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Why's my computer crashing?

3K views 25 replies 11 participants last post by  Joe 
#1 ·
My computer is about 3 years old and I use Windows XP.

Ever since about 2 years ago it randomly just crashes on me (I don't know what's worse the new black screen of death or the old blue screen of death?) It normally doesn't crash very often, mostly when I play something like SimCity 4.

But the last couple of weeks it'll just randomly shutdown whenever. Usually there is no pattern it just happens every once and awhile but this morning and yesterday it would just turn off after being on for about 5 minutes at a time. I'd turn it on, it would come to the blue XP screen where one can choose who they want to sign on under and in about 3 minutes it would just turn off, restart, come back to that screen, and again and again repeat that cycle. I wouldn't even touch the computer!

I did things I normally don't do (like signed under a different user) to try and get around whatever it was that was causing it to turn off and obviously it worked because it didn't shutdown. I signed out and went back under my normal name and here I am.



I should probably be burning all my pictures to CD right about now shouldn't I...
 
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#3 ·
I scan for spyware every month or so, but I haven't recently.

Viruses... nope, I haven't checked.


I don't have a virus program. Unfortunately I just got to work, so I won't be able to check it out for another 8 hours. One other thing though - I have had virus programs in the past and it used to crash then even when I knew for sure there were no viruses.

I was thinking it must be faulty hardware (or faulty OS), I'm just not sure what.
 
#4 ·
yeah, if I was guessing, I would guess it might possibly be faulty hardware causing it to overheat or something, but I know very little about the hardware side of things. off to work myself, so hopefully someone else has better knowledge, I'm sure.

Don't you work at Whole Foods? You can access the internet from there?
 
#5 ·
how much did you use the computer when you logged in under a different account? if you just started the computer up, logged in, and waited for it to restart itself, thats probably not a good test. try playing simcity 4 or whatever you can do to really put a strain on the computer's processor and video card. if it's still stable under the other user's name, its a operating system/software problem. if it restarts again, its almost certainly due to either too much heat or a faulty power supply. one explanation for it not crashing as easily when you log in under a different account could be that it doesnt load as many programs at start up and therefore puts less strain on the system.
 
#10 ·
If it just goes from normal to off, suddenly -- it is very likely a problem with the power supply. First -- check that the power cable is plugged into the wall, and into the back of the computer, that it isn't half falling out of one of the sockets. Haha.
 
#12 ·
What type of computer do you have? I had a dell laptop that did the same thing. Went into the blue screen repeat cycle. Fortunately I was able to retrieve my data, I have an IBM laptop now. But they never did figure out what was up. I reinstalled the OS and everything.
 
#15 ·
Let me start my post by saying:


So, all this talk of overheating got me to thinking - hey, I live in New Orleans and it's becoming summer, that would explain why it's crashing more and more lately! So, thought I, I'll take off the side cover and let it air out and see if it runs better.

As I was down there, I noticed the inside was pretty dusty so I blew around a bit to clean some stuff off. I noticed the vents on the side of the cover were closed with dust, so I cleaned it off. I blew into one of the fans and that's when it happened *cough cough* dust flew out of the machine. I turned it off and noticed that both of my fans were completely clogged up. I stuck a little piece of plastic in them to break up the clumps and then when I turned it on they all flew out.

I came out of this looking like a coal miner!

Well, it hasn't crashed in about 10 minutes, so I'm thinking I'm good to go! I've downloading the free virus software just to be safe and it's checking the HD right now. I can honestly say I can already tell that it's running better.

Thanks everyone for your replies!

Oh, and one more
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikie View Post

As I was down there, I noticed the inside was pretty dusty so I blew around a bit to clean some stuff off. I noticed the vents on the side of the cover were closed with dust, so I cleaned it off. I blew into one of the fans and that's when it happened *cough cough* dust flew out of the machine. I turned it off and noticed that both of my fans were completely clogged up. I stuck a little piece of plastic in them to break up the clumps and then when I turned it on they all flew out.

I came out of this looking like a coal miner!
haha. that'll do it.

next time you're out buy a can of compressed air, works great at getting dust out of the computer.
 
#20 ·
Using a small bellows or even an ear syringe, provides plenty of air for blowing the dust of small things like computer parts, and should be easier on the envirment than buying commerical aerosols in metal cans, even if they only contain air. A camera-lens blower might be a little too small. An ear syringe is bigger.
 
#21 ·
"I'll take off the side cover and let it air out and see if it runs better."

This is actually not a good idea, and has the opposite effect you are going for.

The case in which your computer's components are held conducts cool air through ventilation/fans in the front (sometimes sides) and pushes warm air out of the back (sometimes top). This creates a "weather pattern" inside the case which brings air across the surface of the components, thus cooling them off. When you take off a side of your case your are interupting the wind current patterns needed for correct cooling of your system. Circulation may only occur near the rear or top of your case, instead over the front and middle of the system board. You are also introducing more dust and dirt into you system, which acts as insulation trapping heat in components.

And yes, I don't play a computer professional on tv...I am one in real life.
 
#23 ·
Taking a vacuum cleaner hose to the outside ports, fan exhaust holes, etc. (with the case closed) and sucking the dust out every once in a while (say, twice a year) wouldn't hurt and could help a lot. Taking off the case and blowing the dust off/out (by whatever method is appropriate) maybe once a year would also be a good idea.

There is software (freeware) that does stuff like monitoring the temperature of your motherboard and other components. I don't have the URL handy just now, but I'll pass it along when I find it.

Also, it was a really good idea to get and install anti-virus software, even if a virus was not the cause of your current problem. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by pghmountainbkr View Post

"I'll take off the side cover and let it air out and see if it runs better."

This is actually not a good idea, and has the opposite effect you are going for.

The case in which your computer's components are held conducts cool air through ventilation/fans in the front (sometimes sides) and pushes warm air out of the back (sometimes top). This creates a "weather pattern" inside the case which brings air across the surface of the components, thus cooling them off. When you take off a side of your case your are interupting the wind current patterns needed for correct cooling of your system. Circulation may only occur near the rear or top of your case, instead over the front and middle of the system board. You are also introducing more dust and dirt into you system, which acts as insulation trapping heat in components.

And yes, I don't play a computer professional on tv...I am one in real life.
i thought about those possible effects when i posted earlier, but all i know is that i have owned several computers that will only run reliably with the case off.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe View Post

There is software (freeware) that does stuff like monitoring the temperature of your motherboard and other components. I don't have the URL handy just now, but I'll pass it along when I find it.
I found some of these URLs.

There is some freeware called Motherboard Monitor 5 that monitors various temperatures within your CPU, can give you warnings, can be set to shut it off automatically if the temperature runs too hot, etc.

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

If you have an Intel motherboard, you can get a similar free utility from Intel called Active Monitor:

http://intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm

There is a third utility called Active SMART that monitors the temperature

of the CPU, etc., and monitors other features of your hard drive. Unfortunately, this costs $25, but there is a trial version downloadable for free:

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/index.html

If you install and run one of these utilities now, you can get some "baseline" readings while your computer is working right, and thus establish a "norm" so that if future readings stray too much from the norm, you should be able to tell in advance before the problems you had been having might reoccur.
 
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