Computer closes without warning

[daqinggregg]

Computer closes without warning.

I’m not in any way a technical person and certainly not computer literate. The problem; when playing videos via a media player (VLC) or using a browser (Firefox) the computer closes without warning, no warning beep, nothing.

This happened before about a year ago, so I upped the memory from 4GB to 8GB, that seemed to cure it, but now it’s doing the same. Searched the net, with no success.

Spec:
Intel core i3
4130 CPU
Memory (RAM) 8GB
Windows 7

A couple of screen shots if this help’s.

Processes



Nothing open.




Playing video (VLC)


I have a great tech guy who helps me, but we don't speak the same language, so a little idea before i visit him helps.

Many thanks. DG

[bigandclever]

Overheating?

[MesoForm]

bigandclever said:

Overheating?

Was my first thought too.
This little program from way back in the day will tell you the temperatures of all the various bits and bobs inside your PC
https://almico.com/sfdownload.php

It looks ancient but it's fine.

If the temperatures start climbing above 80 shortly before it shuts down then that's probably your issue.

[anonymous-user]

bigandclever said:

Overheating?

Take the back off and hoover out all the dust?

Is there anything in the Event Viewer around the time it restarts?

[eeLee]

failed fan, failing/overloaded power supply?

[xeny]

The obligatory, If at all possible, please stop using Windows 7 on a PC connected the internet?

My vote would be a failing power supply. Dust/poor cooling normally just makes a machine really slow as the CPU throttles its clock speed to avoid cooking itself.

[bitchstewie]

When you say "closes" what do you actually mean?

Just dies so you literally have to switch it back on?

[some bloke]

I built one years ago that did this - it turned out to be a cpu overheating thing. I reapplied the thermal paste between cpu and cooler and that cured it. Another recent one took a bit longer to figure out - turns out my ram was running at the wrong clockrate but once that was sorted it was fine.

[daqinggregg]

xeny said:

The obligatory, If at all possible, please stop using Windows 7 on a PC connected the internet?

My vote would be a failing power supply. Dust/poor cooling normally just makes a machine really slow as the CPU throttles its clock speed to avoid cooking itself.

Why the first part? Genuine question.

[daqinggregg]

bhstewie said:

When you say "closes" what do you actually mean?

Just dies so you literally have to switch it back on?

Yes, just dies and have switch it back on, no beeps. Restarting there are no error messages, just normal start up.

[daqinggregg]

It's a Dell desk top, feeling front of the tower it's cool, the rear is only slighty warmer. I will open it up and look for dust.
..
Thank you everyone for your suggestions .

[sociopath]

daqinggregg said:

xeny said:

The obligatory, If at all possible, please stop using Windows 7 on a PC connected the internet?

My vote would be a failing power supply. Dust/poor cooling normally just makes a machine really slow as the CPU throttles its clock speed to avoid cooking itself.

Why the first part? Genuine question.

Because we don't want to have to reply to your next post saying "My PC has a virus, what do I do"

[daqinggregg]

sociopath, thank you for the explanation.

[daqinggregg]

Joey Deacon said:

Take the back off and hoover out all the dust?

Is there anything in the Event Viewer around the time it restarts?

Event Viewer, getting into a dark world I know nothing, this is what I found, not sure if useful.






Thank you for the reply/

[daqinggregg]

Monday, I will take it in for repair. It's around 7/8 years old and for what I paid it's provided fantastic service, I can't think on many things that offer the same level of entertainment for the price.

[xeny]

Event ID 41 is shut down or rebooted unexpectedly, so confirmation of your original post.

[CharlesElliott]

I would definitely start with an overheat or power issue, either of which could be caused by dust build up. And in a seven year old tower, there is likely to be a lot of dust inside it, and in the power supply!

[Captain_Morgan]

If you do take this for repair then you may want to consider that a newer remanufactured / second hand newer system might offer better vfm than repairing the old one.

eBay throws up a number of options for a 10th gen i5 (vs your 4th gen i3), 16Gb ram, 256Gb ssd. From around £300.

This should support windows 11 too.

[snuffy]

Check that your Video driver is up to date.

With overheating, it will slow down to start with, and you will likely notice that happening before it shutsdown.

Also, RAM errors would cause it to crash.

Might be time for a new PC.

[daqinggregg]

To bring this thread to a close, if anyone’s interested. I took the computer to the tech guy I use , so he could work his magic.

As most of you said “over heating” bang on the money, kaput fan.



Here is the offending part.




Now replaced, cost under 3 quid including labour.