New computer unexpectedly restarts (and makes odd noise)

[EJMichaels]

I have a relatively new desktop PC that has been doing two things since the first day - making a strange noise and unexpectedly restarting. The two events do not occur together. The shutdown happens many of the days that it's running, but usually not multiple times during the day, and not every time I have it on.

OS is Win 7; machine is iBUYPOWER Intel i7-3770 3.4GHz.

The only thing I might have "done to it" is create some partitions when I first got it.

I rarely use it, primarily because I haven't taken the time to load my programs and transfer needed files. On the days I turn it on, it mostly sits running next to where I work so I can see what it's doing and maybe use it once in a while for an hour or so. It usually shuts down when I'm not using it. It just stops, like the power was turned off. If it is was an older computer I'd suspect the power supply or overheating. I have both of my PCs plugged into a circuit with full power backup, and they are both on the same power strip.

Also, I tried unchecking the box in the system settings that allows it to restart after one of the unexpected shutdowns, but it still restarts.

The noise is difficult to describe, but I'd say it's slightly similar to the sound of accessing a floppy drive upon startup. It doesn't have one, but I think the sound is coming from the front where one would be - the optical drive and media readers are there, but I haven't noticed those lights coming on. It happens at various intervals during the day when I'm not using it. It's done it twice since I've been typing this on another computer (about 15 minutes), but it's not always that frequent and it hasn't happened otherwise in the past couple of hours. There's are also some quieter and briefer sounds that seem more like normal hard drive access sounds, and those are more frequent. The one louder sound is what concerns me.

I've been reading through the event logs to find a clue, but I haven’t yet made sense of all the entries. It logs many of the shutdowns, and there might be a clue in the error codes.

I bought it from Costco and the techs want to do a full system restore, erasing everything. Not a big deal since I haven't saved much, but I thought that would be a last resort after more specific troubleshooting. I'm assuming they're doing this because it's on their list, not because it's the next best step. Since it's been having trouble since the first day, I'm skeptical of this helping. If it's the first step to them doing something useful, I suppose it's okay.

I could try checking for a temperature problem, just in case, but other than that, no ideas.

So, any thoughts about what to try before letting them do the full restore?

 

[Corny]

So there is a noticable noise and they want to do a system restore? Insist on them looking into that noise. Could be broken harddrive.

 

[EJMichaels]

Thanks. Is there a good way to check the drive myself first? I think I've seen that sort of thing, but haven't checked yet since the hard drive wasn't on my list of very likely suspects.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

Depending on what your settings are, maybe it's automatically updating, and restarting after installing the updates ????

 

[EJMichaels]

I'm going to look again, thanks. I thought I turned off all of the automatic updating. The event log - so far - suggests it was an abnormal shutdown, but I should probably compare the applications event log to the other log.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

I would maybe Google your model and see if others have been having the same problem. Other than updates, over heating, driver errors, power supply problems, virus', lack of RAM, ... I'm no PC expert, but it could be a LOT of things causing it to crash.

 

[EJMichaels]

In case anyone is interested --
The sudden shutdowns seem to be due to a physically unstable connection between the power supply and the motherboard. I can recreate the problem by touching it.

Thanks for the replies back in July.

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

This link offers examples of various hard drive noises. I suspect as Corny states it could be a failing or defective hard drive. This could be the root of your problems.

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

Also,

I see you made a post about the restarts. What are your system setting for hibernate, sleep. Perhaps after it is sitting unused it is hibernating or sleeping. If you haven't set these you should check them out. Sometimes there is a system error during install of new software and updates, this will cause Windows to shut down instead of hibernate when it sleeps.

There is a easy fix for this.

To fix your issue, you need to open a command prompt with heighten rights and issue a command.

1) Search for "CMD"
2) Right click "CMD" and "Run as Administrator"
3) In the command line, type in "powercfg***** /hibernate off"

Sleep should work properly now, instead of shutting off your PC.


> note: in line 3) I guess for some safety reason my post was blocked out