped it out and nothing changed. I have a couple other computers with similar configurations so I swapped out components looking for the 'defective' part. The CPU/RAM were easy enough, but did nothing, finally I tried a new motherboard (ASUS A7N8X-X), again nothing. I eventually swapped everything out into a new case, using the same RAM/CPU/Video card. (Please note: I have not had the hard drive plugged in since early in this debugging period, as I cannot get to the BIOS, I did not figure having the HD plugged in would help in any way.)

 

I still figured the RAM/CPU must be bad so I put in spares, and I put in an old PCI video card just for good measure too. It still powered down before hitting the BIOS. What the heck? There was not one original piece of hardware in the box and I had the same problem. Then I made a terrible mistake. I took the original RAM/CPU and plugged them into a machine I knew to be working (on an ASUS A7N8X board). Guess what? Now that computer exibits the same behaviour, it simply will not boot up. It shuts down after a mere 2-3 seconds. The fans start, the leds go on, then it shuts off.

 

I have tried clearing the CMOS on both systems to no avail.

 

I am getting paranoid about some sort of a RAM virus and that I inadvertently infected a 'good' computer with it by mistake.

 

Does any of this sound remotely like something anyone else has ever heard of?

139692[/snapback]


I just encountered the same problems as yours, this was sometimes occured unexpectedly.

 

This may happen if one of you devices are mulfunctioning, like hardisk failure, memory, video, board of sometimes overheating the cpu that force the computer to reboot. try to diagnose your computer for immenent computer breakdown, since you are using amd maybe is the heat that force your pc to reboot.

 

I have the same problem before, when i try to checked everything attached to my computer I found out that my hardisk is having bad sector and sometimes failed to read the files... if you are in the middle of the game and having this problem, the computer restart in order to prevent big damaged to your pc, especially if you are using windows xp.

 

Part of security and protection provided by the microsoft it is common, this will happen just to remind you of possible hardware trouble... :P

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YES, it may be the hardware or some parts of your computer that forced you pc to reboot... If I remember when Microsoft release the new windows XP professional, they say that this OS increases the security that old windows OS don't have and one of them are the automatic shutdown or reboot once the computer detected a hardware failure in your computer.To prevent large damage mostly to your file system windows reboot your pc and try to reload all the system files needed by windows to run properly. Some hardwares that forced the PC to reboot when having trouble are as follows:1. Memory - If one or more of your memory installed into your computer is not function or mul-functioning the computer will reboot and tried to refresh and check the memory.2. Hardisk - This usually occured if you are using old hard drive or hard drive with damaged. if the windows detected damaged from your harddrive it will also reboot the computer to prevent corruptions of system files. this will also scan your hard drive once the computer restarted.3. PRocessors - Usually AMD as this problem, amd need to maintain certain heat in order to run faster and better. if the heat exceeded, it will reboot your pc alos. Usually AMD DURON and Althon has the problem before, I don't don't if they considered this as part security or a bugs.Motherboarth and process sometimes also the reason why your computer is restarted. As I said this is still part of security measures to prevent more damaged in your PC. :rolleyes:

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Hi all. I have had the same problem for a couple of weeks - hell maybe a month or so, who knows. I was very confused, I could not figure this out. I have an average system xp pro sp2 yada,yada.yada. Norton AV and so on. After finding this post, I decided to try a different antivirus solution. Panda Anti virus to be exact. PROBLEM SOLVED :) . My system is now stabe. I can play my game or burn a DVD without the frustration of my system shutting down. Hope this helps......

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I had the same problem a few days ago.My computer wouldn't start and I'd have to shut the power off and then back on again before I got response from the computer which was basicaly turning on for like two seconds and would shut down. Then it would freeze on screen while doing the memory check so here's what I did....unbolted the top part of the fan connected to the motherboard then cleaned out all the dust caught in the grill by inserting a plastic buisness card in and out of every slot in the grill and blowing the rest out....unconnected and reconnected the hard drive, cd-rom, dvd burner and floppy.I've had no problems since.

Edited by Robert Lindblad (see edit history)

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You guys have to understand something very important here. Irespective of the fact that, as most people believe, that AMD microprocessors have a higher edge in gaming (I dont think so though), you also have to understand that these particular family of processors have a higher tendency to go bad than their Intel counterparts. The AMD processors come with smaller heatsinks fitted on them, unlike the intel ones. comparing a pentium 4 and an eqquivalent AMD athlon XP 3200+, you will find out that whether it is the PGA 478 or the LGA 775, they all have larger heat dissipators than the AMD. It is only the newer AMDs that come with larger heatsinks (of about the same size as the Intel ones).So, wat am I trying to say here? Basically, Intel processors have a longer life span based on the fact that heat being generated within the processors is being actively dissipated by the heatsinks (inbuilt and overlying). I am a ssytems techie and I have come across these problems a lota times. People come complaining that something went wrong with their AMD CPU whereas you hardly get the same complaints about Intel.So, if you are using an older AMD procesor, I would advice you not to run very multitasking applications in other tht it doesnt get overheated and fry your mobo.As it is, this is what I suspect happened to your PC and there is about nothing you can do to revive either the mobo or even the CPU.

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hello,I'll try to help ya in this as much as i can...try when starting ur pc press on F8 before the windows starts loading then select (Last know good configuration)and see...will it run or no...it maybe a virus or a worm as others said...if that game is online so may someone hacked you and putted that virus or worm so it loads when the windows loads to restart itso try pressing F8 before the windows starts loading then select (safe mode) then scan your computer well with your anti-virusand try downloading the update for ur from other computer and install it then try scaning again...

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