Computer overheats and dies whenever I do something

[Flubbman]

I can't play GTA IV or L.A. Noire because about 15 minutes into the game, my PC shuts down with no warning or anything at all. I also can't render any videos in Sony Vegas. It renders around 50% of the video, then the exact same thing happens.

Do I need to upgrade something, or is cleaning the inside enough? It's pretty dusty.

[Ad Bot]

[Crispy_]

would be nice to clean it up first to see if the problem still occurs

[Supreme Guy]

I don't think anyone will be able to figure out what's wrong unless they can have some alone with your computer. it could be anything from a hardware problem to malicious software. I have similar problems, only exclusively with Crysis 2, which means it's probably  some form of incompatibility my graphics card. which sucks.

[SeventhSandwich]

If it's a desktop, clean your heatsinks with canned air.

[Flubbman]

I vacuumed it, at least I can render videos now. I'll play some GTA IV and see how it goes.

[fawkes..]

I vacuumed it

I've heard that this is a bad thing to do

[King Leo]

I've heard that this is a bad thing to do

It is. Don't vacuum your PC. The static can fry your components. Use canned air instead.
Do your CPU and GPU heatsinks work properly? Try to check the temperatures with hardware monitor and see if you find anything suspicious.

[Flubbman]

I've heard that this is a bad thing to do

It is. Don't vacuum your PC. The static can fry your components. Use canned air instead.

oh.

well, it worked this time. thanks for the tip

[Muslim]

I'll attend the funeral services.

edit: nvm, yeah, use canned air. (computer duster.)

[Momentum]

or,
remove the heatsinks
clean heatsinks (unless they have fans, in which case remove them and clean them w/ something else
wash heatsink (its ok, dont worry)
reapply thermal paste
put sinks back on

and if this fails, get new sinks.

[Flubbman]

everything is fixed