Computer help?

[Owl of Parliament]

Okay, so four days ago I turned on my computer only to see a screen telling me windows has failed to load properly so, I tried to get on windows in every possible way. Nothing worked. So I restored my computer using a disk I got with my computer.(and lost everything...)
...
Okay, now my computer is exactly like the day I got it but it still turns off automatically.... If I leave it off for sometime it stays on longer when I turn it back on, which might mean a temperature thing.

So what could the problem be?

[Smurf Taco]

Re: Computer help?

Could be temperature. One thing no one ever thinks of that gave me trouble for a long time was a bad hard drive. It was the last thing I expected. If you were able to restore the HD though, it's unlikely that's the problem. Overheating seems like it's the cuplrit. Most motherboards have a temp auto-turn off. Go into your BIOS and see if you can up that temperature, at least until you get some better cooling.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Computer help?

Yeah only other option would be a bad PSU, but usually that means your computer won't start, or will start to then turn off immediately. Still possibly that something could be upping the AMP draw. But it's probably a bad HD or cooling issue.

From your original problem sounds like you might have had a head crash, meaning the HD will probably fail soon. Head crashes can cause data to just magically disappear and are very bad. So check the temp first, and if that's not it, then try a new HD. Though if it is a head crash, it's usually likely it will happen again, so you'll start noticing data missing, plus I'm not sure that Windows would shutdown on a head crash or not.

Of course other things can cause windows to stop loading (some just software based), but something to think about.

[Owl of Parliament]

Re: Computer help?

I don't know, the computer only stays on about 20-30 minutes then shuts off. Although if I immediately turn the computer back on without giving it anytime to just sit there turned off it's much less than that.
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Oh yeah, I got the computer about 3 years ago.

[Smurf Taco]

Re: Computer help?

Sounds like a HD issue then, bad sector probably. Try installing a decent sized program and see if it crashes during installation. If you have access to one, try installing the same program on a different hard drive and see if that works. Even something like Windows disk diagnostic can work, but if it's a bad dish odds are it'll crash then too.

Luckily, both heating and hard drives are easy and pretty cheap problems to fix.