The Traders' Den  

  The Traders' Den > Where we go to learn ..... > Technobabble
 

Notices

Technobabble Post your general Need for Help questions here.
Lossy or Lossless?
Moderators

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 2005-02-28, 06:56 PM
irishcrazy2005's Avatar
irishcrazy2005 irishcrazy2005 is offline
Yeah, that's a zebra donkey
110.97 GB/130.20 GB/1.17
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Berkeley, CA
Computer shutting down

This is completely unrelated to trading, but I figured that I might be able to find help here. I am running an emachines M6811 notebook with Windows XP SP2. The problem that I am having has occured three times over the last week or so (once last week and twice today). Basically, I am doing something and the computer just turns off randomly. All three times I have been doing something that is at least slightly computationally heavy. Twice it was decoding FLAC files to WAV, and once it was running an antivirus scan. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe the laptop is overheating. The vents are clear, but the bottom of the computer is very very hot. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

-Phil
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #2  
Old 2005-02-28, 07:00 PM
Cruzweb's Avatar
Cruzweb Cruzweb is offline
The Exhalted One
990.64 MB/78.41 MB/0.08
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Detroitish
Re: Computer shutting down

could be overheating, the fan capping out or something. If you got bad RAM it can make the PC restart, don't know about shutting down though
__________________
--John Cruz
Cruz Web Design::My Bootlist
Remember kids, it's all about the peace and love
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #3  
Old 2005-02-28, 07:01 PM
toys
0.00 KB/0.00 KB/---
 
Re: Computer shutting down

How much space is available on your hard drive, and when was the last time you did a defrag? A little while back I was getting PC shutdowns, and freeing up some space on my drive and doing a defrag solved the problem.
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #4  
Old 2005-02-28, 07:08 PM
U2Lynne's Avatar
U2Lynne U2Lynne is offline
TTD Staff
474.39 GB/2.01 TB/4.34
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: California
Re: Computer shutting down

Someone had posted a url to a handy little utility that would keep track of your PC temperature. Maybe that would help if you think it has to do with overheating. Try reading this thread: http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...ht=temperature
__________________
Five's Checksums Demystified - everything and anything you want to know about checksums
On a Mac? Get XLD to rip your CDs. Please see this guide - X Lossless Decoder (XLD): How to create flawless CD rips on Mac OS X


Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #5  
Old 2005-02-28, 07:23 PM
Punkishlyevil Punkishlyevil is offline
30.98 GB/42.38 GB/1.37
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Re: Computer shutting down

My guess is it is over heating. For a long time, my computer would completly randomly restart, then it got to just shutting down. I got Motherboard Monitor 5 to keep track of temperatures, and it turned out I was running around 70+ degrees Celcius. My computer had an auto shut down at 75 degrees Celsius so I'd check that out.
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #6  
Old 2005-02-28, 07:42 PM
toys
0.00 KB/0.00 KB/---
 
Re: Computer shutting down

i still think that the motherboard monitor program is very very cool
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #7  
Old 2005-02-28, 08:03 PM
TheMamba's Avatar
TheMamba TheMamba is offline
I love them redheads!
70.51 GB/140.66 GB/1.99
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: South Florida
Re: Computer shutting down

Heat and disk space are the 2 easiest to figure out, eliminate, or fix. If things start randomly shutting down, etc. it is probably one of those.

Read thru the link that Lynn posted and see if that helps.
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #8  
Old 2005-02-28, 08:34 PM
Evan811's Avatar
Evan811 Evan811 is offline
The Dude abides...
7.86 GB/153.60 MB/0.02
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: CUSE.
Re: Computer shutting down

Quote:
Originally Posted by toys
i still think that the motherboard monitor program is very very cool
where can i get one of these?
__________________
"The days of heaven on earth"
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #9  
Old 2005-02-28, 09:06 PM
irishcrazy2005's Avatar
irishcrazy2005 irishcrazy2005 is offline
Yeah, that's a zebra donkey
110.97 GB/130.20 GB/1.17
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Berkeley, CA
Re: Computer shutting down

Well I don't think it is the hard drive, as I have plenty of disk space and it has been defragged recently. Thus, I am going to chock it up to heat. If it continues to be a problem, maybe I will have to get an external cooler. I tried installing that motherboard monitoring program, but I do not know what the model of my motherboard is. Does anyone know how to figure this out? I looked on Google, and the only thing I found was:
Motherboard:
CPU Type Mobile AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3400+
Motherboard Name eMachine Shadow-K8
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8383/5 Apollo K8T800(M), AMD Hammer
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Phoenix (07/28/04)

This does not appear to be supported by the program. Thanks for all the help, and any help on this issue would also be appreciated.

-Phil
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #10  
Old 2005-03-01, 01:24 AM
feralicious's Avatar
feralicious feralicious is offline
dare to discover
63.44 GB/133.91 GB/2.11
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: occasionally
Re: Computer shutting down

You should get yourself a laptop cooler if you're running it a lot and it's getting that hot. If you haven't heard of them, they're like little platforms you set your laptop on and they have fans in them that keep it cool. Some of them also have usb ports in the back so you get a "hub" with it.

Try coolerguys or xtremepc, they seem to have good prices.
__________________
feralicious goodies
Don't get even.
Get odd.

....
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #11  
Old 2005-03-01, 01:41 AM
h_vargas
0.00 KB/0.00 KB/---
 
Re: Computer shutting down

i'll add in a couple of extra pennies for thought...

first off, a good hardware monitoring program is AIDA32. doing a quick google search (keywords "aida32" and "download") should give you a page to DL it from. this is a fantastic FREEWARE program, that will give you lots of info about *all* of the hardware/functioning of your PC.

second, as previously stated, it is likely overheating. i had this issue with a PC recently. want to know the solution that worked for me? i took off the side panel of the computer, got a can of O2 (compressed air), and thoroughly blew off the CPU and heatsink fan. there was A LOT of heavy dust/dirt caked on it, which was keeping the heatsink from running properly (and hence, overheating came into play).

other possible causes of the random rebooting:

- do you have ZoneAlarm? if so, the "True Vector Service" error may appear multiple times in the Event Manager. check that out. if an error with the True Vector Service has happened a lot, shut down ZoneAlarm (temporarily) and delete the ZoneAlarm files with the extension .RDB, and reboot.

- your video card driver may not be fully compatible. it doesn't matter if WinXP says "the device is working properly" in Device Manager. sometimes, a video card drive *appears* to work okay, but for whatever reason, it isn't working right. and this video driver issue can easily come into play if you never installed a driver for your video card and it's an AGP, for instance, and you just let WinXP use its own built-in driver for the video card.

- bad RAM, as has already been mentioned. you might want to google for a program (freeware) called "memtest 86." copy it to a floppy or a CDR(W) disc, and run it overnight. if no errors pop up, your RAM should be fine.

hope this info is of some use.

oh, p.s. AIDA32 will tell you the exact name/model of your Motherboard.

p.p.s. i just re-read the original post, and since there's a laptop involved. it could VERY WELL be, and probably is, an overheating issue. a friend of mine had a laptop (that was 8 months old at the time) that he was about to literally throw away. after some quick research online about the problem (random rebooting, and sometimes the computer not booting up AT ALL), i suggested he open it up and blow it out with compressed air. he didn't feel confident doing that, so he took it to a local computer shop where he lives, and they did it for free. for whatever reason, laptops seem more prone to overheating with a little dust than desktops... my guess is that it's because a laptop doesn't have as much room in the case to begin with, which would mean less space for heat to disperse itself to (and so it hovers around the CPU with nowhere to go).

Last edited by h_vargas; 2005-03-01 at 01:49 AM.
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #12  
Old 2005-03-01, 03:28 AM
feralicious's Avatar
feralicious feralicious is offline
dare to discover
63.44 GB/133.91 GB/2.11
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: occasionally
Re: Computer shutting down

Check these out:

http://store.coolerguys.com/noco.html

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...x=0&image1.y=0
__________________
feralicious goodies
Don't get even.
Get odd.

....
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #13  
Old 2005-03-01, 07:37 PM
Evan811's Avatar
Evan811 Evan811 is offline
The Dude abides...
7.86 GB/153.60 MB/0.02
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: CUSE.
Re: Computer shutting down

from coolerguys, which one of those is the best u think? my lap top gets so hot, i cant even keep it on my legs....
__________________
"The days of heaven on earth"
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #14  
Old 2005-03-01, 11:16 PM
feralicious's Avatar
feralicious feralicious is offline
dare to discover
63.44 GB/133.91 GB/2.11
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: occasionally
Re: Computer shutting down

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evan811
from coolerguys, which one of those is the best u think? my lap top gets so hot, i cant even keep it on my legs....
Evan you better read this.
__________________
feralicious goodies
Don't get even.
Get odd.

....
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
  #15  
Old 2005-03-01, 11:26 PM
U2Lynne's Avatar
U2Lynne U2Lynne is offline
TTD Staff
474.39 GB/2.01 TB/4.34
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: California
Re: Computer shutting down

Quote:
Originally Posted by feralicious
Evan you better read this.
__________________
Five's Checksums Demystified - everything and anything you want to know about checksums
On a Mac? Get XLD to rip your CDs. Please see this guide - X Lossless Decoder (XLD): How to create flawless CD rips on Mac OS X


Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes
Reply

The Traders' Den > Where we go to learn ..... > Technobabble

Similar Threads
Thread Forum Replies Last Post
What computer hardware/software to use to get cassete to computer? - mauserman Technobabble 52 2009-01-07 08:45 PM
newtork adaptor trouble keeps shutting down - eeyore5251976 Technobabble 2 2006-06-02 10:43 PM


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forums


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:13 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - , TheTradersDen.org - All Rights Reserved - Hosted at QuickPacket