IBM PC keeps turning off
Question:
I have been trying to find out why a friend’s 2002 IBM Windows XP PC keeps turning itself on and off unattended. This behavior has been continuing for many years since shortly after they bought it. So I recently decided to take a look at it for them.
When I first brought the machine home, it stayed on for 6 hours without any problems but it soon started failing the same old way. A few days ago, I opened it up and saw hardly any dust. I subsequently erased the hard disk with KillDisk, reformatted it, and re-installed Windows XP on it. It worked well for a little while but soon the old failure pattern returned. I’ve been playing with the BIOS but nothing happened. I have not yet connected it to the Internet. The machine still mysteriously and randomly turns its fan on and off while the screen remains dark, every now and then.
I tend to suspect this to be a hardware problem but don’t know how to tackle it the easy way. It’s just too time-consuming for me, a 76-year-old retiree to replace the power supply or do any hardware troubleshooting. I sincerely appreciate any advice from you.
Answer:
Nice job on the troubleshooting – I agree with you that, since you’ve ruled out the software as the culprit, the problem is likely hardware. Sounds like you do indeed have a failing hardware supply, or perhaps some other hardware failure on the mainboard itself.
Since this machine is a 2002-era PC, I assume it’s not under warranty. If there’s still a warranty, use it to have IBM fix the issue. But if you’re not under warranty, problems of this type are difficult to troubleshoot, and could potentially cost a few hundred dollars, since you have to purchase and swap out hardware you think might be failing.
Unless money is extremely tight, you’d be better off spending that money on a brand new PC.
