pc keep switching itself off

[dannyday5821]

i have a wierd pc problem! i turn it on, and if i leave it for ages on desk top nothing happens its fine. if i start doing things, like load itunes, go on the net, or run norton, after a while, it will randomly crash, but switch itself completley off. Sometimes i restarts. If it does and gets into windows, it tells me the system has recovered from a serious error...

C:\DOCUME~1\COMPAQ~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERdf8b.dir00\Mini082908-02.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\COMPAQ~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERdf8b.dir00\sysdata.xml

whatever that means....

sometimes it turns itself back on but the screen is blank and it cant reload itself. any ideas anyone? Im reluctant to buy a new pc...but thats another story!

[spheric]

I'd be willing to bet that its overheating...

If your BIOS supports it, looking at the temperatures immediately after it happens should confirm it.

If you can't manage that, check that when you turn the computer on, all the fans are turning. Clearing out some of the dust is a good idea too.

[dannyday5821]

hmmm....well ive had this pc for what...3 or 4 years now...dust sounds plausable...what would be the plan? how do i clean inside safley? but yeah, all the fans come on, it starts really loud, then quietens down, until i load a game or something, then it starts up again.

[Mortartube]

There is usually one fan over the cpu on the motherboard.

It will either be held on with srews or plastic clips. It will be mounted above some cooling fins. Ideally you need to remove the fan carefully (note which is the correct way up), and brush the dust out from between the fins with a soft paintbrush, whilst holding the hoover nozzle above the brush to clear the dust. Replace the fan and usually that cures it. Does it sometimes beep when it goes off or you try to unsucessfully restart it? That is often a sign of overheating.

[R1Geezer]

I know exactly what the problem is but unfortunately as a middle aged bloke I know far to much for a snotty like you so, good luck sunshine!

[abstract]

ive also had a pc,as well as other electrical items switch their selves on and off by themselves,but it all disapeared after i brang an exorcist to my house!

[dannyday5821]

lol! do some people actually think this pc is my life? hahaha! If it broke it broke and believe me its not the end of my world!

[chrisrob]

I have had this problem and it was definitely overheating. My PC is 6 years old. It was "state of the art" then built by an enthusiast who hadn't installed the case fans correctly. He had 2 of them both blowing into the case. It would have been better if they had been both blowing outwards. I now have one fan blowing in at the front and two blowing out at the back. I replaced the cpu fan with a water cooling system and it has been fine until recently. It will now crash if left on for any length of time but I know it will be just a case of vacuuming out all the dust and cleaning up the fans as mortatube sasys.
I have run a program called SANDRA from SiSoft.com - the freely downloadable version is useful (although some features are disabled until you pay for it). It tells me the cpu fan is running slowly which confirms what I suspected.

[dannyday5821]

lol 3 years ago i posted this! but yeah you guys were right... overheating! i cant remember exactly what happened but it was the power unit that was screwed up - i think they said as it was an overclocked system (as in the CPU and the GPU's) it basically overworked itself till it died

i learned my lesson, ditched it, and bought a new one NOT overclocked, which has been a million times more reliable ever since!