Hello, theres a desktop at my house which keeps turning itself off. The screen goes black but either the cpu/psu is still spinning (making a noise) and then goes off a few seconds after the screen has gone black. Im thinking its the motherboard. Anyone else got views?

Sounds motherboard-esq to me what's the temperature feel like? Ho long is it running before this happens?

Around about a 40 minutes - 1 hour.

 

Just been told this morning that sometimes if there are multiple tabs open on firefox it will alert saying "do you want to save tabs as it will turn off" (something along them lines)

Sounds like heat to me. How's the dust situation on the fans looking.

Will take it apart later bud and have a look. I am quite familiar with hardware / computers just don't want to tell my mum to buy a new mobo and its not that, lol. (need to be 100% sure)

Nah get that case open and see how the temperature is first. Most random shutdowns are due to heat an dust I the most common heat insulator.

Ok bud, well yeah the computer is on the carpet so could be a big problem. I try to tell her but shes like "well I cant put it anywhere else, mehhh" ,lol

 

EDIT: Just give it a clean so will see if its fixed the problem. There was quite a bit of dust coming out of the PSU but not much around the other components.

Edited May 8, 201115 yr by Beavy

If it still persists with the dust gone try leaving the case open while running it. Sometimes the extra airflow makes the difference.

 

Also, you should check to make sure every fan is still spinning. I've had a North Bridge fan die on me which caused a lot of problems.

Hello, theres a desktop at my house which keeps turning itself off. The screen goes black but either the cpu/psu is still spinning (making a noise) and then goes off a few seconds after the screen has gone black. Im thinking its the motherboard. Anyone else got views?

 

Use the logging feature of CoreTemp to see if the shutdowns coincide with temperature peaks. Make sure it's not clogged with dust - if your case has a filter, give it a clean. Get dust out of the nooks and crannies with a can of compressed air - never use a vacuum inside the PC as it generates a lot of static which can fry your components, but it's ok yo blast out the dust with compressed air snd then hoover it up once it's outside the case.

Yes, that can be one of CPU overheating symptoms - say, cooler does not work properly.

never use a vacuum inside the PC as it generates a lot of static which can fry your components, but it's ok yo blast out the dust with compressed air snd then hoover it up once it's outside the case.

 

Yeah, I learnt this when I did some voluntary work at a computer repair shop to look good on my CV

 

~Thanks for the replies

Yeh sounds like a heat issue, check out the cpu temperature with software like CoreTemp and make sure all the fans are spinning inside the case and that it isn't 2 close to the wall etc so it has space to suck air in and out.

I think I fixed it. Haven't had my mum moaning about it yet anyway

would you care to tell us what the problem was after we spent time helping out?

Grrr, just been told it does turn itself off sometimes. Will check temperature next time it shuts off.