Not sure, but it doesn't hurt to ask....right?

[Midnight12]

Ok this is probably a no brainer but still I want to be sure.
I hope I have all the issues covered that could possibly be causing this.

Every now and then when I'm on the computer it will randomly shut off.
- Its not over heating.
- I'm not on some virus laden site or even a questionable site
as far as I know there is no real working virus program (or one that doesn't prompt me to pay to download something once the "scanning" has been completeled
- I've bugged my friend in which this is his computer to GET a virus program
- and this happens randomly
- or worse, when I let it sit for ten minutes, I have to unplug the computer power cord, reset the power strip if not unplug it itself, turn off the computer wait a few seconds, then plug everything back in before the computer will actuall power up.

have I permanently damaged it?
and if reformatting or replacing the computer is in order this is not an issue as this is his second computer for the household.

[SteeleDragon78]

- and this happens randomly
- or worse, when I let it sit for ten minutes, I have to unplug the computer power cord, reset the power strip if not unplug it itself, turn off the computer wait a few seconds, then plug everything back in before the computer will actuall power up.

this doesnt sound like a virus to me. it sounds more like a faulty power supply or surge strip. try swapping out the strip and if that doesnt help get the ps changed out.

[Broomjockey]

Yeah. The fact that you have to unplug/reset the strip sounds like a power supply issue. Pull the current one, and see if you can figure out the wattage on it, then to be safe, you'll probably want one that's 50W more. If this issue's been going on for a while, be warned that the life on the other components is severely truncated, and those things (mainly graphics card and motherboard, but anything else is at risk) could fail.

[Bandit]

It's a power supply problem. It's an easy, quick, and cheap fix.

As Broomjockey wrote - find out what the power rating is (it's on a sticker somewhere) and add 50-100W to the output and you'll be good to go.

B

[Midnight12]

thank you, I know...I should have known but I admit, I'm not as tech savy as I thought I was. And friend has been informed. Supposed to get one tomorrow.

[Geek King]

A couple of other things to check:

--Is the computer actually turning off, or just the monitor? A monitor going bad can randomly turn off or go blank also. Is anything else in the power strip cutting off?
--You might be getting a slight power surge that causes the strip to trigger, although I would think you'd have to reset the fuse if that happened. Are you seeing any indication of brownout or power surge when it happens? Or at other times?
--Slight chance, but do you have a spare power cord to swap out with your computer? Could be a bad cord.

[lordlundar]

Wow, this is eerie. I had a similar question posed to me for my latest job interview. The differences were:

-Laptop
-Consistent 10-15 mins, irregardless of what was being used or for how long.
-occured irregardless of running off battery or AC
-On a flat hard surface

Though I think I was getting graded simply for my analytical skills, as at this stage I was either leaning toward a ventilation issue and heat, or a change in the BIOS settings causing it.

[digilight]

LL, I would have answered yours as being a 4-6 year old Toshiba Satelite with a loose AC port and a shot batterey (doesn't hold much of a charge anymore).

Or at least thats what my satelite does. Its a older laptop that I picked up from my parents after they replaced it (dad didn't want to deal with it anymore). It still works, its just that I need to re-solder the port back into place. I guess its a commen issue with the satelites of that time period.

[lordlundar]

Well, it was on a theoretical and it never got past the Q&A part of the information gathering before he moved on, so I can't say.

[Midnight12]

UPDATES

Oh it WASN'T just the power strip the computer caught a virus, turns out my boss genius that he is didn't really install one so we all ended up going through saving pictures and files then REFORMATTING
Kind of ticked off at my boss but mostly angry at myself for this happening because I could have stopped it sooner.

That and the computer had issues with the secondary fan, lots of dust due to a missing plate cover and its five years old and probably needs replacing etc.

thank you again to all who helped...now begins work on the laptop as that too is virus ridden yet I didn't cause it!