My PC keeps shutting down.

Throw it back in the face of the git that sold it to you and get a Mac.
Sorry i know that's not very helpful, but I can count on one hand how many times my Mac has crashed in two years.

Always when I use Microsoft software BTW

Sounds like a virus to me: as if you had not thought of it.

Some kind of antivirus purchase / scan, plus a visit to msn for a fix?

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

Bill
Try uninstalling the mouse driver software, you don't need it for your mouse to work. See if that solves the problem, as you said the problem only started after you installed it.

Clive

Is your mouse a cordless one (a hamstser?)? I had a problem with mine in that it interfered with the firewall software (I don't understand why but that's what it said in the FAQ section of the firewall software site). When I switched back to a mouse with a tail the problem went away.

quote:

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Originally posted by joe90:
Sorry i know that's not very helpful, but I can count on one hand how many times my Mac has crashed in two years.

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I can count on no hands the number of times my PC has crashed in the last two years...

you must be in the vaaaaaaaaaast minority!

How many times do you have to count your hands though??

quote:

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Originally posted by joe90:
you must be in the vaaaaaaaaaast minority!

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err no, you must just believe the marketing bullshit dished up by apple.
4 PCs going strong - the only 'crashes' in the past few years being a dead hard drive and a faulty (new) video card.

I remember my PC doing something similar about a year back. It used to restart but at irregular intervals. Turned out to be one of the boards (I think it was the video card) needed re-inserting into the motherboard a few times. No problems since.

Steve B

I have to agree with joe90. Since getting a mac I haven't touched the windows box

-- woody

I read an article by an American businessman (can't remember who but he wasn't from Aplle i assure you) that pointed out that if any company from any other industry than computers tried to sell something as unreliable as Windows they would be thrown in jail.

Was that marketing bullshit?

Your PC might not be unreliable and that's great, but the dozen or so people I know who have Windows PCs are constantly dismayed at the unreliability of the damned things. The macs i see do crash, just no where near as often.

It's not a mirage or something I dreamed up.

Yes 3 PC's all working perfectly well and have done for the past 3 years, including various upgrades to each one.

Clive

quote:

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but the dozen or so people I know who have Windows PCs are constantly dismayed at the unreliability of the damned things

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ever heard of self-fulfilling prophesy? Seems to usually be the case with the users I've dealt with.
If you can't remember who the guy is, how do you know he wasn't connected to apple? Really!

One thing guaranteed to cause problems on a pc is anti-virus software. Get rid of it - it's completely useless anyway. If any other company tried to sell something that's guaranteed not to do it's job just when you need it they'd be thrown in jail.
The next problem people have is because they buy the cheapest, nastiest pc they can find. £10 power supply anyone? Can't imagine that being too stable.

quote:

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Originally posted by John Sheridan:

One thing guaranteed to cause problems on a pc is anti-virus software. Get rid of it - it's completely useless anyway.

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There's no smiley on this so I have to assume you're being serious. In that case this statement is utter, irresponsible, ignorant rubbish. Hopefully all you non-techies out there will treat this with the contempt it deserves.

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:

quote:

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Originally posted by John Sheridan:

One thing guaranteed to cause problems on a pc is anti-virus software. Get rid of it - it's completely useless anyway.

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There's no smiley on this so I have to assume you're being serious. In that case this statement is utter, irresponsible, ignorant rubbish. Hopefully all you non-techies out there will treat this with the contempt it deserves.

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I'd agree that it's rather too sweeping a comment, however it is true that anti-virus software can cause problems on some PC's.

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:

There's no smiley on this so I have to assume you're being serious. In that case this statement is utter, irresponsible, ignorant rubbish. Hopefully all you non-techies out there will treat this with the contempt it deserves.

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why? By "definition" anti-virus can't detect new viruses, so what exactly is the point of using it?

True, I had loads of problems with the AV software (Macafee) that came on my pc, no viruses just the system would lock up occaisionally.

I removed it and replaced with another (Norton) and no problems since.

p.s. John,

I agree that the AV developers are always playing catchup but how many people get infected with old known viruses through carelessness/naivete etc.?

quote:

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Originally posted by John Sheridan:

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:

There's no smiley on this so I have to assume you're being serious. In that case this statement is utter, irresponsible, ignorant rubbish. Hopefully all you non-techies out there will treat this with the contempt it deserves.

---

why? By "definition" anti-virus can't detect new viruses, so what exactly is the point of using it?

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Because there are loads of bogus virus-infected emails, dodgy (and sometimes not so dodgy) web sites etc out there which contain known viruses. The internet is a virus and spyware ridden nightmare. To hand out advice like this is downright irresponsible as there are probably quite a few non-technically literate contributors on this forum who may take you at your word. Are you going to sort out the mess your advice would create?

I remember that M$ once distributed a batch of CDs which all contained viruses (apart from the M$ software that is!)

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:
Are you going to sort out the mess your advice would
create?

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isn't it far more dangerous to rely completely on software that won't - and can't - prevent you from new attacks? Look how much trouble recent outbreaks have caused - all because anti-virus software doesn't work and people fully rely on it to protect them.
How much less problem would there have been had people been told to patch their machines regularly - or set them to do so automatically - and properly educated about the dangers of attachments?
A case in point. My company installed anti-viral software last year. I refused to put it on my pc.
Shortly afterward, Netsky took out all w2k pcs except mine.

A lot of A/V software is so invasive that it can cause more problems that it solves, whilst in theory it's a good idea to always run AV it's not so good if it creates a BSOD or just doesn't get on with your particular configuration.

As a techie I've never used A/V on my home PC (I now use a Mac at home) and I've never been infected except for once whilst re-installing my PC when I forgot to enable the XP firewall.

As a suggestion to the OP, if you aren't running any A/V software, head over Trend Housecall and run an online scan.

Also run something like SpybotSD with the latest definitions to check for spyware and the likes.

What Service Pack are you running, how up to date is the machine in terms of patches, and do you use a modem or have a broadband connection?

cheers,
Paul

When your computer performs this unexpected "shut down" - do you see a message in a window that says something along the lines of "Windows needs to shut down" then does just that? If so, it is a Virus and as well as cleaning it from your computer, you need to use "Windows Update" ASAP! It was a common Virus a year or so ago...
Also, if you have a 3rd party Firewall installed (such as Outpost Firewall) that may be the cause (I had exactly that problem with Outpost).
On the Anti-Virus front, most "average users" should use AV software - some can cause problems with freezing, slow PC performance etc. I have in the past used Norton which crashed my PC every few minutes, then McAfee, which was fine for a couple of years, then when my PC started crashing and freezing again, I removed it and now use AVG Free anti virus, which as well as being free, is less suseptable to those Virus' which attack AV progs such as Norton....

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

quote:

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Originally posted by John Sheridan:

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:
Are you going to sort out the mess your advice would
create?

---

isn't it far more dangerous to rely completely on software that won't - and can't - prevent you from new attacks? Look how much trouble recent outbreaks have caused - all because anti-virus software doesn't work and people fully rely on it to protect them.
How much less problem would there have been had people been told to patch their machines regularly - or set them to do so automatically - and properly educated about the dangers of attachments?
A case in point. My company installed anti-viral software last year. I refused to put it on my pc.
Shortly afterward, Netsky took out all w2k pcs except mine.

---

You need to do all this as well as have antivirus protection. In my organisation (I'm the IT manager in one of Scotland's largest colleges) our network of almost 2000 PCs is protected by firewall, global antivirus software, and antivirus software on each PC. We are attacked on a daily basis at each level and thankfully due to the policies we have in place, and the software protection we run we have never suffered a corruption. Without antivirus protection we'd be dead in the water. Only once were we close and this was when we were hit by a brand new virus just as our operators were updating the pattern files. It's an ongoing process and being careful is not going to protect you by itself. Good practice is always to be encouraged but it's not enough. Viruses don't always advertise themselves, and often appear to come from people or organisations you're familiar with, from whom an attachment would seem quite normal. Email address books are regularly hijacked on PCs running inadequate protection and used to generate batches of apparently normal emails.
I'm afraid in my college you don't get the choice. If you use one of our PCs it runs antivirus software which is automatically kept up to date and can't be disabled. End of story. If yours was the only uninfected PC in your organisation you might suggest your IT department has a close look at its antivirus and user acceptable use policies.
Finally I'd suggest you find out a bit more about this complex topic before offering such irresponsible and ill informed advice on an internet message board.

quote:

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If yours was the only uninfected PC in your organisation you might suggest your IT department has a close look at its antivirus and user acceptable use policies.

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but the point is they have all this. The virus wasn't detected because anti virus software can't detect virii it doesn't have definitions for. My pc was ok because I'd patched it (against strict company policy) with the latest w2k updates from microsoft.

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK:
Finally I'd suggest you find out a bit more about this complex topic before offering such irresponsible and ill informed advice on an internet message board.

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yes, terribly sorry, I should have realised that my 20 years of virus-free IT work just aren't enough to qualify me to offer non-hysterical advice.

God we love a good whine about anti-virus software and Macs v PCs don't we? Meanwhile a poor punter with a problem stands by, reads it all and thinks what the **** is that all about?

Now, when you've all finished grinding your axes I wonder whether anyone has thought any more about the hardware side of this?

We recently had part of our SAN going down once every 15 minutes or so. "Virus" they all screamed. Calm investigation from a man who'd seen fans on video and sound cards overheat many a PC and Mac and reset them at regular intervals (usually between 10 and 20 minutes) over many years resulted in a finding that one fan had gone on a gateway and funnily enough it was tripping out for a couple of minutes and then heating up to the next trip over a 15 minute period.

Whilst there are viruses that cause spontaneous reboots there are few that do this to a regular interval and none that I am aware of that are related to mouse driver installation. As hardware overheating and cooling is a more likely starting point then I would be interested to hear the outcome of our neglected posters tribulations.

Mike