Windows 8.1 computer shuts down unexpectedly.

Hi Luxus

You have mentioned a common problem area with the latest motherboards, but I tend to add a Graphics card in the EX_PCI slot as that helps the processor run normal programs better by taking the load of it.

I tend to get a lot of comments from my Customers saying "you said this machine would be faster and it seems the same as the old one"    this is purely down to memory,  Hard drive and Graphics processes, so I now tend to hive off what I can.

But I can agree the Intel chipset can cause a lot of problems, and some of microsofts Virus deterents are to stop certain writes to certain memory locations, thus making this even worse.

In my case the shutdowns were definitely fixed by replacing the Hard drive, but in others this could be the problem.

To answer your question, I have not added an extra graphics card in this machine, and it is using the on board GPU, but replacing the drive worked, so it was not the onBoard GPU that was causing my problem.

It certainly was not the OS either, as others have suggested.

Hm, I just thought something!

My main personal development machine had the same problem some months ago. I have three monitors attached to the PC to help me with PHP development, and I had one of the monitors attached to the motherboard's internal Graphics Processor, the Intel HD Graphics 4000 which is part of the CPU.

This PC shutdown unexpectantly many times, and without giving much thought, I suspected the GPU as the culprit - and it really was. It was not the first time I had stability issues with an Intel GPU chipset! I attached the 3rd monitor to the main GPU (an AMD card) and problems disappeared since.

As I am realising now, only the GPU drivers are so connected with the OS core they can cause a sudden shutdown. So Intel drivers may are the source of the problem!

I cannot check my hypothesis until Monday, but the PC with the recent shutdown problem is also running with an onboard Intel GMA3150 chipset GPU. Maybe the GPU tries to access a RAM memory area the wrong way, so the PC shuts down.

So, I have to ask you: What kind of GPU each of you are using?

If all of you are using an Intel onboard chip, we may have found the culprit!

Same problem here. The computer in question (Win 8.1) shuts down completely like someone's pulling the plug! And this happens each day at exactly the same time, at 2:19pm. It is outrageous.

I am a computer expert and I checked everything, like event logs, malware, BIOS settings, disk faults, hardware problems, I even dissasembled the PC and I build it from the start checking each component separately, to no avail.

Name here is Pete (Peyia).

Hello Art,  I am still sure it has to be your machine, millions of people who have Windows8.1 running are not complaining, so it has to something on your machine.

You mentioned upgrading from WindowsXP to Windows8.0, this cannot be done, as you need to install a clean system, ie load the Windows8 from a DVD from scratch, you cannot upgrade from XP, hence this could be part of your problem.

Also you need to check what version of XP and Windows8 you have either 32bit or 64bit, again these cannot be mixed, and if you have an old machine, the hardware may not be campatable with the 64bit system especially if you ran the 32bit XP version.

Hence I will reiterate, if you have little knowledge of Windows and PC repair, I strongly recommend that you take the machine to a PC Repairer, as there has to be something wrong with your machine.

You cannot upgrade from XP to Windows8, it states that on the Microsoft website for upgrading systems.

See link below....

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-from-windows-vista-xp-tutorial

Many regards

Hi  RayMcClellan

As you can see from my last reply I am satisfied there is no problem with Windows 8.1, to prove this I have fixed my shutdown and I know there are millions of other people who are running this software with this problem, hence it has to be your machine, i.e. Hardware and as I said above, it is normally the hard drive.

If you can not take out the drive and test it as I did, then you need to contact a PC Repair person to do this for you, he can then eliminate that item for you.

If it is not the drive then it can also be heat related with the CPU and/or Memory.

It is definitely not Microsoft's fault, as the Software is good, I spent two days talking to their engineers in America and they could not fix the problem, hence I looked at the hardware.

I am sure the problem you seem to be having is a hardware one, not the Operating System.

Regards.