An annoying comp problem...

[Sum1]

My comp will turn on (sometimes) and be fine for a while, but fairly randomly (sometimes right away, sometimes I can keep the comp on for days) it kind of "goes to sleep." The comp is still technically on... power light is on... i can still hear the fan, etc, but the monitor detects the digital line connection and gone, so it shuts off, and nothing I do can bring the comp back. If I had an EQ character logged in that toon will LD.

Some have hypothesized that it's my bios, but I tried to reset those (I'm not 100% I was even successful at that). That same person said my cmos battery might be bad, and someone else suggested I get a new power supply because it sounded like my comp wasn't getting enough juice.

I'm skeptical though... especially since it seems it stays on. In the cases where it won't boot at all, it turns "on" (power light is on), but it doesn't continue loading ("turn over" ... if you use car terminology). In those cases, even tapping the power button will cause the comp to completely turn off/shut down, which usually would require you to hold the button down for 7 seconds if you were shutting off a comp that had booted as normal.

meh, lol, I'm beat.

[ensshok]

Graphics card problem? You mentioned you can't bring the computer back, but can you shut it down?

For example, pressing Start--> u --> s --> enter (in Vista) would shut it down.

What you describe sounds more serious than that (sadly), but just wanted to check.

[Sum1]

I haven't tried that, but I've tried the old:

ctnl + alt + delete, ctnl + alt + delete thing before, with no luck. I don't think that it's just the graphics card (although that did come to mind) because I can't do things like doing the above to shut down the comp.

[dulak]

Well the cmos battery going bad wouldn't cause that to happen. All that would do is constantly set your bios back to factory defaults. On some computers I've had, if I let them go into stand by mode then they would do what you're describing. Is stand by mode disabled? If not you may wanna do that and see if that fixes the problem. I would totally rule out the video card issue due to the fact that you're able to play EQ and so far, you've not described any graphical issues. The power supply is a possibility but you've said that it can go days at at time with no issues. If it was the bios itself, the whole system would reboot itself a lot for no reason and at random or just not boot at all. Try disabling the stand by mode if it's not already and get back to me on it. There is also the possibility that the system itself just isn't being cooled properly. I know that if mine gets too hot it'll turn itself off.

[gman]

Ok maybe a silly question but have you opend up control panel and opend up power options? I would set the computer to never power off anything and make sure hybernation is also disabled.

[Sum1]

I've already set the computer to never sleep, never go into stand by, etc. At the moment the computer has been on for almost 18 hours or so with my trader afk... which I did yesterday too... but then at one point last night the screen went black, my bot who I had logged in goes LD a few minutes later, and I have a hell of a time rebooting. I need to hold the power button in for 7 seconds to turn it off... then, if I try to restart it'll not want to do it. The power button will turn on, but it won't boot. Now, if I hit the power button at this point the computer shuts right down immediately... aka I don't have to hold it for 7 seconds like I would if it booted.

*edit*

By the way, when the screen goes black and all that, the comp doesn't actually shut down. The power is still on, I can hear the fan going, etc but I just can't DO anything. I also can't shut it down with the keyboard (i.e. cntl + alt + del x2)... that's when I have to hold the power button in for 7 secs.

This is befuddling the hell out of me. I'd rather not go out and buy a new desktop if I don't have to (since I already have another almost-brand new one)... hrm.

[elric]

Could be a heat issue.....if you have a can of air handy you might try opening it up, blowing everything out, see if that helps.

Problems like this are almost impossible to accurately troubleshoot online, because a number of issues can cause a computer to lock up like that. Heat, voltage issues, bad power supply, viruses, etc.

I had a similar issue that started out happening once or twice a week and eventually over a few months the computer degraded so badly it wouldn't boot for more than a few minutes at a time. Replaced the power supply and all was well again. On a completely different system later on, virtually the same thing happening and it ended up being bad RAM.

[Sum1]

I don't think it's heat... I've opened it up and it doesn't seem to be exceptionally warm (well, the heat sinks were hot... but that's normal I think :P ). I had someone else suggest the power source, so I might try that next. I also don't think it'd be bad RAM, as I've had it for about a year now and all has been well.

[JimJohnson]

yea I would think PSU / heat myself. you can pick up one of those PSU testers for like 12-15$ or cheaper

[Sum1]

Is overheating a problem that would just creep on me tho? The comp is in a fairly well-ventilated area, not crunched up against the side of a desk or with anything behind it that would restrict air flow. The PSU sounds like an interesting culprit though... I might pick up one of those PSU testers tonight at Best Buy (if they have them).

The issue sometimes happens in the middle of using the comp, but it will ALWAYS happen if I attempt to "restart" it via the start menu. I forgot to mention that before.