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I have recently had an outdated PC given to me and decided since it was rather slow, i would put a small linux on it to speed it up for small apps. and tasks. I installed PCLinuxOS on to the HDD rather than running the live cd. I like it. yesterday it worked fine, today I started the pc up and left the room for about 5 minutes and come back the the pc is off. I had to unplug it and plug it back in and it started up and about 10 minutes later it turned off again. I put in the Ubuntu Live CD and ran it for a few hours and it never shut off. so i ran PCLinuxOS off the HDD again and it shut off within 10 minutes.
I installed a wireless card and it seems like ever since I have had the problem. I don't know whether its the wireless card, or the OS , or the PSU. Iam going to take the card out when I get home from work and try it with out it. I hope its not the card because I really want this linux on the internet and don't have a jack in the office to hook it to.
The card worked fine in my old PC, do you guys think its the card, OS, PSU or what?
Thanks in advance
could it be the power management settings?
Have you tried changing them to see if that helped?
Is the cpu fan choked up with dust?
Other than that at the moment can't think of anything else that it could be
MSI 845e mb 1 gb ram and a p4 2.4n running xp ,win 2000 advanced server and win 98 SE alot to learn and I know so little !!!!
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(Addition to above)
It may be a good idea to carefully clean inside the case (dust bunnies build up over time). I have a small (anti-static) soft bristled brush (similar to the make-up brush my wife uses to powder her face) here that I use to gently remove dust from internal surfaces. I also keep a can of compressed air for the same purpose (after using the compressed air I let the case dry overnight with the side panel cover off (covered with a lint free cloth) because compressed air is usually accompanied by moisture.If you have never worked inside a computer case, it is advised that you have someone who knows what they are doing (technician or friend) help.
If you decide to follow this suggestion, please remember to be very careful inside the case and observe all safety precautions to protect both yourself and the equipment. Unplug power, Follow ESD protocols:
Avoid touching electric contacts on circuit board edges and solder points with your body
Use a wrist grounding strap or maintain physical contact with case frame to avoid electrostatic discharge.
Use only antistatic (or non-conductive) tools inside the case.
For non-techies - be very gentle with everything in there.
HTH,
Ernie Registered Linux User 247790
ICQ 41060744
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First thing I done when I got the computer was remove all the dust. Took my air compressor in the garage and blew all the dust out of the fans mobo and every crevice. The computer is pretty clean dust wise. I did not let it sit very long, but don't know if air compressor contains moisture.
I've worked around computers quite a bit and did my fair share of replacing mobos and other parts. I used a an anti-static wrist band while working with the network card and removing the HDD.
As far as the power management, I went into the BIOS and set the power settings to never turn off unless the CPU gets above 150F degrees. I then turned that off upon experiencing this problem.
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If you use KDE desktop, open KCC (System > Configuration > Control Center in the menu system).
Navigate to Peripherals - Display and select the Power Control tab.
Clear the Enable Display Power Management check box.
There is also a Power Control section, but on my desktop system, the only choice under it is Laptop Battery. I have no Laptop battery, so I disable everything in this section.
HTH,
Ernie Registered Linux User 247790
ICQ 41060744
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Do you have PCLinuxOS on a live CD? If you
do try booting the PCLinuxOS Live CD to see if it runs properly (no 'shut off'). If the computer shuts down from the CD as well as from the HDD, it may be possible that some hardware component is not as well supported in PCLinuxOS as in Ubuntu.If (as per your last post) the computer shuts down too quickly to do anything when you run the GUI, the trouble is with something other than the power management settings.
Xorg seems to have a 'built-in' screen saver. A period of inactivity triggers it and the screen is blanked. If this is what is happening in your case (I have my doubts) you should be able to move or click the mouse to stop the 'screen saver' and re-activate the display.
From your first post, the computer runs for about 5 to 10 minutes, then 'shuts off'. You say you must unplug the computer, then plug it in again to restart it.
Xorg is a GUI server for Linux. If it is incorrectly configured, the screen may go black (making it appear to have shut down).
Please try the following:
Start the computer.
When it 'shuts off', press CTRL+ALT+F2 on your keyboard to try to switch to a console screen.
If you get a text log in screen, log in as the root user.
Run the following command to create a generic Xorg configuration file in the /root directory:
Xorg -configure
When this command completes, the output will include a command you can use to test the new configuration. Please run the test. You should get a blank Xorg graphical screen with nothing but a mouse cursor (may be an X). It should move when you move the mouse. If Xorg loads OK, let it run for 10 to 15 minutes to see if it will 'shut off' again (remember the 'built-in' screen saver). If it does not, press CTRL+Backspace to exit Xorg.
The Xorg configuration file should be located in /etc/X11. If the Xorg test succeeds, remove the current configuration file:
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
replace it with the new one:
cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
By using the copy (cp) command, you keep a backup of the new xorg.conf file in the root directory. If you do not want to keep this back up copy, use the mv command to move the new configuration file:
mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
To reboot the computer:
reboot
If any of this fails, please post back with details,
Ernie Registered Linux User 247790
ICQ 41060744
0
reinstalled the linux and it ran fine for the whole day, then when I went back the next day turned it on and started turning off again? Maybe its the PCLinux OS?
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The problem could be cause by any number of things. I am a Mandriva Linux user myself, and have been since I started with Linux about 1998. One thing I have learned is that the differences between distributions are mostly skin deep. Linux is Linux, and all distributions are developed from the same source code base. The differences between distributions are found mostly in distribution specific software, the manner of organization, and the look-and-feel achieved with configuration.
Hardware support can vary from one distribution to another, but such issues are largely a thing of the past. If what we are dealing with here is a hardware issue, it could be Linux wide rather than distribution specific, but trying another distribution would make a good test.
Since I use Mandriva Linux here, I will recommend you get the iso image for Mandriva One (KDE), burn it to disk, then boot the disk. Mandriva One is a Live CD, so when it boots, you will see an install icon on the desktop that you can use to do the installation. Make sure to select all Linux partitions for formatting, (including the
home partition) during the installation procedure. This will ensure that no configuration issues carry over from the PCLinuxOS installation.There are other distributions you can try as well, including Ubuntu, Mepis, and even Puppy Linux. My reason for suggesting Mandriva is that PCLinuxOS was originally derived from Linux-Mandrake (now Mandriva Linux), so the things about PCLinuxOS that attracted you may exist in Mandriva.
HTH,
Ernie Registered Linux User 247790
ICQ 41060744
0
I have the exact same problem with PCLinuxOS 2007! I was running Suse 10.2 before, but I got tired of it so I ran the PCLinuxOS 2007 LiveCD and liked it so much I decided to install it. It ran fine for a while, but now when I login to KDE it will run for a few minutes and then the whole computer will just power completely off! Then I have to either unplug it or flip the power supply switch in the back for about 10 seconds.
If I boot into console mode it seems to run fine without cutting off. I looked through log files for errors, but I couldn't find anything that might hint at the problem. I'm going to try creating a different user to login with. I'm also going to see if I can log in long enough to disable power management, screensavers, etc. My gut feeling is that it might be a KDE problem since I just updated KDE the other day, and the problem started soon after.
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FOLLOW-UP: I finished troubleshooting my problem and found the system had a bad power supply. The fan was barely blowing, and I could actually hear one of the capacitors faintly squealing. So, I replaced the power supply, and it hasn't had a shut-off problem since! I'm just glad it's not a software issue :-)
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