4 yr old PC, randomly turns off, never lasts 5 mins

[Gameunreal]

Hi there,

A friend of mine has a 4 year old PC, which randomly turns off, or doesnt turn on at all. I went to his house, and shuffled the ram around, took out and put back in the video card, and removed the sound card. Put it all back in and suddenly the computer turned on. After about 4 mins it turned off. However, I couldn't pinpoint a faulty part.

Subsequent tests showed that the pc randomly turns off for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's so bad that when I switch it on, it only lasts about one second before turning off. The hard drives start spinning immediately.

I disconnected the 2 CD drives and it still turns off.

I can't think of anything, other that a fault mobo (?), a bad power supply, or a overheating cpu(probably not since it sometimes barely lasts a second)..

Sometimes it doesnt fully turn off, and simply resets itself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Patrick

 

[mjavad]

maybe the processor is overheating. try cleaning it with a brush or somthing

 

[Gameunreal]

I blew most of the dust out, but I only removed the fan, not the heatsink. But would the CPU overheat in 1 second? then randomly run for 5 minutes?

 

[mjavad]

its possible, it has maximum temp coded inside it by intel which tells it to shut down when it crosses that, if off then cools down fast, then after running for 5 mins again get heated up,
what is your processor, chk on internet for maximum it should go then when it starts, check cpu temperature in bios, it will tell if over heated, if temperature in range, then check if it temperature when it approx shuts down, with help of software in windows, it will tell you if problem with cpu

 

[Gameunreal]

Thanks, I'll try that. MEanwhile, does anyone else have any other suggestion?

 

[ghost_reader]

hello there i had a same problem ...........
in the end it came to a faulty cpu cooler....try changing cpu coolert BEST OF LUCK