Wife's puter .. off/on off/on
 

Hey my wife has a 2-3 year old HP just took off nortons system works from 2001 and put on just the antivirus 2003

after restart it crashes and now it will turn on and off at random.. is this a power pack.. or fan.. sorry have no clue about this one..

but yeah.. it turns on and off.. sometimes to desktop or sometimes before the monitor can do anything.

Yeah, sounds like the power supply could be going on the fritz.

It wouldn't hurt to check the connections on everything too. Also check to see if the heatsink is on correctly, and that the fan is moving enough air.

k next question.. how do i check the power supply

i think it's called a voltometer that is used to check power supply's.

you plug the wires to it and make sure there is enough juice going around for the whole system.

If you have to ask, you should probably have a repair shop do it. You can check the wiring with a voltmeter, but be careful and don't open it up.

See if your CMOS (the thing where it says "Press [delete, or enter, or space, or whatever] for options" before windows starts) has a CPU temperature monitor. It could be shutting itself down due to damngerously high temperatures.

Buy a power supply tester for around 13.00 +/-

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=ower+supply+tester">here are a couple at newegg</a>

I donno if its the PS or not, try what they said but also try some different RAM in the system.

Spontaneous shutoff could be a lot of things. It is most likely a heat problem, a power supply problem or a ram problem, but you could have also fried your CPU, or it might even be just software.

The first step I would take, and its a simple one, is to buy a bottle of "canned air" and dust out the computer well. Just open up the case and spray all of the dust out, be sure to get it off of anything that looks like a heat sink (metal and freaky looking), also be sure to blow the dust off of the fans, and blow some air thru the power supply (but don't open it, just blow air thru the mesh)

You would be shocked how often dust build up is the problem, particularly if you live in an urban area and you computer has gone a year or two without cleaning

It just might be norton ... it has never worked right for me on any computer.

It's a 3 year old HP, that should be enough to make it crash randomly. Try formatting and reinstalling the OS

sound smore like a software problem, how does it turn off, do you see it shutdown, or does it just click off,

does safe mode work ? if so boot it into that and leave it for a bit, if it doesnt turn off its, likely software, if the PSU is that bad, even leaving it at the very first OS selection screen or in the bios settings would likely caiuse it to repeat it.

If it doesn't do it in safe mode, try removing norton or doing a system restore if its got XP.

It sounds like it's prob a power supply/heat problem, but you should also check to see if you have any loose screws or something rattling around the case. I know that the powersupply will shutoff if it detects a short.