Help computer shutts on and off by itself

kevin9523 · 01-14-2008, 01:26 PM

I have a Dell dimension 2350 and I am running a Win millinum edition, I will turn it on and within about 5 to 10 seconds it shuts off then within a few seconds it turns on again. It repeats this process unless I unplug it. I have had this happen a few times before. The person that worked on it before said they replaced the fan. It started doing this again after about two weeks. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

Aviator19 · 01-14-2008, 05:11 PM

Which fan? Is the CPU overheating? Does the post data come up when the system turns on, Are you able to get into BIOS if so? If not, are there any beeping sounds (I'm assuming the internal speaker is plugged in).

Have you opened up the computer to look inside, maybee there's a wire or two out of the power supply touching eachother causing a short or something.

While it's open, a closer inspeaction of the motherboard and everything plugged in...have you tryed unplugging CDROMs, Hard Drives, PCI, ISA and other things that don't need to be plugged while we try identifying what's causing it to shut down/restart? Could unplug some fans too (Except the CPU fan) for the purpose of seeing if it's anything currently plugged in doing it.

Also, are there any burn marks anywhere, on any of the cards, motherboard, power supply wires, etc.

When everything is unplugged, and pulled out, if it still happens, have you tryed putting in a dirffernt power supply?

I had a power supply once (it was advertised as new as it came with a new computer, it was even under warrenty, right up until it started dying then warrenty expired) on this computer which caused my system to keep restarting after a few minutes, or until I started a program like Flight Simulator.

I took out the Power supply for inspection, turned out to be used after all (Got to be carefull when buying a new computer now I guess, they may come with a used and or just underpowered PSU). I determined it was used just by looking at the case of the Power Supply....ripped stickers that happen when it's been open before. Screws that looked like they've been used a few times. The best part is when I got it open I saw a few resistes that looked fried, but still working, part of the PCB was burnt, was looking forward to sparks after that haha. Never happened.

Eventually it got to the point where it woulden't even start Windows, it would continually restart. For other systems they may just shut down until you push the power button again to turn it on. Turned out to be a dying power supply, got a new one (Typing with it right now). But your system is not new so....that PSUs probably a few years old still.

It's possible it's not your power supply though.

kevin9523 · 01-15-2008, 03:41 PM

Thanks for the info.

Kevin

01-14-2008, 01:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
kevin9523 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: win98	Help computer shutts on and off by itself I have a Dell dimension 2350 and I am running a Win millinum edition, I will turn it on and within about 5 to 10 seconds it shuts off then within a few seconds it turns on again. It repeats this process unless I unplug it. I have had this happen a few times before. The person that worked on it before said they replaced the fan. It started doing this again after about two weeks. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Kevin Last edited by kevin9523; 01-14-2008 at 01:34 PM.

01-14-2008, 05:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
Aviator19 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Hemet, CA, USA Posts: 73 OS: Windows XP SP2 (32 bit, or 64 bit) My System	Re: Help computer shutts on and off by itself Which fan? Is the CPU overheating? Does the post data come up when the system turns on, Are you able to get into BIOS if so? If not, are there any beeping sounds (I'm assuming the internal speaker is plugged in). Have you opened up the computer to look inside, maybee there's a wire or two out of the power supply touching eachother causing a short or something. While it's open, a closer inspeaction of the motherboard and everything plugged in...have you tryed unplugging CDROMs, Hard Drives, PCI, ISA and other things that don't need to be plugged while we try identifying what's causing it to shut down/restart? Could unplug some fans too (Except the CPU fan) for the purpose of seeing if it's anything currently plugged in doing it. Also, are there any burn marks anywhere, on any of the cards, motherboard, power supply wires, etc. When everything is unplugged, and pulled out, if it still happens, have you tryed putting in a dirffernt power supply? I had a power supply once (it was advertised as new as it came with a new computer, it was even under warrenty, right up until it started dying then warrenty expired) on this computer which caused my system to keep restarting after a few minutes, or until I started a program like Flight Simulator. I took out the Power supply for inspection, turned out to be used after all (Got to be carefull when buying a new computer now I guess, they may come with a used and or just underpowered PSU). I determined it was used just by looking at the case of the Power Supply....ripped stickers that happen when it's been open before. Screws that looked like they've been used a few times. The best part is when I got it open I saw a few resistes that looked fried, but still working, part of the PCB was burnt, was looking forward to sparks after that haha. Never happened. Eventually it got to the point where it woulden't even start Windows, it would continually restart. For other systems they may just shut down until you push the power button again to turn it on. Turned out to be a dying power supply, got a new one (Typing with it right now). But your system is not new so....that PSUs probably a few years old still. It's possible it's not your power supply though.

01-15-2008, 03:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
kevin9523 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: win98	Re: Help computer shutts on and off by itself Thanks for the info. Kevin