For some reason wnenever my PC is switched on for 2/3 attempts it shuts itself down again and then reboots. Eventually it will stay on. It seems okay when being used but when I come to shut down it will not do it, I have to hold down the power switch. Any ideas what the problem might be.
Thanks

See if running your virus scan helps

Have you tried rebooting it in safe mode and/or running a diagnostic test?  Sometimes when I used to have probs with one of mine then just starting up in safe mode and opting to shut down and restart from there solved the problem.

Failing that have you checked you AV program is up to date?  Have you installed new hard/software recently?  And tried a system restore? (basing this on you using windows!)

HTH a bit at any rate :)
regards, Teri

I have done that and run a disk check which did repair something which was corrupted but did not solve problem.

AV is okay i think. Systemrestore made no difference.
When it reboots sometime st gives me safe mode option bt I let it load norally as I did not know what to actually do in the safe mode.

Select the safe mode option - you don't really have to do anything or there may be simple on screen instructions to follow depending on your system :)  The desk top will look odd - the icons etc too large and lacking sharpness/definition.  This allows your pc to start up only those programs essential to it.  When it has completely loaded (i.e. all desk top icons etc are visible) then try switching to restart from the start up menu.

If using windows do you use Windows Defender?  Check for updates and then run Defender for full system scan.  When completed (can take around an hour depending on size/number of progs on your pc) then I'd do same with your AV program. 

HTH, Teri

Do a system restore back to date before it started and it should correct it.

Have you checked that the fans are working properly? This could be due to over heating. Could be as simple as lots of dog hairs inside it. :)

Your hard drive could be slowely going, i only say this because when my computer started acting up like that and switching itself off etc, that went.. and had to get a new one for it, they dont last all that long hard drives...

Might be nothing to do with it, so dont take it as the answer lol, but just a thought... :)

Actually the hard drives are normally fairly reliable, the computer switching itself off etc is more likely to have been the cause of the hard disk failure.

It could well be that the switching off is an overheating issue the fans get clogged or start to wear out causing problems.  The other issue with old computers is often fragmented drives, defragmenting often helps.

Still not sorted. have tried all above except taking back off and looking at fans. It will shut down now but just not start first time.

When i took my computer in to get the hard drive replaced, i was told that they only last a couple of years before they "wear out" as of such... and its true, because mine lastest a few years and went, however mine was a laptop, not a desktop computer, might be different...

Had this exact same problem not a couple of months ago!

Come to find out, it was the video card.  It was almost dead, and was sending weird messages throughout the computer.  Before finding out it was the video card, I had the hard drive replaced, as when the repair tech looked at it the first time, the harddrive was almost dead, so he thought it was that.  Then he thought it could be the power cord coming from the computer, to the outlet.  Changed that, still had the problem.

He checked the video card, and found out it was almost dead and he changed that.  Have not had a problem since. 

HTH

If anything laptop drives should last longer as they are built to be more robust.  The current Toshiba drives have an POH (power on hours) of 20000 so on average Toshiba expect them to last about 2.3 years of continual use (that is a drive running continuously doing reads / writes and seeks the only time this happens is when companies like Toshiba are testing their drives!! - laptops turn off the drives after periods of inactivity).  In practise Toshiba expect the average drive to last at least 5 years.

Most IT companies (the one I work for included) write their laptops off over 4 years and very few that are treated properly need to be replaced within those four years.  Most computers that go wrong because of problems with hardware do so in the first few hours (normally they are DOA) which is why things like extended warranties are often a waste of money.

You have to be very careful with taking computers back to shops etc as most of them don't actually know what they are doing.

Crespin wrote:

Come to find out, it was the video card.  It was almost dead, and was sending weird messages throughout the computer.  Before finding out it was the video card, I had the hard drive replaced, as when the repair tech looked at it the first time, the harddrive was almost dead, so he thought it was that.  Then he thought it could be the power cord coming from the computer, to the outlet.  Changed that, still had the problem.

He checked the video card, and found out it was almost dead and he changed that.

Sorry all sounds very dodgy to me why would a video card send weird messages to the rest of the computer, it basically takes messages from the main part of the computer and sends them to the screen, if a video card went wrong it would be very obvious because the screen wouldn't be working properly.   It's the same with the hard drive it can't be "almost dead" when they fail they tend to fail completely.

Ohhh very interesting, like i said, i am no expert! But was just my opinion, my laptop hard drive possibly did last a few year, 2 ish i would say, however the amount of crud i had on it was no wonder it died on me! lol

You learn something everyday, thanks for that! :)

Sorry all sounds very dodgy to me why would a video card send weird messages to the rest of the computer, it basically takes messages from the main part of the computer and sends them to the screen, if a video card went wrong it would be very obvious because the screen wouldn't be working properly.   It's the same with the hard drive it can't be "almost dead" when they fail they tend to fail completely.

I dont know, but the problem of the computer turning on and off stopped once I got the video card replaced........

What worries me about this sort of thing is that by the time you had had the disk replaced and then the video card, whoever did it would have had to take the computer apart unplug and replug various components.  Things like the fans would have been disturbed (and possibly had any dust etc knocked out of them) so it could have been any number of things that could have caused the problem that by disturbing / reseating them fixed it.

Personally I would never take a computer to be repaired by anyone except the manufacturer.  I know too many people who have been ripped off because they are repaired by people who don't really know what they are doing.  I dread going into some of the large computer stores where some 19 year old is trying to sell me something that they know nothing about and pretending they know it all.

Having said all that I appreciate I have an advantage over most people in that I have a degree in computer science and 25 years exprience working in the computer industry and it's easy for me to say these things as I have the knowledge to fix them myself.  An average computer user has very little choice.