My computer officially hates me... it seems to like to restart for no reason, with no warning.... I'm typing, and all the sudden... black screen, then the blue screen with the hp logo. F**king computer. And it likes to not start... you turn it on, and the computer seems to power up, then about a second after the lights turn on on the tower, you get the pleasure of hearing a soothing "BEEEEEEEEEEP!!!" followed by another audible treat every two seconds or so.

Honestly, it's getting annoying, and I'm about five beeps from putting a katana through my tower. What's really annoying is we had the computer taken in to have the computer expert at my mom's work to look at it... of course, it worked just fine when he looked at it.

I think it may have something to do with the tower not getting enough power, though... the tower is plugged into a 6-way surge protector, and with all the plugs in there, it seems like the surge protecter seems to like to fall out of the outlet a little bit (but it's still making a good enough connection that everything else plugged in there has no problems)... I don't know.

[sm=rant.gif]

 

It sounds like either a power supply issue (the power supply in the tower, not the surge protector) or an overheating issue. I'd be more inclined to say its the first one tho. Power supplies are cheap and easy to hook up, don't let someone charge you an arm and a leg to do that.

 

This type of problem (sudden turn off) are almost always hardware related. It could be the PSU, MB, vid card, etc. Try replacing what you can to figure it out.

If you cannot find a hardware problem then it will be a driver problem. Here is a link to solving those problems. http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1643

 

I KNOW!!! it's because it's an HP, lol. but seriously, hp has many, many issues with their software as well as code within their systems, so i wouldn't be surprised that is the root of your evil. other than that, i would check the power supply if this just started recently. i also check all the connections within the motherboard to make sure their secure.

 

power supply is what the computer techs at my mom's work said when I described what was going on with the computer... so I'll probably check into it sometime soon.

 

Honestly figuring computer problems is really just a trail and error thing. People who have done it for years see the same problems over and over but they still use the trial and error process. With a problem like the one you're having a computer tech will always check the power supply first as thats usualy typically what fixes that problem. Even then it's still trial and error cause it could be something else, replacing a power supply is just the cheapest, easiest, most common solution so that's what ya go for first. If that doesn't fix the problem you move onto something else.

However, contrary to what some people have said here I very much doubt it's a software problem. A software issue -could- potentially cause the random restarts, but that's not a very common cause of random restarts. Plus the fact that you get the beeps before you even start up Windows points to a hardware problem. The problems with the computer itself not turning on when you hit the power button further narrows it to either loose wires or a power supply issue. And since the computer does indeed eventually turn on after you hit the power button that kind of knocks out the wiring thing. So unless its caused by overheating (which is possible, so you should check to see if all your case fans are working correctly or installing some if you don't have any) which I doubt, it's probably a power supply issue. You should have the fans checked or installed anyway, because even if that's not a problem having your system properly cooled is never a bad thing. Plus fans are even more cheap and easy to replace and install than power supplies, so if that is the problem you just saved yourself some money.

Anyway, short version: replace the power supply as cheaply as possible and if that doesn't fix things post here again and I'll try to help you out.

 

LOL I had the exact same problemand it was none of the above^. It was...a virus. I though at first it was over heating so I cleanedit all out and stuff, still did it. I ran a virus detect program and found it, ended up I had to totally reset my computer. Never had a problem since...

 

i fix computers and i deal with that all the time. computer never want to break when im around. That sounds like a power supply issue....does it get any further in the start up sometimes that others?

 

A virus would constitute a software problem to me. And I did say it could be a software problem, just that it wasn't very probable. Most people have virus detection software on thier computers nowadays. Anti-virus software is to the point where it's pretty automatic too. Most of the time it doesn't even warn you unless its something really serious. Most programs just take care of it for you.

I'm not ruling out the fact that it could be a virus, but the solutions for fixing a virus of that sort usualy begin with "format your hard drive" and thats something even someone like me (who frequently backs up his whole hard drive) doesn't even want to hear.

 

mill$? Wow, I haven't seen you around here in a while

Anyway, it sometimes gets a little farther in the startup before it goes back to beeping at me... and I have automatic anti-virus software, not to mention I do a virus scan and a spyware scan just about every week, so I'm pretty sure that's not it

I'm thinking I'll check into getting a new power supply soon.