My PC power cuts out after a few minutes

[reganathome]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with my home PC.

After a few minutes of me starting it up, it just cuts out, as if I'd removed the power cable. I have a feeling it's to do with dust getting on the inside of the pc (I have wooden floors which leaves the room quite dusty, and the pc sits on the floor).

While I don't mind opening it up to clean it, I'm not sure which parts I should be taking out to clean that would be directly effected by dust. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[kellys_eye]

Have you knocked it recently? You may have displaced the heatsink assembly on the CPU. Check that the CPU heatsink FAN is running too (often missed due to the noise made by the power supply fan).

Whilst the case is open give it a hoover!

[Bob225]

as above, classic overheating and the bios responds by shutting the machine down, re-seat the cpu heatsink with fresh compound, a slight knock can make the plastic pins pull out the mobo*


*unless its a late I3/5/7 haswell chip

[Argyll]

The exact same happened to mine a few months back.

Take off the cover and give it a good vacuum.

[blackvenom]

When you say the power "cuts out" do you mean that literally? Or does it automatically just shut itself down?


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[lagi]

If its heat related, take off the cover and see if it runs for longer, if it does then its probably heat related. Easy elimination.

[reganathome]

Excellent thanks for the tips, I've hoover the bugger out and have a good look at check the heatsink + fan.

[BillyGoat]

Be careful with the hold hoover....some of the attachments are made of plastics that harbour static, which will kill the machine dead.

Can of compressed air or an air line if you have a compressor would be my first choice. Will cost you a few quid for a can (maplins, computer shop, pc world, etc) and you can take it outside and blast it all out. It'll shift most of the crap quite easily.

BG

[Bob225]

look around for fellowes air duster aka air in a can sometimes you can pick it up for 1/2 price from the supermarkets

[Liam2349]

Could be the heatsink, definitely sounds like a temperature problem.

Download some freeware like CoreTemp to see the temps in your CPU. If the heatsink has come loose, you can't just screw it back down. You have to clean the CPU and heatsink with, some rubbing alcohol (I use Isopropyl 70%), then apply new thermal paste and stick them together again.