My computer is being very bad!

[Onyx]

After three years of excellent service, my computer seems to be failing. It's a cheap emachine but it's done well for me until now.

Here's the story -

I had a extra older hard drive hooked up as a slave, showed up as drive E. Last week when I started up I got a checkdisk saying that drive E needed checked, so I let it run, it fixed a few things and things were okay for a day. Next day, same thing except this time after it ran it started up windows XP and then the screen went black. My monitor detected no input after a second or two and switched itself off. The computer was still getting power - I could hear the fan and the lights on the front were on, just nothing going to the monitor. I turned it off and back on and it ran okay for a few hours and then shut down.

I took out the old hard drive thinking that might be it, but no luck.

After this it started randomly shutting down and I got that "active desktop recovery" thing for the first time. Never saw that before on my computer. I checked in properties and I don't have active desktop enabled. I removed my background since I read ona google search that using a jpg can make active desktop enabled. I have nothing on there now.

Some things I've tried - checked for spyware with several programs. Checked for viruses with AVG plus a couple of online virus checkers, nothing found. Opened up the box and blew out the dust. (there wasn't much). Check power management and made sure it wasn't set to shut down or go into sleep mode - it wasn't. Screen saver not enabled.

Unhooked everything but my keyboard and mouse. Did a system restore to 2 weeks ago, well before the problem started. All my windows updates/patches are current.

Still randomly shutting down. yesterday it ran for 8 hours. Today when it turned it on after being off all night it shut down three times in 30 min. Now it's been on for 2 hours with no problem. Doesn't seem to be an overheating problem to me since it'll run a long time sometimes.

Any ideas?

[The_Dark]

You should bring it in to my store in Cadillac... I can take a look at it and maybe we can do lunch or something.

[Brenda Starrr]

You should spank it. Take away it's mouse and give it a time-out while you're at it.

[Onyx]

You should bring it in to my store in Cadillac... I can take a look at it and maybe we can do lunch or something.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It'd be difficult to fit a drive like that into my schedule right now, but thanks for the offer

[Onyx]

You should spank it. Take away it's mouse and give it a time-out while you're at it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah! I've bought it so many toys and spent so much money on it. Cheap thing didn't even apperciate it! :grin

[Brenda Starrr]

Yeah!  I've bought it so many toys and spent so much money on it.  Cheap thing didn't even apperciate it!    :grin

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The ungrateful little bastard.....

[Msterbeau]

This may seem silly. Have you cleaned it out lately? Dust bunnies and that sort of thing can cause components to run hotter then normal, etc... Open the case, ground yourself and vacuum it out. (Carefully) Use a soft paint brush to get at places the hose won't reach.

Might help... might not, but worth a shot.

[Brenda Starrr]

Marc thinks that your pc needs a colonic.

[Onyx]

This may seem silly.  Have you cleaned it out lately?  Dust bunnies and that sort of thing can cause components to run hotter then normal, etc...  Open the case, ground yourself and vacuum it out. (Carefully)  Use a soft paint brush to get at places the hose won't reach. 

Might help...  might not, but worth a shot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I blew it out pretty good with compressed air. I had done it recently so there wasn't much in there.

I didn't do the soft paintbrush though. I may do it again just for kicks, but it doesn't make sense to me that it's overheating since it does this completly cold. It's very random.

I've been running all day now with no shutdowns.

[Onyx]

Was it making any strange noises? Sounds kinda like one of your fans (Power supply or cpu) might be gunked up.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, not at all. I could still hear the fan and the power was still on. It just shuts down randomly.

In my googling about the problem I found a few similar instances of the checkdisk/active desktop combo on the web with various explanations - one of them is blaming the recent XP update.

I'm probably going to end up buying myself a better one and give this one to my kid to play games on.

[Daevion]

maybe its and emachine "feature". aka throw away computer...although alot of tech is becoming like that anyway.

I could be wrong but arn't those things designed to be replaced, once they have problems, as opposed to being fixed.

[Onyx]

maybe its and emachine "feature". aka throw away computer...although alot of tech is becoming like that anyway.

I could be wrong but arn't those things designed to be replaced, once they have problems, as opposed to being fixed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:laughing It wouldn't surprise me. It was very inexpensive and is now a few years old. It's been actually pretty relliable until now. There aren't any indications that anything is wrong other than it shutting down. I still hear the fan, an uninterrupted steady hum, still see the lights on. I won't give up yet though. Going to get one of those soft paintbrushes and clean it well again and I may back up my stuff and do a complete reinstall of XP (assuming it doesn't completely fail before I get the chance).

[Daevion]

:laughing  It wouldn't surprise me.  It was very inexpensive and is now a few years old.  It's been actually pretty relliable until now.  There aren't any indications that anything is wrong other than it shutting down.  I still hear the fan, an uninterrupted steady hum, still see the lights on.  I won't give up yet though.  Going to get one of those soft paintbrushes and clean it well again and I may back up my stuff and do a complete reinstall of XP (assuming it doesn't completely fail before I get the chance). 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

heh...the warrenty expired

[Jarodaka]

Open up the case and make sure all the cables are plugged in securely and any expansion cards aren't loose. I had a similar experience and the connection from my power supply to the motherboard was loose. Also check all the connections on the back of the computer.

If that doesn't work, try a new power supply. Either borrow one from a fellow techy friend or try the CompUSA (or some other store's) 'rental' policy. That is, make sure you can return it if it doesn't fix your problems.

[nodrew]

Sounds like the power supply isn't getting the computer enough juice.

[Onyx]

Thanks I'll check the connections tomorrow.

[Onyx]

Well, been without net access except for an antique laptop with only dialup that locks up too much to come here.

I took off the cover and watched the emachine innards and saw that the CPU fan quits just as the machine shuts down. The fan on the power supply keeps running. I replaced that, but it still quits like that so the fan was not defective.

I talked to emachine live chat support online (his syntax appeared as if he was in India - very familiar since I do transcription for physicians who moved here from there). Got him to understand the problem and he suggested many of the things you folks did. His final suggestion was to take the entire thing apart and reassemble it. Spent hours doing that but still no luck.

I found someone selling the same model so I paid him a few bucks and am picking it up tonight. I figure I'll switch parts till I discover the problem. I love to tinker anyway and I'll put the hard drive in the other computer to see if it shuts down, and hopefully will at least have a working connection. I hate this laptop and can't buy another new desktop at the moment.

[Homicidalheathen]

$Dave is real good but pay him ok?

[Onyx]

$Dave is real good but pay him ok?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sure he is, but I live hours away from Detroit

Also, I enjoy fixing my own computers if I can. I always have a closet full of parts and I'm always upgrading or tinkering with my and my daughter's computers.

I picked up the used one and I'm up and running now! I'll probably eventually figure it out.