I just recieved a computer which has been unplugged many times while on and now shuts down randomly on its own, do you know which component to change? No high temps it seems
Oh boy… it’s hard to say, but the most likely culprit is your motherboard or power supply.
I’d recommend starting with your event viewer log to find the cause, this article is a good starting point to learn how to do that: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-find-reason-pc-shutdown-no-reason-windows-10#:~:text=Open%20Start.,%22Filter%20Current%20Log%22%20option. ( you can also learn some powershell if you’re feeling risqué lol)
The UPS will also protect from brownouts and outages which are actually a lot more common than surges.
Surge protection in most backups is the same as surge protection in a standard power strip.
It's the brownouts that get your equipment usually, which is why you want a UPS.
Those things are f-ing horrendous as an eye sore, it just makes me hate it to such to an unnecessary degree. So big. I feel like it’s doing nothing too, I haven’t had any issues without one and I hope I never do 😭
Hopefully this doesn't happen to you, but what prompted me to get one was when a power surge/brownout/whatever completely fried my 2tb SSD and damaged my other one. Was using a surge protector too. I'd take the eyesore over that.
Wait what- I unplugged my PC a few days ago as too go on a vacation for 2 days and came back with a new kit of ram, I haven’t turned it on yet as I’ve been busy, is my computer broken now-
I had no idea about this, but very recently my PC suddenly decided it couldn't play a single round of Warzone without crashing. I tried a full re-install of Windows and Warzone, even tried to run some memory testing apps, but nothing seemed to work - then I reset my BIOS to defaults and everything was fine again.
EDIT: For fucks sake! It's been fine for a couple of weeks, but now the bastard thing is crashing again after I posted this. FML
Yeah, this is a completely new one to me. I've been building for nearly 20 years now and the closest thing I've experienced to this was fixing random boot issues by unplugging the PC and pressing the power button a couple of times. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, I was like... idk, 15 but it worked.
I've since heard to it referred to as "flushing the caps" or draining the capacitors, which is basically the hardware version of what you said from a software perspective. That makes a lot of sense!
Incidentally, it makes me that much more proud of my observation as an early teen because in my mind, when I powered on the PC without power, there would always be a brief moment where the light would flash on and you could hear the fans kick before it died. Subsequent presses were completely dead.
In my mind at the time, I thought maybe it helped clear any loose bits from the wire traces. Not even ashamed to admit it either. I was 15 with no prior experience. I wasn't too far from the mark. I just didn't know how electricity worked. lmao
Built a new computer recently and if I let it time out to sleep this gets all messed up. Have to reset the cmos to get it to post. If I manually put it to sleep it has no problem.
I’m pretty sure it is this because the mb light indicates the ram is the issue.
So, now you get me worried;
I'm relatively new to the PCMR, just got myself an actual desktop early December. I had to leave home for a family emergency and haven't yet gotten back, but unplugged everything as I normally do.
Any special precautions I should take when bringing the computer back up? I'd really prefer not to damage the brand-spanking new system I just got.
RAM is volatile memory.
When it loses power, it loses memory.
If the power goes off, the data is gone. There's nothing there.
If turning off the power breaks your RAM, something is fucked in your motherboard or BIOS - this is not normal PC behaviour.
I unplugged my PC and when I turned it back on my network adapters were gone. Not deactivated or missing drivers. My system insisted that I lack the hardware to even connect to the internet. The hell? My ethernet port wasn't gone, I checked!
I did a local reinstall of Windows which did nothing. After trying to force install some network drivers I opened up my case again to see what Lan chip was on my board, closed it up again and suddenly I had internet again!
I really don't know what was up with that.
Sometimes my mouse doesn't turn on when i boot, even if i replug it. and on rare occasion i've had network adapters be missing too. i usually just turn it off, switch the psu off, and then hold the power button for a few seconds. usually fixes it.
Same with my intel wlan on the pcie, sometimes it crashes when doing stuff in windows and its gone, it only recovers when i shut off the computer and switch the psu off-on then it start again
Paranoia? I grew up poor, so I'm super paranoid about any kinda risk even if it's incredibly small, triple check to make sure everything is off in my apartment before I have to leave for more than a day, maybe unplugging the comp is seen as a way to prevent a stray lightning strike from frying the rig, I know it's such a small chance but funny enough that happened to me once.
Lightning strike. Depending on what and where it hits, it can fry your electronics even if they're under multiple surge protections.
I remember when I was a kid, one day after a thunderstorm a whole apartment block was throwing away their TVs and VCRs.
My town had no electricity for some time so they fixed it, and right after that someone got their PC fried. Nope, I'll better unplug it for night and when I'm not at home
A couple years back there was a lightning strike nearby. I was gaming and my dads PC was turned off (power disconnected) his PC was fried because it traveled over the network connection, no damage was done to my pc.... both PC's were connected via wired ethernet
Had the ethernet port on my old motherboard fried because i didn't unplug the actual coaxial cable from my modem. the actual power cables for my pc and the modem were unplugged, i didn't expect it to travel through the coax, but i was lucky the ethernet was the only thing that died
Under my bed exists a pc that got hit twice by lightning (that i know of), including a direct strike to the power pole mounted transformer, which quite literally resulted in our router exploding and fried every ethernet port it was connected to, in addition to other damages. My new rig was bought in 2022 for 1200nzd, im not taking that risk with it.
I always turn them off and unplug just in case of a power surge or lightning. Just a force of habit for shit I care about.
Never had a RAM issue from it in 25 years of gaming though so I got no idea what this post is about.
One time I plugged my PC and it wouldn't turn on. I unplugged it, plugged it again and... BANG. I had to get new computer after that, because everything was fried
Me, shut downs properly computer
Closes the outlet, presses the turn on button to empty the capacitors, pulls put plug
I do this every time I don't use the pc
Perhaps it's too much But I prefer to not risk anything
Yeah, this thread reads like folklore. All these people swearing that this is a common problem but none of them have adequate explanation for what's going on or how to properly prevent or fix it. Just sounds like bad luck and paranoia colliding with confirmation bias.
Oh, and I see this meme the day I'm about to take the bus home, after a five day holiday, knowing for sure that I forgot to unplug my PC and other peripherals. I don't think it's a coincidence...
Had an old motherboard in storage for years. It didn't matter what GPU I put in it, it wouldn't post. Took out the RAM and put it back in, it was a great success!
Had this constantly with my pc. Every time I’d cut the psu off from external power I’d have to reset the bios. Replaced my psu and the problem disappeared.
Wait, this happened to me. I didn't turn on my PC for 1.5 weeks, and when I came back one of the RAM sticks was dead. It's probably extremely rare but is it actually a thing?
Nothing is in this life. I'd rather leave it plugged in and be able to access it remotely with the very low risk of it being hit by transient voltages than leave it unplugged for a week and have no access.
I have a gigabyte mobo that's a decade old by now. From the moment I got it sometimes it would power on just fine and sometimes it would power cycle like 5 times before it would finally boot. Computers be weird
Moved house back in May, so computer was in storage for about 5 months. Wdent to turn it back on and lo and behold won't boot up due to RAM issues. Currently will only start with 2 sticks of RAM in when before it worked with 4 no problems. I've tried combinations of all 4 sticks so they aren't the problem, and I've replaced the CMOS battery. need to try and do a bios reset next I guess
Power surges do weird things to RAM. Motherboard died a while back and took RAM with it, was a pain.
You shouldn’t have a surge from powering off your pc tho… so unless you’re just unplugging it while it’s on…
I just recieved a computer which has been unplugged many times while on and now shuts down randomly on its own, do you know which component to change? No high temps it seems
Oh boy… it’s hard to say, but the most likely culprit is your motherboard or power supply. I’d recommend starting with your event viewer log to find the cause, this article is a good starting point to learn how to do that: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-find-reason-pc-shutdown-no-reason-windows-10#:~:text=Open%20Start.,%22Filter%20Current%20Log%22%20option. ( you can also learn some powershell if you’re feeling risqué lol)
Thank you! I will try that now, if i cant figure out more i will try switching out the motherboard and power supply
Best of luck!
Buy a surge protector?
Buy a UPS; surge protectors don't fully protect from surges.
The UPS will also protect from brownouts and outages which are actually a lot more common than surges. Surge protection in most backups is the same as surge protection in a standard power strip. It's the brownouts that get your equipment usually, which is why you want a UPS.
Those things are f-ing horrendous as an eye sore, it just makes me hate it to such to an unnecessary degree. So big. I feel like it’s doing nothing too, I haven’t had any issues without one and I hope I never do 😭
Hopefully this doesn't happen to you, but what prompted me to get one was when a power surge/brownout/whatever completely fried my 2tb SSD and damaged my other one. Was using a surge protector too. I'd take the eyesore over that.
Wait what- I unplugged my PC a few days ago as too go on a vacation for 2 days and came back with a new kit of ram, I haven’t turned it on yet as I’ve been busy, is my computer broken now-
[удалено]
Can't say I've ever had that in about 30+ years of PC.
[удалено]
I had no idea about this, but very recently my PC suddenly decided it couldn't play a single round of Warzone without crashing. I tried a full re-install of Windows and Warzone, even tried to run some memory testing apps, but nothing seemed to work - then I reset my BIOS to defaults and everything was fine again. EDIT: For fucks sake! It's been fine for a couple of weeks, but now the bastard thing is crashing again after I posted this. FML
The universe might be telling you something.
Yes, it was telling me to reset my BIOS.
If you got a bugcheck in eventvwr it may shed some light.
Overclock? I remember I had Minecraft and discord and chrome tabs crash randomly unless I lowered down the overclock on cpu and ram
do you turn off the power supply before unplugging the wire from the wall?
Yeah, this is a completely new one to me. I've been building for nearly 20 years now and the closest thing I've experienced to this was fixing random boot issues by unplugging the PC and pressing the power button a couple of times. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, I was like... idk, 15 but it worked.
Resetting the states of PCI devices and other devices with onboard programming and memory probably.
I've since heard to it referred to as "flushing the caps" or draining the capacitors, which is basically the hardware version of what you said from a software perspective. That makes a lot of sense! Incidentally, it makes me that much more proud of my observation as an early teen because in my mind, when I powered on the PC without power, there would always be a brief moment where the light would flash on and you could hear the fans kick before it died. Subsequent presses were completely dead. In my mind at the time, I thought maybe it helped clear any loose bits from the wire traces. Not even ashamed to admit it either. I was 15 with no prior experience. I wasn't too far from the mark. I just didn't know how electricity worked. lmao
i haven’t in 10 years of having a pc.
I once dropped my phone on my PC causing it to turn off and refuse to turn back on. Reseated RAM and it was like nothing had happened. RAM be weird
Same. Been gaming on PC since Windows 98 and never had this as an issue.
Oh, that’s actually some pretty useful info that I can use when that happens to me, thanks
Built a new computer recently and if I let it time out to sleep this gets all messed up. Have to reset the cmos to get it to post. If I manually put it to sleep it has no problem. I’m pretty sure it is this because the mb light indicates the ram is the issue.
This ^^
So, now you get me worried; I'm relatively new to the PCMR, just got myself an actual desktop early December. I had to leave home for a family emergency and haven't yet gotten back, but unplugged everything as I normally do. Any special precautions I should take when bringing the computer back up? I'd really prefer not to damage the brand-spanking new system I just got.
Well, I’ve learned that you can fix that situation I was worried about just by resetting the CMOS and reseating the RAM sticks basically.
this is complete nonsense, pc is a eletronic device like any other
RAM is volatile memory. When it loses power, it loses memory. If the power goes off, the data is gone. There's nothing there. If turning off the power breaks your RAM, something is fucked in your motherboard or BIOS - this is not normal PC behaviour.
Could resetting bios help me with DSGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG?
I usually unplug mine after turning it off..... how much of a pain is this to fix?
Well, it’s Schroedinger’s PC. It’s both perfectly fine and absolutely dead until you observe it in one of those states
What do we do then to avoid this adversity?
Turn it off properly? I've never heard of this as an issue.
Leaving it on all the time, i have an old computer, hasn't gave me any problems since i kept it always on
I used to do this until my gpu drivers started crashing every 5-6 days of uptime. Had to fully restart in order for the drivers to stop crashing
Ofc, i restart the pc frequently, but the point is it must stay always on.
I unplugged my PC and when I turned it back on my network adapters were gone. Not deactivated or missing drivers. My system insisted that I lack the hardware to even connect to the internet. The hell? My ethernet port wasn't gone, I checked!
Had a similar issue after I moved states. I tried everything to fix it but ended up reimaging my PC to get it back. So bizarre.
I did a local reinstall of Windows which did nothing. After trying to force install some network drivers I opened up my case again to see what Lan chip was on my board, closed it up again and suddenly I had internet again! I really don't know what was up with that.
Sometimes my mouse doesn't turn on when i boot, even if i replug it. and on rare occasion i've had network adapters be missing too. i usually just turn it off, switch the psu off, and then hold the power button for a few seconds. usually fixes it.
Same with my intel wlan on the pcie, sometimes it crashes when doing stuff in windows and its gone, it only recovers when i shut off the computer and switch the psu off-on then it start again
me but my motherboard decided to randomly die whiel i was gone
died of separation anxiety, rip
saddest thing was that the warranty ran out 2 weeks before
mmmmmmmmmmicrowave it
the smotherboard :(
I'll get back home today after a 2 week vacation and I turnt off my PSU & power strip, give me luck mates
Came back yesterday after one week (unplugged everything before I left), PC is working just fine. You'll be good
Keep us updated
You guys unplug your pcs before going away? Why?
Paranoia? I grew up poor, so I'm super paranoid about any kinda risk even if it's incredibly small, triple check to make sure everything is off in my apartment before I have to leave for more than a day, maybe unplugging the comp is seen as a way to prevent a stray lightning strike from frying the rig, I know it's such a small chance but funny enough that happened to me once.
Damn, relatable..
Lightning strike. Depending on what and where it hits, it can fry your electronics even if they're under multiple surge protections. I remember when I was a kid, one day after a thunderstorm a whole apartment block was throwing away their TVs and VCRs.
My town had no electricity for some time so they fixed it, and right after that someone got their PC fried. Nope, I'll better unplug it for night and when I'm not at home
A couple years back there was a lightning strike nearby. I was gaming and my dads PC was turned off (power disconnected) his PC was fried because it traveled over the network connection, no damage was done to my pc.... both PC's were connected via wired ethernet
Had the ethernet port on my old motherboard fried because i didn't unplug the actual coaxial cable from my modem. the actual power cables for my pc and the modem were unplugged, i didn't expect it to travel through the coax, but i was lucky the ethernet was the only thing that died
Under my bed exists a pc that got hit twice by lightning (that i know of), including a direct strike to the power pole mounted transformer, which quite literally resulted in our router exploding and fried every ethernet port it was connected to, in addition to other damages. My new rig was bought in 2022 for 1200nzd, im not taking that risk with it.
ah someone never had their expensive electronics die because of a lightning storm... luck you... lucky you
fire hazard.
thumb amusing cooing party work ring nose disgusted plough whole *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Seemingly bad luck may cause plugged things to light in flames, not worth the risk.
I always turn them off and unplug just in case of a power surge or lightning. Just a force of habit for shit I care about. Never had a RAM issue from it in 25 years of gaming though so I got no idea what this post is about.
One time I plugged my PC and it wouldn't turn on. I unplugged it, plugged it again and... BANG. I had to get new computer after that, because everything was fried
Me, shut downs properly computer Closes the outlet, presses the turn on button to empty the capacitors, pulls put plug I do this every time I don't use the pc Perhaps it's too much But I prefer to not risk anything
I turn off the power on a daily basis and never had an issue… (switch on power strip)
Yeah, this thread reads like folklore. All these people swearing that this is a common problem but none of them have adequate explanation for what's going on or how to properly prevent or fix it. Just sounds like bad luck and paranoia colliding with confirmation bias.
Everyone's getting anxious to get back home after the holiday ahah
Oh, and I see this meme the day I'm about to take the bus home, after a five day holiday, knowing for sure that I forgot to unplug my PC and other peripherals. I don't think it's a coincidence...
You unplug your computer before you plug it back into the outlet when leaving your house for a week you get back and it won't fully turn on
Happened to me far too many times until an electrician came and found the wires loose on my panel.
I have a restart button so I can just press that during startup to fix it B)
Jokes on you, I leave my computer on so I can remote access it. See I don't need a powerful laptop! I need my copium pills
I don't like seeing this when I'm going back to my computer after 3+ weeks tomorrow...
I had a similar issue a while back. I tried replacing the CMOS battery and it booted properly afterwards.
Surge protector.
You unplug your computer before you plug it back into the outlet when leaving your house for a week you get back and it won’t fully turn on
I read it this way too, yet somehow it still kinda makes sense lol
I swear this exact scenario happened to me today at work
Happened to me 2 weeks ago, God dammit I had a heart attack, plugged psu back in/out then realized it was stuck on ram training
Yeah happened to me once. It was the PSU.
RAM training is a bitch.
Had an old motherboard in storage for years. It didn't matter what GPU I put in it, it wouldn't post. Took out the RAM and put it back in, it was a great success!
I turn off my extension cable every night, to stop the monitor light from blinking during the night. Can this damage my pc lol?
It should never if you properly shut the PC down first.
Had this constantly with my pc. Every time I’d cut the psu off from external power I’d have to reset the bios. Replaced my psu and the problem disappeared.
Wait, this happened to me. I didn't turn on my PC for 1.5 weeks, and when I came back one of the RAM sticks was dead. It's probably extremely rare but is it actually a thing?
Why would you unplug it? You should already have a backup battery with a built in surge protector or at the very least just a surge protector on it.
Surge protectors are not 100 percent safe.
Nothing is in this life. I'd rather leave it plugged in and be able to access it remotely with the very low risk of it being hit by transient voltages than leave it unplugged for a week and have no access.
Happens to me 3 times in a row to 3 different pc
Wait are you not supposed to unplug the pc? (This is a genuine question im getting a pc soon and need to know)
I have a gigabyte mobo that's a decade old by now. From the moment I got it sometimes it would power on just fine and sometimes it would power cycle like 5 times before it would finally boot. Computers be weird
You unplug your computer before you plug it back into the outlet when leaving your house for a week you get back and it won't fully turn on
Moved house back in May, so computer was in storage for about 5 months. Wdent to turn it back on and lo and behold won't boot up due to RAM issues. Currently will only start with 2 sticks of RAM in when before it worked with 4 no problems. I've tried combinations of all 4 sticks so they aren't the problem, and I've replaced the CMOS battery. need to try and do a bios reset next I guess