"Computer shuts down randomly and overheats"

My 20 yr. old nephew at Wichita State sent me this email this morning asking for my help. He describes the problem below! I told him to try a system restore first but didn't think the battery needed replacing yet. The overheating concerns me as well as the random shutdowns. I told him I would get back to him before the weekend was over. Thanks in advance everyone!





I don't know if you know anything about this or not or if you can help me but I'm having some trouble with my computer.

My computer keeps just randomly shutting off when I don't even do anything. I'll be watching a video online or something and then it just goes black and shuts off.

I thought maybe it might have something to do with my battery going bad or something. My computer is less than two years old so I wouldn't think anything would be going bad yet.

Also I've noticed when it does shut down if I feel the back of my computer it feels hot so I don't know if its overheating and not getting proper ventilation because if I turn it back on and keep it elevated off the ground where it has room to ventilate then it seems to work fine. It started doing this probably about a month ago and it would do it maybe once every couple of weeks but now sometimes it does it 5 or 6 times a day.

I don't know why all of a sudden it would start overheating though because it hasn't done it the past year and a half that I've had it. I tried taking my computer to Best Buy but they said they couldn't help me. They said they didn't think it was anything they could fix and they didn't want to charge me $70 to run a diagnostic on it and then tell me they couldn't fix it. They did run some simple tests though and they said I didn't have any viruses or anything like that.

If you can't come up with anything I was going to try taking it to some other computer places here in town and see if they can figure out what's wrong with it.

 

Does the fan ever come on?

 

Has he cleaned the dust out? A year and a half is a long time. A PC will shut off if overheated to prevent damage.
http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-the-Inside-of-a-Computer
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial118.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472

 

It does sound like an over heating problem but although he did not mention that he had a lap top he did mention a battery which suggests that the comp in question may be one. So dissembling it may not be an option.

 

My Suggestion would be try the Laptop on a Power Lead Without the Battery If It Still Switches Off The Its Most Likely Not The Battery. He Said IT Works Fine WHen He Keeps It Elevated.... Laptop Fans and The Opening to These Fans are Located On The Bottom Of Most Laptops.. If He Uses It On a Bed OR a a Pillow Or Sometimes On His Lap It WIll Be Hard for Heat To Escape Causing The Machine To Overheat And Switch off To Prefent Serious Damage To The Laptop.... My Suggestions Wud Be If Its Seems To Be a Problem WIth Ventilation Try Getting a Can o Air into The vents To Clear Them a little Also Think Of Investing In a Laptop Stand.. I Know Their Not Terrible Expensive But Help Lots Towards Keeping Laptops Cool During Use..