shutdown.

Wondering if anyone here has an idea as to why my computer keeps turning off. It seems to be doing it while i am playing a game etc. never when its just sitting there. I don't run too many things at once when I am playing a game etc. but it will sometimes just turn off.

 

That's usually caused by over heating. Either the video card or the CPU (more likely the CPU). So check the temps on both of those, you may need to oil the fans or just clean it out a bit.

 

power supply may be getting overtaxed too, what are the specs of your rig?

 

Coco's right about the overheating -- it's the most likely cause of your problem. A common cause of overheating in computers more than a year or so old is an accumulation of dust in the heatsink fins. Unfortunately, dust acts like a nice warm blanket and prevents proper airflow between the fins. Get rid of it.

Dust can also accumulate on fan blades, making them far less efficient. You can blow the dust off the fan blades with canned air, but don't allow the blades to rotate when you do that unless you want to risk damage to the fan bearings. And don't forget to pay some attention to where the dust is going to go when you start blasting -- you don't want to send that dust somewhere that it's going to cause other problems.

But I'd be careful about oiling a fan. They're usually designed so they don't need lubrication during their lifetime, and any excess lubricant (or lubricant in the wrong place) can hold dust and make matters worse instead of better. The wrong lubricant can dry out, also causing excessive drag.

If a fan is slowing down, it's probably about to seize up. Replace it. Quick. They're a lot less expensive than what you'll likely lose if the fan does seize up.

 

Where on earth did you get those ideas from? You might want to try reading the suggested mantaince sections of your case and motherboard manual sometime. If you've ever worked in a computer shop and you get asked to fix a computer more then two years old one of the main things to do is go through and oil all the fans. Fans are built to only run for a few years without being oiled. It's not like computer fans got some sort of magic oil that never gets used up. If they could invent that, don't you think it would be used in cars?

As far as oiling, well oiling in the wrong spot wouldn't really cause any problems. But you always oil in the exact same spot. You remove the sticker in the center of the fan and then pull out the rubber stopper, you then fill this hole with oil and replace the rubber stopper and the sticker(if it's already full, then obviously you don't add any oil). Any have decent case fan is designed with this in mind. Not only is it recommended that you oil the fans it is expected.

As far as the lubricant, any fine oil is OK. I personally use sowing machine oil. Anything will work really, just the more refined the oil the better it will be. Of course ultimately any lubricant will dry out given enough time. If you get really worried about it go into a computer shop and get the oil from them.

 

Check the temps of your computer after running it for a period of time. This can be done in the BIOS. If there are high temps then it is an overheating problem.

If the temps are low, then the power supply is the most likely problem.

Try these simple solutions before doing something that may harm your computer.

 

Re: fan lubrication

I've owned several computers, and built several more. I've yet to see anything about oiling the fans in any of the manuals for those systems -- or for the fans that I have bought for those systems. And generally, small electric motors -- especially those that do not carry heavy loads -- are built with lifetime lubrication.

I also have copies of various editions of:

• Scott Mueller: Upgrading and Repairing PCs
• Jean Andrews: Managing and Maintaining Your PC
• Mark Minasi: Upgrade & Maintenance Guide
• Thomas Pabst: tom's hardware guide

I've not seen any reference to oiling fans in any of those. Perhaps you could point me to the section that I missed in one of the above.

I maintain my point: the wrong lubricant or over-lubrication can be as damaging as under-lubrication.

You'll note that I did not say you should never oil a fan. What I did say is that you need to be careful -- if you do it wrong, you may make matters worse. The reader can make up his (or her) own mind from here.

 

Hmmm. How about hard drives? Or do you lubricate them too?

 

seriously dudes, check your cpu, video card and case temps before you do anything. This will tell if your problem is heat or power supply related.

Sorry to say it twice, but you wont get anywhere otherwise.

 

PC case fans manufactured in the last 10 years shouldn't need to ever be lubricated. The person who mentioned that oiling can cause problems by attracting dirt was on the money.

Do the fans slow down or do any lights on the case dim before shut down? If so, I'd recommend looking into a PSU upgrade.

If the box is not overheating, you might try System Props > Advanced > Startup & Recovery > Settings > System Failure and uncheck "automatically restart" and make sure "write an event to the system log" is checked. If a system bomb is causing the crash you should see a blue screen or and/or a clue in the system log.

Actually, there may be some useful info in the log already.