Weird Windows Problem

[ro2124]

Well, although Windows has improved a lot since the bad old days, nowadays Windows 10 is fairly stable.
Having said that my version has just developed a weird problem.
When watching video normally for longer time like 20-30 minutes or so, it suddenly freezes the whole computer, sometimes silently, sometimes making a loud weird noise.
When that happens can't switch off computer normal way, have to press the on/off button for a few seconds to shut it down.
An additional problem when leaving computer on, it shuts off and restarts itself continuously, every 10 to 20 minutes.

On other odd occasions when starting computer the mouse is not working, nor can I use devices through USB like external hard disk again everything seems to be frozen.
Completely baffled by this can't seem to find a way to cure it or what caused it.
Any ideas?

[Bertrum]

Could be a heat related problem CPU or GPU time to check and clean out fans and air ducts

[Old_Geezer]

If heat related wouldn't there be a warning on boot up about it being too hot ?
Could be almost anything. Hardware most likely I'd reckon. Possibly video card giving up. Not run out of resources I trust. Power supply not failing ?

[Buenchico]

Like Bertrum it seems, my immediate thought was that you're describing an overheating problems. If the fan's running normally and the air vents aren't blocked, it suggests to me that the thermal bonding between the CPU and its heatsink has failed.

[ro2124]

Mmh..Never considered that might be a prob, fan blocked and it's overheating I thought probably a software/ hardware problem.
Laptop is an Acer , better get onto Google to see how to access the fan to check it out.

[Tilly2]

I did just that last week, Ro. If I can do it, you can. :-)
Just make sure you take all the screws out before trying to get the back off. There are screws in the battery chamber that need to be removed. I didn't do that initially. What a struggle I had.

[Tilly2]

Oh,

and use a magnetic screwdriver to hold the screws, otherwise you can't get them out.

[ro2124]

Also should have mentioned before,, when doing other stuff with computer, word processing. surfing,etc it seems to work ok it's only when I leave the computer running or play long videos, that it crashes.
Also held my hand against the fan opening air coming out doesn't seem to hot.
Tried to check another way without opening it. I downloaded a utility which checks temperature.
Processor Temp seems to be hovering around 50-60 which as far as I can tell it's well within parameters.
So maybe it is software... I tried to do a Windows partial restore but as usual with bloody Windows when you're looking for restore point there isn't one.. one problems that hasn't changed from the bad old days.