Can anyone work this out?

[Buchanan0204]

It would if it was faulty and giving off a signal as though its been pushed

A short signal would shutdown pc giving a windows is shutting down message.
A long signal would cause it to go off completely.
Short one in the bios would also cause it to go off completely.

Had it happen to me when dust was pushing the switch in inside the case.

One way to tell would be to change the power option so that if button is pushed it goes into standby rather than shutdown. then if you get it going into standby rather than shutdown you know

Hmmm... I never thought of it like that. I do like your thinking. I will keep this in mind when working on future systems.

However, I am getting a critical error in the event viewer showing windows lost power unexpectadly, also when booting back up it says windows did not shut down correctly, safe mode, recently used settings bla bla.

so this wouldn't appear if it was a normal shutdown, however thanks again for the tip on future systems.

 

[Essexraptor]

MMMMMMmmmmmm been thinking about this for a couple of hours at work now (no one about so i've got the lappy out!...LOL)

Still points to a breakdown in the insulation/tracks layer somewhere in the MB, which after all is just a big PCB! And this may also account for the randomness of the failure.
ie... until a specific command needs to be executed everything is fine until a current is passed down a particular track or channel which will then short over causing the critical error and hence shutdown? I know I've used all the wrong technical terms but that's the only way I can get across what I mean....Let's face it, the board is old and the insulation may have broken down and will not be noticeable to the naked eye etc.

I'm almost sure I've seen this problem in a weekly puter mag "Micro Mart" (before you start... it's a magazine and not a online competitor!!!) The advice given was get another MB but be aware that the very fact that the board would be older that eventually the same fault would occur.

 

[Buchanan0204]

MMMMMMmmmmmm been thinking about this for a couple of hours at work now (no one about so i've got the lappy out!...LOL)

Still points to a breakdown in the insulation/tracks layer somewhere in the MB, which after all is just a big PCB! And this may also account for the randomness of the failure.
ie... until a specific command needs to be executed everything is fine until a current is passed down a particular track or channel which will then short over causing the critical error and hence shutdown? I know I've used all the wrong technical terms but that's the only way I can get across what I mean....Let's face it, the board is old and the insulation may have broken down and will not be noticeable to the naked eye etc.

I'm almost sure I've seen this problem in a weekly puter mag "Micro Mart" (before you start... it's a magazine and not a online competitor!!!) The advice given was get another MB but be aware that the very fact that the board would be older that eventually the same fault would occur.

ahh who knows. It must be the motherboard, it's definitely nothing else!

I can't even switch it out because dell use they stupid front panel connectors that are only for dells. He has already put a new hard disk, psu in it... changing the board and the case.... he might aswell change everything else aswell and get a new computer.

thanks for all your input

 

[Essexraptor]

ahh who knows. It must be the motherboard, it's definitely nothing else!

I can't even switch it out because dell use they stupid front panel connectors that are only for dells. He has already put a new hard disk, psu in it... changing the board and the case.... he might aswell change everything else aswell and get a new computer.

thanks for all your input

Sadly sometimes a complete upgrade is the only option