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At random, every day or so, my computer is shutting down, as if the power cord was plugged.

It's just the computer itself. External Hard Drive and Monitor unaffected.

What's the most likely causes?

CPU Fan replacement, not a problem.

Power Supply replacement.... given the age of the computer, it would be new computer time.

Check heat then get back to us. Seeing as it is summer heating can get to be a real problem, and is intermittent.

Agent Sorchus wrote:Check heat then get back to us. Seeing as it is summer heating can get to be a real problem, and is intermittent.

The house AC is on, so the environment shouldn't be a problem.

I currently have the cover off. I don't think the Fan is going as well as it should be.

Have a good look at the heatsink. If it's coated in dust, use some of that compressed air in a can to blow it out. Dust coating a heatsink will prevent it from doing its job, so your computer might overheat.

SCRawl wrote:Have a good look at the heatsink. If it's coated in dust, use some of that compressed air in a can to blow it out. Dust coating a heatsink will prevent it from doing its job, so your computer might overheat.

Had the same problem a while back. The dust can be a bit tricky to detect, depending on how the heatsinks are constructed. The graphics card is probably your main candidate to look at, since it produces lot's of heat.
Just grab a tool that checks for the heat in your system, some are linked in the useful-links sticky we have here. If it is too high, dust is your main candidate for a cause and easily fixable.

Hello Again.

I opned my case last night. Let me put it this way, I think the dust bunnies have gained sentience and attempting to form their own nation.

Unfortunately, my can of compressed air is empty.

So, after writing this, I'm shutting my system back down, and picking up a new can of it at lunch.

Assuming the dust isn't the only problem, what are the most likely other causes?

I ask because the computer is 6+ years old. If it's the power supply or CPU fan, easy fix. However, anything else, the motherboard probably couldn't support suitable replacement hardware (and a motherboard failure means time to replace the entire system).

I wouldn't worry about any other faults. I had a very similar problem recently (you did not see any dust while casually looking into the computer, but the relevant parts were full of dust) and my computer is about 4 years old. Everything is running fine now that the heatsinks are working properly.

If it turns out that it is not working properly after your heatsinks are dust-free, then you can worry about other problems

I've had a lot of luck cleaning up dust bunny infestations with a vacuum cleaner set on minimum (perennial lack of compressed air may have had something to do with it).

I've applied this to a few heatsinks - CPU, GPU, hard drive (don't ask) - with similar temperature-dropping effects.

A vacuum will deal with loose dust, but loose dust isn't a problem. It's the shit that gets packed in between heat sink blades or caked onto fan blades that you really need to watch out for. Even canned air can't do much for some of those, particularly when tobacco dust is involved. On the assumption that you have normal, sane dust, though, a can of air should do the trick.

I cleaned my heatsink with forceps . You have to be careful of course, but there isn't that much you can do to damage a heatsink - just be delicate and don't use brute force (which you don't have to do anyway.

So plug out your computer, get a flashlight and a pair of pincers and make sure to earth them before using them. Look for packed dust and grab it out.
If you're unlucky you might have to remove your graphics card or other component from the computer in order to access the right spaces.

After cracking open the case, cleaning it out, and testing, I didn't think the fan was throwing enough air.

Since it's a MDG system, replacement fans are not easy to get.

So, since there was a sale at Future Shop.....

Let me put it this way, my uncle took his new second hand computer to MDG and got the fan replaced, and I spent the weekend installing software on my new Quad Core Laptop