Computer randomly going black/shutting off

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Sep 29, 2008, 12:45 AM

I am trying to go through the event viewer but its so crappy. For some reason I have noticed the last week I keep getting random shutdowns for no reason under light or heavy load. The screen goes black and everything crashes. Only way to get everything up again is to power off and power on (not even a hard reset works). I did remove a viruscan, but I have no viruses. I reinstalled the nVidia drivers last week because of a driver issue. There is sufficient cooling, a little dusty (I'll get around to cleaning it) but nothing bad. Should I run a quick windows memory diagnostic to start finding the issue? The ram should be fine, I have done nothing really to harm the ram. How could I start diagnosing the issue?

Judas · Sep 29, 2008, 06:46 AM

when you say have to turn the power off and on again... aka using the psu switch ? If that's the case, that is usually related to a power draw exceeding the capacity of the power supply..... this draw really depends as it floats sorta... it just needs to draw over this limit long enough to force a shutdown of this type...

Either feed the machine more power.. OR start eliminating things that draw power such as usb devices (not really a major concern but every little bit helps) and extra drives and so forth.

WardenWolf · Oct 1, 2008, 09:31 AM

It's the piece of shit Nvidia drivers. It's been doing this exact same thing for me ever since I updated the drivers to the September 25 version. Even going back to the previous version hasn't fixed it. I just removed my video card from the device manager and totally nuked the driver cache to hopefully fix it. I've crashed several times today. That's it. I'm through with Nvidia. Seriously. I'm done. I'm so sick of their utter lack of support.

Edit: Nope. Didn't fix it. So now my Windows install is hosed. I'll be reinstalling once my dual 640 gig drives come to replace my obsolete Raptor. Thanks a freaking lot, Nvidia. Burn in hell.

PangingJr · Oct 12, 2008, 01:47 AM

it's not a bad idea to image your Windows partition before installing the drivers or any hardware device drivers if you have problem with Windows all the time after installing or updating drivers.

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Oct 12, 2008, 06:08 AM

I think chkdsk fixed it... why doesn't run a quick 2 min check disk if the system suddenly shuts down improperly? It was great on previous versions of windows (scan disk was great since it ran in windows, but sometimes windows would trigger it to start over again). Most people used to skip it, but I usually let it run since it rarely crashed for me. See no one complained XP's chkdisk replace scandisk which was quicker in dos

Judas · Oct 12, 2008, 07:10 AM

actually... chkdsk i find to be far quicker while running before windows started up on FAT32 then scandisk..... it flies.. simply because there isn't all that much to check with fat32 without doing a thorough check

Sep 29, 2008, 12:45 AM	#1
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	Computer randomly going black/shutting off I am trying to go through the event viewer but its so crappy. For some reason I have noticed the last week I keep getting random shutdowns for no reason under light or heavy load. The screen goes black and everything crashes. Only way to get everything up again is to power off and power on (not even a hard reset works). I did remove a viruscan, but I have no viruses. I reinstalled the nVidia drivers last week because of a driver issue. There is sufficient cooling, a little dusty (I'll get around to cleaning it) but nothing bad. Should I run a quick windows memory diagnostic to start finding the issue? The ram should be fine, I have done nothing really to harm the ram. How could I start diagnosing the issue? __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Oct 1, 2008, 09:31 AM	#3
WardenWolf DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 43 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	It's the piece of shit Nvidia drivers. It's been doing this exact same thing for me ever since I updated the drivers to the September 25 version. Even going back to the previous version hasn't fixed it. I just removed my video card from the device manager and totally nuked the driver cache to hopefully fix it. I've crashed several times today. That's it. I'm through with Nvidia. Seriously. I'm done. I'm so sick of their utter lack of support. Edit: Nope. Didn't fix it. So now my Windows install is hosed. I'll be reinstalling once my dual 640 gig drives come to replace my obsolete Raptor. Thanks a freaking lot, Nvidia. Burn in hell. Last edited by WardenWolf; Oct 2, 2008 at 11:15 PM.

Oct 12, 2008, 01:47 AM	#4
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	Re: Computer randomly going black/shutting off it's not a bad idea to image your Windows partition before installing the drivers or any hardware device drivers if you have problem with Windows all the time after installing or updating drivers.

Oct 12, 2008, 06:08 AM	Thread Starter #5
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	Re: Computer randomly going black/shutting off I think chkdsk fixed it... why doesn't run a quick 2 min check disk if the system suddenly shuts down improperly? It was great on previous versions of windows (scan disk was great since it ran in windows, but sometimes windows would trigger it to start over again). Most people used to skip it, but I usually let it run since it rarely crashed for me. See no one complained XP's chkdisk replace scandisk which was quicker in dos __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard