Computer randomly shuts down

[eporro]

I have an Acer Veriton L460 which is a a slim pc that has been randomly shutting down. When it does shut down, the two fans in the rear remain on but when I press the power button it doesn't turn back on. In order for me to get it to turn on again I have to unplug the cord from the power supply and plug it back in. I can then turn it on and the computer runs fine.

My thought is that it could be the CPU overheating but I setup high CPU temperature warnings in the BIOS but the PC shuts down without me getting a warning. The fact that I can turn the PC on again after pulling the plug makes me think it might not be a heat issue because if it was heat, the CPU would have not cooled down fast enough to allow me to turn on the PC after pulling the plug.

I see no evidence of what it it could be in the event viewer.

Any guidance on what else I can do to troubleshoot this issue?

 

[Ketchup]

I'd feel better if we had some actual temps before ruling out heat.

I would recommend HWMonitor, by CPUID.

Play a game for a little while with it running in the background and let us know what your max temps look like.

It has a passively cooled Core 2 Duo, so I don't think it would be hard to get that thing to overheat.

What do you have the shutdown temps set to?

 

[eporro]

I have it set to shutdown at 90C and to get a warning at 60C. I will run HWMonitor for a bit and report back what temperatures I get from it.

 

[Ketchup]

I have it set to shutdown at 90C and to get a warning at 60C. I will run HWMonitor for a bit and report back what temperatures I get from it.

Let us know how it goes. If the warning at 60 is working, then we need to look elsewhere.

 

[eporro]

I've never had a PC do this to me so not sure what the warning is supposed to sound like. Is it a beep or a set of tones? I'm guessing it would sound something similar to other BIOS error sounds?

 

[Ketchup]

I've never had a PC do this to me so not sure what the warning is supposed to sound like. Is it a beep or a set of tones? I'm guessing it would sound something similar to other BIOS error sounds?

You could just set it at some ridiculously low number and test it.

 

[eporro]

60C is the lowest it goes. I guess I can just wait until I can put the PC under heavy load to see what temps I am getting.

 

[eporro]

Figured out the problem. An iphone usb cable must be shorted out. Whenever I would plug in the cable, the computer would shutdown. If I unplugged it, it turned back on.

 

[Ketchup]

Figured out the problem. An iphone usb cable must be shorted out. Whenever I would plug in the cable, the computer would shutdown. If I unplugged it, it turned back on.

Glad you found the problem. Not something you would run into everyday.

 

[Vanth]

Figured out the problem. An iphone usb cable must be shorted out. Whenever I would plug in the cable, the computer would shutdown. If I unplugged it, it turned back on.

Actually, it may not be the cable itself, but the USB. I have had problems with USB ports before. Sometimes they would throw off the entire computer system into chaos. Faulty USB are capable of interfering with normal computer functioning. If that is the case, then it is best to keep that USB port vacant.