My computer is broken!?

OMG THE SAME THING THE SAME EXSACT THING HAPPENED TO ME YESTERDAY and it keeps restarting before it even loads right!!!!

I took mine in last night they said it could be

1)power supply

2)fan

3)needs to be formatted..

Im using my junkie old modem until it gets fixed so I think its one of those things but it needs to be taken in..Thats a coincidence i swear omg creepy

Computer Broken

It could be a number of reasons:

~ Overheating - computer will shut down to protect the CPU

~ Memory going bad

~ Power supply going bad

~ Something knocked loose in case

~ Too much dust in case

Pop open your computer box and clean it out with an air can. Get all the dust and gunk out of there. Make sure everything is plugged in properly. Also, if you happen to have spare parts laying around, try replacing the power supply. If that works, try replacing the RAM sticks. If that's not the problem, try a new motherboard. Something could be fried on one of your chips.

Do you plug your computer directly into the wall? This is a huge no-no. Make sure you plug your computer into a surge protector. A surge in the house electricity may have killed your power supply or fried a chip (if you plug it into the house socket).

It also could be a virus. Try booting in safe mode (hit F8 while booting up). If that doesn't work, or you can't get your computer to stay on that long, try replacing your master hard drive. Virii usually affect the boot sector of the master hard drive. If the boot sector is corrupted, the computer will not boot up. If you replace the master hard and the computer works, it is most likely a virus.

And a tip: if you are going to be working with the guts of your computer, make sure you ground yourself before touching anything; touch something metal to rid your body of all static electricity so that you don't fry your chips.

Good luck fixing your computer.

Edit: I would like to add something based on what the person above me said. First, DO NOT wipe your hard drive. That should be a LAST RESORT. There's no reason to delete all of your data if the problem is hardware related. Second, do not, I repeat DO NOT go to Geek Squad. Seriously, they are horrible. I've had multiple friends to go Geek Squad to have their computer fixed and they got screwed. For some, Geek Squad charged them $100 to tell them their computer was broken, and for the others Geek Squad completely ruined their computer when all they needed to do was clean out the computer and replace the RAM or power supply.

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RE:

My computer is broken!?

It automatically shuts down like 1/2 a second when it is starting to boot up. What is the most likely cause of the problem? I was thinking it was power supply.. but im not a computer guy..

WOW you gotta be kidding me, all those people above who said its a virus are people who has NO experience with fixing computers and are unable to identify proper computer problems. I'm assuming you said that it shuts off after a second when you press the power button. Its not a virus, a virus cannot shut down a computer that instantly. The OS didn't even load, a virus can't shut down a computer without the OS.

2 possible causes:

1. Failed fan or dust. Without the fan, the computer would overheat. If the computer BIOS detects very high temperature, its shuts it off automatically. Excess dust could be blocking your fan's/ heatsink's airway.

2.It could be the power supply, it probably deteriorated enough that it cannot power the computer with enough power.

Dude, I don't recommend anyone to take their computer to a computer repair center, its always a rip off and it takes some time. Anyone can fix their computers, im only 14 and i literally fix all the computers in my house.. my mom's desktop's mobo and psu got fried and i replaced everything myself. Its not that hard, you just need know what your doing.

anyways GOOD luck!!!

Not a virus. OS has to load before a virus can work. You gave the answer already. Replace the power supply. It's not hard. Just go to the manufacturers website, research your machine by model and order a new compatible PS.

I'll bet your computer is an HP. They are notorious for bad power supplies.

Not a virus if it is right away (like u said 1/2 second) not enough time for a virus to load let alone the bios. I bet it is the short circuit shutdown of the power supply. This may indicate a bad motherboard. Did you recently install something that might not be seated correctly like a videocard or new ram? if not seated properly could cause a short, tripping the power supply protection. If not, then your power supply could be toast. Is the power supply real old or full of dust? try cleaning it with canned air (Co2) or an air compressor. I hope that helps.

Don't listen to people who say it is a virus. Half a second? There's no time for anything to run, the computer isn't even fully on yet. It probably is the power supply, or someone could be yanking your chain. Look for a little, nearly flesh, probably horizontal switch on the back. Make sure it says 125V, or something close. If it's set to 200 something or other, it will still try to boot up, but there wouldn't be enough power getting to it. If that doesn't work, borrow someone else's power supply, and check to make sure your power supply needs replacing, and that it's not another problem. Good luck.

Edit: It's not a bloody virus people! Half a second?! You show me a virus that runs before windows even starts, and I'll show you an urban legend born from hysteria. If it took like five seconds or something to crash, maybe. But not half a second. There's a lack of power somewhere, or a deficiency somewhere.

PS: Thank you Mr. uhohspaghettio, you rock

By "starting to boot" do you mean POST(power on self test) - or do you mean when it tries to load the operating system (windows screen and the progress bar showing).

The system is POSTing if you see video on the screen showing a manufacturer logo, memory tests, beeps, etc. Does the system beep - depending on the systems BIOS different beep sequences mean different things.

Can you get into the system's BIOS? Try pressing F1, Delete, or ESC keys during the boot sequence. If the system posts, you can watch the screen and it will usually tell you what button to use to enter setup or BIOS. If you can get into BIOS you should set it to defaults

Does the system automatically reboot over and over again?

I doubt that you have a virus if the unit powers down a 1/2 second into the boot process - it sounds like more of a hardware failure - possibly bad memory. If the system is beeping during boot, the beep sequence may tell you what the problem is.

I have a few thoughts running through my head at the moment. I'm thinking a virus may have corrupted your Master Boot Record (MBR). If there are files on that drive that you need to recover, try attaching that system's hard drive to another PC and setting it up as a slave drive so as not to try to boot from that drive. This should allow you to grab up whatever saved files you want or need (pictures, music, favorites, e-mails, etc.) and dump those onto a USB flash drive or burn them to a disk. I would also try setting it as the master drive and attempt to boot from it to see if it is some other hardware related issue in your newer machine (such as a bad motherboard, power supply or memory). Should the drive spin up just fine and Windows will load up, now you know it's another issue altogether.

If you are able to recover whatever files you need, see if you can use the system restore CDs and reformat your hard drive and perform a clean reinstallation of the operating system after replacing the drive physically back into your newer system. Unfortunately, if your BIOS has not been set to allow you to boot from the CD/DVD drive first, you may not be able to attempt that. In that case, while it (the hard drive) is hooked up to another system (assuming it is not damaged), you could also attempt to reformat it by going into 'My Computer', locating the drive in question by whatever drive letter Windows assigned it, right click and choose 'Format'. With the possible virus eliminated, you may now be able to enter the BIOS and change the setting to allow you to set the first item you can boot from to the CD/DVD drive back on the newer rig. If all else fails, and we have determined it is only a problem with the hard drive, go out and buy another one and restore the PC to 'out of the box' conditions by reinstalling the operating system using the restore CDs. I pray that you took the time to creat some and that your brand of PC even gave you an opportunity to. I know that many companies are putting aside a section on the hard drive that contains the restore partition. Quite frankly, I feel this is ridiculous since this forces the consumer to pay for a set of restore CDs from the manufacturer because that data is inaccessible or deleted if something should happen to the hard drive.

Sorry if any of this seems confusing or I seem a little 'punchy'. I think I had a few too many Mountain Dews tonight. :P

Good luck and HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

Windows could be encountering an error. Try F8 for safe-mode menu and disable automatic restart on error. If this is the case and an error is causing it to restart you will then see a BSOD stating what caused the error. Many things can cause this behavior. If it is simply shutting down completely it could be an overheating issue. Check your CPU fan to make sure it is working and not obstructed by dust or something.

Note: Before replacing power supply, check the system board to make sure you don't have any blown (domed or leaking) capacitors. HP, Compaq and some E-machines are notorious for motherboard failure along with the power supply.