Computer turns on, but quickly shuts off...

[kayaboy]

It's been very hot here in SoCal the past week or so...I have an extra computer down in the garage and it would not start up the past few days. When you press the power button, you can hear the power supply kick in, fan start up, hard drive spinning,etc.--and then it just shuts down.
I tried starting it up a few times, but would just barely see a glimpse of the screen before it would shut down. It was too hot down there to work on it so I gave it a rest for a few days...Tonight I tried again and about the 4th time I finally saw some graphics before it shut down ...I was able to see "previous shutdown due to thermal event", so I pressed F1 and it finally booted!!
any suggestions on what to do to prevent this from happening again? could there have been some sort of damage when this happens? Please advise. thanks!!

 

[BadBigBen]

The symptoms described, can only lead to one conclusion: HEAT build up...

suggestion:

1.) see if the CPU Fans are working, at all...
2.) transfer PC to a COOLER place, ie. where there is AC...
3.) clean out all the DUST (if build up) in the case...
4.) add extra fans to the case...

about your question, as to if there is some sort of damage due to this happening: most likely not, motherboards are designed to shut down the PC when the CPU gets too hot, or if the CPU FANs (Heatsink) do not function properly... and this is what you are experiencing...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Crowley16]

generally cpu temps should be kept under 60C, and cpu temps can be anything between a few to 20-30C hotter than the ambient temp depending on many factors...

if the ambient temp was that hot already, plus the computer being old, i.e. bad cooling, the chances are that your cpu got pretty hot...

you would be unlucky if your cpu or other components was burned, but I wouldn't rule out that possiblilty.

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[paparazi]

This is an interesting one! as CPU's heating up to shut off temperatures as they generally take several minutes to reach this point.
This would leave me to the conclusion that there is a major failure of some kind resulting in rapid overheating.

A few suggestions:

The CPU fan has failed, either partially or fully.
The heatsink itself does not have good contact with the CPU core (either it has come adrift or does not have any heatsink paste applied)
The CPU fan is not connected to the correct fan header
The reset button is stuck in?
The power supply fan is seized causing it to overheat
The PSU is failing
There is a poor connection on the motherboard power cables (burning/overheating pins on the main power plug)

Just a few to be going on with
Martin





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[kmcferrin]

It was too hot down there to work on it so I gave it a rest for a few days...Tonight I tried again and about the 4th time I finally saw some graphics before it shut down ...I was able to see "previous shutdown due to thermal event",

I believe that your answer lies in the first part of this sentence. If the room where the PC is located is too hot for you, it's probably too hot for your PC too. What is the temperature of the room? You can put all the cooling fans you want into a PC, but if you're just blowing hot air over hot components then you aren't actually removing any heat.

I don't know what the standard operating range for desktop PCs are, but most server specs that list the recommended operating temperature ranges as 20C to 25C, and the maximum ranges to be 5C to 35C. Remember that those are industrial systems, I've had desktop PCs that would crash (back in the days before thermal shutdown events) when they got much higher than 30C.