If your PC shuts down suddenly, what to do

A PC that turns itself off goes on sudden stop or shows a blue screen indicates a rather heavy and serious problem, especially if you are working on something or even if you are playing a game, because everything you are doing is lost and erased from memory.

Furthermore, suddenly shutting down the computer can damage the hard disk or data inside it, if its head was writing data at the time. In the first case the computer turns off as if the power went out, suddenly and in a second, completely disconnecting the energy. In the second casehowever, it may be that the shutdown resulted from a blue screen, which means a critical system error, very often linked to hardware malfunction.

The causes of a sudden shutdown of the PC are not many, in reality, and they almost always have to do with the temperature.

READ ALSO: Signs that your computer is about to break or crash

1) High temperature

Heat is a great enemy of electronic components which, if they are brought to high temperatures, above 80 or even 90 degrees, can be damaged irreparably. It is therefore essential to work hard and do some maintenance in order to keep your computer cool.

To prevent breakages, the Windows system, which can read the temperatures of the various components via internal sensors, implements an automatic safety system that disconnects the power and the PC turns off on its own.

There are some programs for check temperature and heat inside the computercome Speedfanwhich not only allows us to control the rotation speed of the fans, but also the temperatures of all the components i.e. disks, processor, video card.

In particular, it is necessary to check that all the fans run at maximum speed when temperatures rise and that they are not blocked by dirt and piles of dust and, if necessary, replace fans that are too dirty or old with new parts.

In another article we saw, in detail, how manage your PC fans for better cooling and airflow and how, if so, it is best to replace the oldest and dirtiest fans (or heat sinks).

CPU fan

The most important fan in a desktop computer, besides the one facing outwards, is the one CPU (i.e. the processor), which is the internal component that heats up the most. When you use a program with high CPU usage or if you play a game with 3D graphics, if the computer turns off on its own, the cause is certainly the CPU temperature exceeding 90 degrees.

You must therefore open the computer case and clean the fan located above the processor or CPU, recognizable because it is located in the center of the motherboard, attached to a metal filter. Ideally, if you have some dexterity, it would be a good thing to disassemble the CPU fan, clean it well and, if necessary, also apply thermal paste to the surface of the processor.

We have also written a detailed guide on this topic, explaining how to do it if the CPU temperature is high and gets too hot, what to do to cool it down.

Finally, in another article, the guide for clean the computer from dust.

2) Shutdown during startup

However, if the shutdown occurs during the startup phase or after a short time that it is turned on or at times when you are not doing anything, the cause could be linked to a virus or an undersized power supply for the computer.

To check that none malware is occupying the CPU intensively when we are not using the computer, we need to do something scansione antimalware con Malwarebyteswhich never hurts and should be done often in any case.

If there are no viruses and there is nothing abnormal, it could be change the PC power supplywhich can also be done without the intervention of a technician on a fixed PC, even if it may seem complicated.
Changing the power supply may not bring the desired results if the motherboard is damaged, but then we will probably be forced to change the computer.

In another article, i Symptoms of a faulty or failing PC power supply.

On a laptop the power supply is not something you can change yourself, but requires intervention from the manufacturer. However, in many cases, the laptop shutting down on its own may be to blame damaged batteryto be removed if possible.

RAM

In other cases, the problem may be there RAM memory, to replace. Those who are more experienced can do it check the functioning of the RAM with a specific program.

Replace the RAM it’s very simple, especially on desktop PCs (on laptops it has become more difficult, given that Unibody slides without screws and expansion slots are now used).

3) Critical system error

If your PC shuts down after showing a blue screen or even an error window, then there is a problem which can be of a software type, on the system or the program used, or of a hardware type.

Those who are more experienced can try to do aAnalysis of Windows “blue screen” crashes and look for the cause of error.
Usually, blue screen is an error related to driver problems of hardware devices, which may not be updated.

You can then try start your PC in safe mode (which does not load the drivers) and check if the error is still there. You must therefore selectively unplug external devices connected to the computer’s USB ports to identify the person responsible for the blockage.

To avoid other types of errors, it is worth checking that you have done thedriver updateuninstalling the latest drivers installed and reusing those that are known to be working.

Conclusions

If the PC shuts down without warning we can find various causes of problems, all of which can be easily solved with a minimum of attention and investigating the most serious problemsespecially if the BSOD window appears or if the PC seems to restart for no apparent reason during system loading.

To learn more we can read our guides on blue screen, sudden shutdown or restart of the computer come on all hardware testing and diagnostic tools on PC.