Power seems to randomly cut off

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IvanTheBuilder

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Jul 8, 2014
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I recently received a used PC (around 6 years old) for free without an HDD for free, so I installed one and everything seemed to run fine after I installed Windows 7 but after a while it started to randomly shut off, like someone plugged the cable out. There was no BSOD of any kind, neither are there any minidumps located in my C:/Windows even though these are enabled. Now I'm worried that it's either the PSU or the CPU overheating. When I initially received the PC the CPU heatsink was kind of loose so I had to re-attach it to the CPU. Do I have to re-apply thermal paste?
 
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I removed all the dust in the PC prior to booting it up. I tried monitoring the temperature using software, but the temperature it was displaying was pretty instable. It could go from 40°C to 70°C the next second. Could this be an issue? The PC is more likely to shut off when it has to do effort like installing software or play a HD video. It has an external GPU aswell as an internal one. I'm going to remove the external GPU and test if the issue goes away.
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Titan
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May 18, 2007
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Cleaning and re-applying thermal paste after taking the HSF off is not always absolutely necessary but is strongly recommended.

If you open a temperature monitoring utility and CPU/GPU temperatures are fine when the computer shuts down or reboots, you probably have a PSU issue.
 
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I

IvanTheBuilder

Reputable
Jul 8, 2014
6
0
4,520
I removed all the dust in the PC prior to booting it up. I tried monitoring the temperature using software, but the temperature it was displaying was pretty instable. It could go from 40°C to 70°C the next second. Could this be an issue? The PC is more likely to shut off when it has to do effort like installing software or play a HD video. It has an external GPU aswell as an internal one. I'm going to remove the external GPU and test if the issue goes away.
 
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Solution
InvalidError

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
May 18, 2007
23,815
5,265
108,890
It would help to know what sort of CPU and heatsink you are dealing with here.

If it is an Intel-based system with the stock HSF, you probably need a new HSF since Intel's stock cooler rarely lasts more than four years - the plastic frame and pins warps over time and eventually cannot apply sufficient pressure to get good heat transfer from the CPU anymore.
 
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