I have a computer question? reasking?

Question

What causes my computer to shut of on its own. its not overheating. it is in a well vented area and I clean it yet it has shut on me twice.

My computer is 3yrs old


Its is clean i have three virus programs and all say its great

I have a 512 MB of ram and a 152 gb hd

Answer 1

When you say you clean it, what exactly do you mean?

If it is running fine and then suddenly shuts down without going through the shutdown process it could be numerous things.

That being said the most likely cause is a processor failure. It does not necessarily mean any parts are bad. Especially when you can recover, and the PC will run again. This is a clear indication something is heating up. It just takes a little time to get hot, and it probably recovers fairly well also?

If you are at all handy, remove the cover. Find the processor, it shouldn't be too tough. Look for a fan mounted directly on the motherboard. Between the fan and the main CPU will be a heatsink. This thing has very small fins with very small gaps (+/- 1mm) more or less. These fins will be clogged with dust. Clear the fins. Your problem will most likely be gone.

If this is not the case, you are still looking at a processor failure, just a different cause. It could be a power supply problem, or a failing chip somewhere.

Focus on the main CPU colling fan. (or perhaps the power supply is really dirty.)

Answer 2

Start simple.

Have the power supply checked, a power supply that surges (either up or down) can cause the problem.

Overheating. Make sure your fans are clean and working, replace your CPU colling fan if necessary (don't forget the thermal paste). A new CPU cooling fan is a cheap investment to avoid the aggravation.

Virus programs. No need for three, they may be conflicting with each other (unbeknownst to you), though I don't think that is the problem here. Ditch 2 of them.

Answer 3

Just because its in a well ventilated area doesn't mean it isn't overheating. Cars overheat in well ventilated areas dont they?
Check to see if your fans are caked with dust. your cpu fan, case fans and power supply fan. Why are you running 3 anti-virus programs? Most wont even let you install them unless you uninstall any other anti-virus software first. Keep the one you like best and dump the other two. Not only is there a possibility of them conflicting with one another they are eatting up your system resources and dogging your system. If your system shuts down dont turn it back on right away because if its shutting down because of an overheated cpu you stand a real good chance of frying your cpu starting it right back up with a hot cpu.

Answer 4

Check the capacitors near the CPU, and elsewhere on the motherboard, if there is any bulging, that is your problem.
It is a very common, and it tends to allow systems to run for like 30 minutes, then suddenly reboot.
If you find bulging, your motherboard is garbage, there are places that repair this, but they are hard to find, and repairs are quite costly.

The capacitors are the round black things the are shaped like a drum and stand upright. They have an aluminum top partly covered by heat-shrink.

Answer 5

How speedy is your pc? i.e how so much RAM and what number of GHz? To discover this out, correct-click on at the My Computer icon, cross to Properties, and within the General Tab it'll inform you. You will have to set up Service Pack two for safeguard explanations. You could have to purchase extra RAM. What style of Internet connection do you may have? High-velocity or are you utilizing dial-up? Anti-virus program slows down desktops on begin-up normally. You could ought to reformat to velocity matters up. That is what I needed to do while mine was once getting quite sluggish.

Answer 6

Turn off auto restart. That way, next time it shuts down, you will get a blue screen with an error code. That should help to pinpoint the cause.

Answer 7

It could be several things. Ive seen a CPU fan come unseated slightly and cause a PC to overheat and shutdown without you being able to tell why. Id take it to someone who services PCs and have them take a look at it.

Answer 8

I could just say some random **** like you need more $150 piece of ram or $200 hd. I would just suggest you restore your os. ( reinstall ) Your computer should come with a restore cd so just pop that in , shut down your computer , boot it up with the cd and restore. ( note that reinstalling your os you'll lose all your files and documents so back it up with a cd first.

Answer 9

it still could be overheating. There are fans and air channels inside your computer that could be partially clogged with dust. The fan could be malfunctioning, that would cause it too.
open that sucker up and blow it out with a can of canned air.

Answer 10

If you are running three different anti virus programs there is a chance that they are conflicting with each other. I use pc cillin and it works good.