The Saga Begins
Okay, so a couple years ago I built this computer, and it worked great, except every once in a while (no more than once or twice a month) it would just up and shut down. No warning or anything. I just ignored it cause it seemed to work okay after that.

Tragedy Strikes
One day it shut down, and when I tried to start it back up, it shut down again immediately. I tried that a couple more times and gave up because I was worried it might damage the hard drive. Or something. I don't know very much about computers.

SO I went and asked Massassi for help. "Your PSU is bad!" they said. "You need a new one!"

"Well ****," said I, "I don't want to do that. I don't have any money and replacing it sounds like kind of a pain in the ass, since it's plugged into every part of my computer."

Thrawn takes action!
So I didn't do anything. I just used my laptop for about half a year. Finally, I got some money and decided to replace the PSU. So I went to Facepunch (another forum) to ask which one to get. "It's not your PSU!" said Facepunch. "Check the CPU!"

"Okay" I said, and opened up the computer. The CPU heatsink was pretty covered with dust, so I sucked it off (no homo), and started the computer up. Lo and behold, it worked just fine!

...until now.

The Problem Returns
A few months later (yesterday) it abruptly shut off again, and refused to start back up for more than a few seconds. So I took it apart, expecting another mat of dust on the heatsink, but there wasn't one. There was a little bit of dust, so I took care of it, but it didn't fix the computer. It still shut off a few seconds after startup.

I tried leaving it off for a day, thinking maybe it had just overheated from being left on too long, but that didn't fix it either. So I decided to take the heatsink out to see if there was any dust stuck inside it, between the blades. There wasn't.

Fixed...but for how long?
Since I had taken it off, though, the thermal paste got pulled apart, so I scraped it off and put on some new thermal paste. The computer has worked fine ever since (about half an hour).

I am posting this thread from the goddamned machine. For all I know, it could shut off at any moment. Why is this happening? It really seems to be CPU-related, but beyond that I'm pretty mystified. I really want to fix this.

Did you clean out the GPU too?



(That is all dust.)

Make sure your fans are working too, and check any diagnostics in the BIOS.

Be sure to check the temperature of the CPU particularly, BIOSs will often shut off the CPU if it gets way too freaking hot. My computer beeps the PC speaker long before that--make sure any such option is on as well to help you confirm or reject a CPU overheating problem.

I had a similar problem to this and ended up realizing I didn't have the clamps on the heatsink on well enough. They were a bit defective and didn't hold it tight enough onto the cpu. I dealt with it for a few months until I figured it out, and after buying a new heatsink/fan combo it worked perfectly.

You need a new computer!!!!!!!

Didja clean the crap out of the PSU fan too?

This might actually be it. The heatsink/fan that came with my motherboard kind of rattles loose in the holes.

I hope it helps!

Thank you Bill! Even though I think you were mean to me in a thread last week.

Check your CPU temps in the BIOS. That should eliminate a lot of guesswork right there.

I'm mean to lots of people. Don't worry about it. I'm just a natural jerk most of the time.

fixed.

I had a similar problem, but it's a new thing:
My ram was the wrong voltage.