Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Why is my PC shutting down on its own?
Q I have an HP Elite E8000 tower PC that I bought in 2015. Recently, it has begun closing down after an hour or so, even when not being used. I suspected it could be the motherboard battery, so I bought a new CR2032 cell and installed it. Initially, I thought that might have resolved the problem, but sure enough, after an hour or so, the PC closed down again. I have checked in the relevant areas of Settings to ensure ‘Never’ is selected for shutting down the power to both screen and the computer – but that doesn’t seem to help. I have a ‘system repair’ DVD and the PC starts up from that if I leave it in the drive. Would you know why this is happening, please? Do I need to called in a local ‘PC doctor’?
Derek Vivian
A Faults like this are always difficult to diagnose, simply because of their infrequency and apparent randomness. We will say that it is unlikely a dead CMOS battery on the motherboard would ever cause a problem of this nature, but you will have done no harm in replacing it.
However, investigating our suspicions will involve another mission inside the machine. As you’ve already opened up the case, you’re evidently confident doing that, but, as you might need to remove more components, we’d suggest looking at the hardware manual. If you don't have yours, a digital version is free to download from the HP website at www.snipca.com/42066 (see screenshot above).
We say this because your problem bears all the hallmarks of a heat fault. Various components inside a PC, including both the processor (CPU) and the graphics card or chip (GPU), are designed to halt themselves if they detect that they’re getting too hot. This, in turn, typically happens as a result of dust-clogged fans,
