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Solve : My PC will not stay running and I don't know why...?

Answer»

Hello this is my first time here and I figured this would be a good place to ask for help.

Anyways, as I stated in the title, my pc decided that it will keep shutting down on me no MATTER what I do. Every time I run an application (such as my web browser, steam, or any game) it will shut off almost immediately. If I'm not running anything and just let it idle on my home screen, it will stay running for a good 15 to 20 minutes before it shuts down. I noticed that if I restart the pc and log back into my home screen, then the date and time ALWAYS reverts back to nearly 10 years ago on October 1st. I don't really know if this has anything to do with it though. It is a pretty old machine SINCE I've had it since 2008. The only changes I have done with was swapping out both the video card and power supply. The old power supply had burnt up on me like 3 months ago. Since I made those changes it ran just fine up until now.

I've already AIR blasted EVERYTHING inside, since it was kinda dusty. I checked all the fans, made sure everything was plugged in. Everything seemed ok hardware wise. I also updated my video drivers and deleted the old ones. So far... nothing has changed. It continues to shut off the same way.

Here are my current specs:

Vista 64 bit
Radeon HD7850
I7 920
3gb ram

I've never really encountered this problem before, so any help would be greatly appreciated.the date going back to October 1st is almost certainly due to a dead motherboard battery, and at only $AUD3 (approx) to replace, well worth the expense and effort.

but your shutting down issue could be many things.

dust was my first guess, but you seem to have done the necessary blow out of the chassis components.
did you also remove the CPU and replace the thermal paste? (another quick and cheap exercise)

another possibility may be when the PSU blew, it took out other components on the motherboard.
and on a nearly 10yo rig, now you start getting into the 'is it worth it' category. Quote

...and on a nearly 10yo rig, now you start getting
into the 'is it worth it' category.
However, there are some  things to check out.

You system can run with 2 GB of RAM, Try it and see. One RAM might be overheating. Try substitution.
Thinking about it, even a 64 bit system will run on 1 GB. Try RAM one at a time.

What is your room temperature?
Is your PC in a well0ventilated area?
Are you sure all fans are running?
Maybe the heat-sink on the CPU is loose.

Just maybe the heat sink thermal paste dry up and blew away.
I have never seen that happen, but others claim it does somehow go away.
Aside from replacing the battery, and possibly trying with less RAM, you might try seeing if you get the same behaviour when you just have the system sit at the BIOS/CMOS setup screens. That would eliminate any possible software or driver being involved (well, altogether, as you've already handled some driver/software possibilities). You could also knock out two birds with one stone by running Memtest from a bootable disc. If it hangs it is probably hardware, if memtest finds errors then it could be a RAM issue (I don't think that's likely to cause reboots but who knows)

Depending on the history of the system, it might not have thermal paste; some manufacturers use a Thermal "Pad" instead of Thermal paste material. The problem with Thermal Pads is that over time they turn to dust and stop being any good at actually transferring heat. I experienced this myself with a rather old K6-2 based system reaching temperatures in excess of 100 Centigrade under load.


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