What's wrong with my computer?

Question

When I was playing a game on my computer one day, it just stopped what I was doing and restarted itself. Once everything loaded, I tried again to start my game, and it restarted itself again. After a few times of restarting it wouldn't even give me enough time to actually go to start - shut down.

So I just held the power button down and it finally turned off. I've done this a few times in the past but nothing bad happened to my computer. However, this time when I tried to turn it back on after a few seconds, it wouldn't turn on.

I checked the back to make sure cords weren't loose and they weren't. I also noticed that the green light in the back of the hard drive was still on if that matters.

I know it's not my moniter, because when I push the power button it should light up showing that my computer is on, but it doesn't.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with it, and if I can fix it, how?

ok, i would try all of these things, except that my computer won't respond to anything. I push the button and it literally won't turn on. That means that it's impossible for me to go into this file and that file and change settings etc.

Another thing, as I said before, it is not my moniter. My moniter works just fine as I have recently hooked it up to a different computer.

Lastly, as fas as I know, the game has nothing to do with it either. I have played the game in the past and there were no problems at all. If I couldn't meet all of the system requirements, it wouldn't let me play it at all. And if I didn't have enough memory, it wouldn't have worked just days before.

Thanks for all of your help though. If any one else has any ideas I'd be happy to hear them.

Answer 1

you either have a bad motherboard or your power supply has gone out also its rare but you may have a bad power button once you try to start the pc remove the power button wire from the motherboard to see if its stuck most likey its a hardware problem

Answer 2

I would have to know a little bit more about what is going on here.

Have you tried turning it on again?

Often times when the problem is heat related, the computer will not turn back on right away after it has been turned off completely (holding the power button). Usually, it has to cool down before it will turn right back on. The reason it didn't do it before is because that was a "restart" and not a "shut down"

If you try it again, and it works, then your issue is most likely heat related.

Take the side panel off and spray out the fans and the aluminum heatsinks to help them dissipate the heat buildup that may be causing the issue. Don't forget about the video card heatsink.

I say it is a heat issue, because if it were software or device related, it would restart at the same point every time. A heat issue would be more likely to restart it during a game or during startup, basically whenever the computer was working hard enough to trigger the restart.


If you try it again, and it does NOT turn on now, then you need to delve a little deeper into the problem and start swapping components until you find the culprit. Start with removing any PC cards other than the video card from the computer and try again. Then try a new power supply, then a new video card, so on and so forth.

Answer 3

I have had that happen with some games, always make sure you read the system requirements before playing or downloading games to your PC
I fixed it by starting the computer in 'safe mode' , I then opened menu to programs/accessrories/system tools/system restore. Open up system restore and pick a date prior to the installation of your game and follow the instructions to restore the system the way it was on that date. The terminology I am using might be a little different but not too much. When your system starts back up you will still have all the programs, docs etc that you installed AFTER the day you pick so If i were you I would delete / uninstall the game that caused it (don't open it again)... this worked for me , i hope it helps you !

Answer 4

Ok, first if there is a switch on the back power, turn it off and unplug from there. Then plug back in and turn the switch on. Now, go into the bios by hitting del, and see if the hard drives are detected properly as well the boot order. When you get back into windows, go into the control panel, system, startup and recovery, and find the "reboot after error". Uncheck this. Otherwise it will reboot the computer after every tiny thing that goes wrong. That should help.

Answer 5

Hi. Unplug the power supply for a minute. Reconnect it and push the power on button, then start repeatedly tapping the F8 button. This will start you in safe mode. If the screen says "last known good configuration" select that and see what happens.

Answer 6

I would go with Cirric's answer it doesn't sound like a hardware problem to me, mine has done this on occasion, when I was playing certain games. If you can't get the last known good boot or a restore point. You may have to do like I did to fix mine. I had to reinstall directX more than once because of conflicts.

Answer 7

It will be hard to diagnose this one without looking at it, but it sounds like your power supply took a bath. I would suggest taking it to someone to run some tests in the hopes that it will be a cheap fix like a power supply.

Answer 8

Before doing any of the things mentioned above I think I would remove my video card before hand, see if it will boot up without it, replace it , try to run your game. Have you enough memory in your video card and your machine to be running this particular game?

Answer 9

Scan for viruses using AVG Free, then scan for adware using Ad-Aware, then scan using Spy-bot Search & Destroy, then scan with Windows Defender. Delete the temporary internet files and cookies. Look through the progeams listed in "Add and Remove Programs" and remove any programs that you did not get with the computer or loaded up yourself. Any thing "foreign", remove it.

Answer 10

Try getting a new graphics card. I hat the same proble when I was playing WorldCraft III and a new graphics card cured it right up.