Hello all,

I am working on an acer desktop computer. It is currently running Windows XP 32bit with SP3. This is my boss's computer. He said that the computer would run for a few hours then shut off because it was too hot. I told him to clean out the computer (he knows enough about computers to clean it without breaking something). Now the computer will go into hibernation about 30 seconds to a minute after logging on.

I ran a live linux CD to see what the temperature of the computer was. I saw that the GPU was running at 93 degrees celsius. Next I opened up the computer myself, unplugged and plugged in the hdd and ram, reapplied thermal glue and cleaned the CPU and GPU, and just did an overall clean inside the case (he missed some areas like fans). After doing all that I got the temperature down a lot to a safe level.

The problem was still happening after all that, so I disabled hibernation. Now instead of hibernating after logging on, it goes into standby. I don't think this is a heat issue anymore, because I have the temperature at normal levels. I did run tests on the hdd, ram, and cpu and they all checked out. I have no idea what is going on. Thank you to anyone who has any suggestions in advance, I'll be checking this often to see if anyone replies. Ask me any questions if you'd like. Thanks!

Something else that might be helpful, if I wait at the log on screen, it does not go into standby. Only after selecting a user, then waiting the 30 seconds to a minute will it go into standby. After it does this it will not wake from standby, so I have to hold the power button to shut it off.

Check your power settings and or screen saver settings. Make sure it is not set to go in standby after a certain period of time.

I did that as well. It is set to never go into standby

What type of computer is this?

Have you tried running a virus scan in safe mode?

Is it possible the monitor can not support the resolution settings? Try lowering the resolution (if you can).

What is the current temperature readings now? Check the BIOS, often there are threshold settings that forces the computer to shutdown when CPU temp reaches a certain temperature.

Alright, I found the source of the problem. Its a system service. I ran msconfig and put the computer into diagnostic mode. It ran fine after that. Now I just need to see what system service it is. I think this computer just had a lot of different problems, it was just a matter of knocking them each out one by one. Thanks to all of you for helping!

Found this article at Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477