Computer turns off by itself

Do you keep the CPU enclosure on the floor? If so, open it up and see if it is dusty.

I once extracted enough fur from my PC case to make another cat.

FWIW, a 200 mph leaf blower will take off most overheating issues. Seriously. I've been doing this for years.

Yep, temp in the office doesn't matter. This is kind of overkill, but you could download this program to check your CPU temps.

https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Little bit of google-fu should let you know if you're in the danger zone or not.

I've had the same problem over the last couple of weeks... Very annoying.

First, I would guess either a power issue or overheating. The overheating is best address with the system unplugged, opened up, and the dust blown out of the fans, hear sinks, and power supply.

The other issue is power. I think the Pavillions have a 1 year warranty- I would have it taken in and looked at. Likely culprits from the description would be the power supply or system board. Another issue could be if you have added a video card and or hard drives- these systems tend to have smallish power supplies that you could be pushing close to the limit.

As a guy who handles a lot of computers I would not buy a Pavillion. Buy the HP business class machines- much more dependable, better driver support, longer warranty etc.

markkoelsch said:

As a guy who handles a lot of computers I would not buy a Pavillion. Buy the HP business class machines- much more dependable, better driver support, longer warranty etc.

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+1 What Mark said.

When you say "just shut down" do you really mean "shut down" which is a controlled process where the machine purposefully closes apps and logs you off then powers down, or do you mean "turn off suddenly" where one second you are using it fine, and the next moment the screen is black?

If it's the former I suspect temperature issues or odd software problems.

If it's the latter I suspect power cord/power supply issues. I had a laptop that would suddenly turn off, instantly, and it was the power cord (after the power adaptor, near the plug that goes into the computer) shorting itself out. New power adaptor/cord solved it in that case.

Monitoring CPU temperature is a good thing to do to rule that out.

Marc

Marc_G said:

When you say "just shut down" do you really mean "shut down" which is a controlled process where the machine purposefully closes apps and logs you off then powers down, or do you mean "turn off suddenly" where one second you are using it fine, and the next moment the screen is black?

If it's the former I suspect temperature issues or odd software problems.

If it's the latter I suspect power cord/power supply issues. I had a laptop that would suddenly turn off, instantly, and it was the power cord (after the power adaptor, near the plug that goes into the computer) shorting itself out. New power adaptor/cord solved it in that case.

Monitoring CPU temperature is a good thing to do to rule that out.

Marc

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It shuts itself down just as if I had chosen Shut Down from the menu. It closes all the apps, including Outlook, then turns off. When it starts shutting down, I can't stop it.

If your machine does a proper shutdown, I'd bet you have a shortcut key sequence assigned from the factory, or even a dedicated button - that you're inadvertently pushing occasionally. Ask me how I know .

Your domain administrator might also be messing with you - on purpose or accidentally...but that's less likely.

You may also want to temporarily disable the power save functions, or at least check to ensure they are doing what you expect.

I had a loose heat sink. Only when playing video games / other more cpu intensive applications, would it shut off. No warning. BIOS level safety shuts it off (not a shutdown). BIOS may show CPU temperature. I didn't think it looked bad, but I googled the chip and it was well over the ideal temperature.

Desktop / tower. Removing the heat sink, cleaning it with alcohol, some new thermal grease, and reseating the heat sink fixed my issue. I wouldn't want to mess with a laptop. Good luck!

Possibly a stupid question, but an obvious one - is there any chance the power saving or hibernation settings have been changed?

I had the same problem with a old computer and I blew I out with a air hose in the shop. Blew out a lot of regular dust and fiberglass dust from sanding in my office. It worked good after that, the fan even worked again, Ha.

Thermal shutdowns are rarely graceful events -- usually it's instant lights out....
You've got some software service shutting you down if it's as nice and orderly as you say....

BartDoe said:

If your machine does a proper shutdown, I'd bet you have a shortcut key sequence assigned from the factory, or even a dedicated button - that you're inadvertently pushing occasionally. Ask me how I know .

Your domain administrator might also be messing with you - on purpose or accidentally...but that's less likely.

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No, the last time it did it yesterday, I wasn't even at my computer. And our admin wouldn't do anything like that. He doesn't have enough imagination.

Just a precaution to those using air compressors and leaf blowers to clean out their systems. Don't let your fans free-wheel in the high speed air. Sure, it makes a cool sound, but they weren't designed for that high rpm and you're killing the bearings. You'll get the fan itself much cleaner by blocking its rotation while blowing the air through.

+1 for the main cause of shutdowns and death of PCs = dust/fur induced overheating.
-Ken

Don't know if this is the same ... my Windows 8.1 box shuts down instead of going to sleep. To solve it, I turns off sleep mode and use a screensaver.

sooner.boomer said:

Possibly a stupid question, but an obvious one - is there any chance the power saving or hibernation settings have been changed?

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Worsaer said:

You may also want to temporarily disable the power save functions, or at least check to ensure they are doing what you expect.

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I've already checked the power saving and hibernation settings. Nothing I saw would cause it to shut down.

FredA said:

Thermal shutdowns are rarely graceful events -- usually it's instant lights out....
You've got some software service shutting you down if it's as nice and orderly as you say....

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I'm thinking it's software, but which? I thought it might be Kaspersky, because I recently switched to it from AVG Pro. I switched back to AVG Pro, but it still does it.

CoyoteNumber2 said:

Even if your office is 73 degrees, run Core Temp (https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) to see the temperature inside your computer.

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I'll check it again later today when it's warmer, see what the difference is.

Bat-mite said:

Don't know if this is the same ... my Windows 8.1 box shuts down instead of going to sleep. To solve it, I turns off sleep mode and use a screensaver.

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I never use sleep mode, and I do use a screensaver slideshow. Rocket photos, of course!

CoyoteNumber2 said:

Those values look good, but the true test will be when your processor is under load.

As others have suggested, a graceful shutdown (as though you selected Shut Down from the menu) seems to be more of a software issue than overheating. It could also be as simple as a faulty power button. Try disabling it in Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > When I press the power button > Do nothing.

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I changed both to "Do Nothing".

do you have the windows 7 64-bit disk? If so, put it in and run it and see if it can fix it. You might be getting hung up on something that is in the registry. Personally, I would dump Kaspersky or AVG and just use Windows defender, Spy bot search and destroy and malware bytes, but that's just me.

kelltym88 said:

do you have the windows 7 64-bit disk? If so, put it in and run it and see if it can fix it. You might be getting hung up on something that is in the registry. Personally, I would dump Kaspersky or AVG and just use Windows defender, Spy bot search and destroy and malware bytes, but that's just me.

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I don't have the disk, it came pre-installed. I've had really good results with AVG, I've used it for years. I don't know why I tried Kaspersky. And I'm running Malware Bytes, too.

I just finished doing a bunch of stuff. The temperatures aren't appreciably higher.

Your temps look good...

If it's doing an orderly shut down (i.e., no abrupt all of a sudden, one second it's on, the next there is no power), I'm willing to bet some preference setting somewhere got changed during a Windows update or some other software installation. Good luck finding it!

I think I found it. Accessing the log per the instructions provided by CoyoteNumber2, I found the event from yesterday when it shut down unexpectedly at 2:33 pm. Acronis True Image is my backup software, and it has a setting to shut the computer down after it finishes backing up. I start the backup every day before I leave work. It's supposed to backup then shut down. But I've noticed that sometimes the next morning there are two or three sets of backup files that Acronis created. For some reason, apparently Acronis is running itself at random times, then shuts the computer down. There is a setting in Acronis for scheduled backups, which I don't use. I need to research further and see if I can find out why it's doing it.

Great sleuthing! Congratulations.

I like Acronis, but most of the time I run it from a boot USB stick rather than from within windows. You don't even need to have the software installed in Windows. Just shut down the PC before you leave, and boot it to the USB drive, and start the backup. You can have it shut down the PC when done. You probably already own the rights to it so try it out.

Marc_G said:

Great sleuthing! Congratulations.

I like Acronis, but most of the time I run it from a boot USB stick rather than from within windows. You don't even need to have the software installed in Windows. Just shut down the PC before you leave, and boot it to the USB drive, and start the backup. You can have it shut down the PC when done. You probably already own the rights to it so try it out.

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I'm not sure what you mean. I run a full backup every day to an external hard drive.