Help: Possible Hardware Failure

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I’ve found the simplest way to solve problems with my own computer is to whine, ‘Honey, how do I fix this?’

Works every time.

Boru

Yeah, I got away with that for years when I was married with all sorts of shit. Until  I didn't.

I was over 50 before I became fully confident to help myself--------2000. Arrived in Dublin from Galway on a Friday night. A day early ,and my Youth Hostel booking was for  Saturday. I began to panic. Then  I thunk  "Am I going to die? Probably not. What's the worst case scenario?--- Well Ok then"    I've been fine ever  since***

[Spongebob]

Vulcan, I can help you with some of these things.  There are lots of free or cheap file backup software solutions available.  I use something called Free File Sync (download here).  It's safe and easy to use and it will work with your USB external drive.  That was also going to be a suggestion, but it appears you figured that out by yourself.  You can run backups manually or set up a periodic automatic backup.  I'm pessimistic about computers and have several external hard drives for backups, backups of backups and so on.

I'm curious how old your computer is and what OS you are using because this can often determine your options.  The symptom you described (PC shutting off and restarting) could be several things, but not likely your power supply.  It could indicate that your processor is overheating.  There's a sensor that detects this and it will shut off your pc before the processor fries.  This could indicate a fan going bad or a bad sensor.  You can download some free software that will show you temperatures of components on your motherboard if the pc isn't too old.  If you find that the processor is getting too hot, then you have to do some troubleshooting to figure out why and that can often lead you down a rabbit hole that results in a new motherboard, or a new pc, whichever is less painful.

If your power supply goes bad, it will usually just stop and never come back on.  You can test it's output with a multimeter if you have one, but be very careful with this is you aren't familiar with working with electricity.  There are videos online that explain how to do this SAFELY.  If you happen to be pulling more juice than your power supply can supply, that can result in a number of unpredictable outcomes, including components shutting down, the power supply failing, or the whole system shutting down.  It depends on the power supply and how it's designed but if you over do it, you will certainly find out quickly.  The good news is that power supplies are not expensive, easy to install and you can install one with plenty of extra power if you determine that you it is in fact bad.  I've only had one go bad on me but I've had to upgrade because I've added more components and needed more power.

[vulcanlogician]

You can download some free software that will show you temperatures of components on your motherboard if the pc isn't too old.

Any recommendations?

[The Valkyrie]

I’ve found the simplest way to solve problems with my own computer is to whine, ‘Honey, how do I fix this?’

Works every time.

Boru

Yeah, I got away with that for years when I was married with all sorts of shit. Until  I didn't.

I was over 50 before I became fully confident to help myself--------2000. Arrived in Dublin from Galway on a Friday night. A day early ,and my Youth Hostel booking was for  Saturday. I began to panic. Then  I thunk  "Am I going to die? Probably not. What's the worst case scenario?--- Well Ok then"    I've been fine ever  since***

I'm entralled by this story.

Don't leave me in suspense!

Did you die?

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Yeah, I got away with that for years when I was married with all sorts of shit. Until  I didn't.

I was over 50 before I became fully confident to help myself--------2000. Arrived in Dublin from Galway on a Friday night. A day early ,and my Youth Hostel booking was for  Saturday. I began to panic. Then  I thunk  "Am I going to die? Probably not. What's the worst case scenario?--- Well Ok then"    I've been fine ever  since***

I'm entralled by this story.

Don't leave me in suspense!

Did you die?

Did I die? Of course, repeatedly over many years (12 actually, but it seemed much longer).

First time was when I accidently got drunk when we were out. Herself's hippy dippy friend had made mead. What can I say. 

I am 5 feet 10.5 inches.  My wife was five feet and half an inch, with a tempter like a kindly one (look it up)

She drove home. Not a word. Next morning it was " I am not your fucking chauffer! When  we go out, I expect you to leave in the same condition in which you arrived. If you do not, I'll fucking leave you there!" 

That kind of thing didn't happen often, thank goodness.

[Spongebob]

You can download some free software that will show you temperatures of components on your motherboard if the pc isn't too old.

Any recommendations?

It's been a while since I used one myself.  I'm typically using my work laptop and it gets replaced every three years, so I don't much need it anymore.  But here is a website with some recommendations for you:  https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/top-...p-monitor/

---

I saw that some people were talking about cloning your hard drive. That would only be necessary if you plan to boot from the new drive or replace your internal hard drive. If all you want to use it for is backup, then file backup/copying is a better solution, such as those I recommended. A hard drive making noise isn't all that uncommon, but it could be telling you its about to fail; there's a lot of wiggle room on that. You can replace it and if you do that you can clone your existing drive and load it to the new one. I would suggest a solid state hard drive; no moving parts. But you need to check your PC specs and make sure your motherboard is designed to handle it; not all of them are and there are several different models/designs so you have to pay attention to the details.

I'm curious why you think your graphics card needs more power. The power requirement should be on the box and you can check your power supply to determine if it is adequate. What you're looking for is the wattage available.

[vulcanlogician]

So, in order to cover all my bases, I decided to open up my computer and blow it out with canned air. So I did that. I noticed a bit of dust around my cpu fan and heat sink, so I spent some extra time blowing it out.

Now the CPU fan is loud as fuck. It's like Pavarotti. I guess I blew dust "into" some part of it that I shouldn't have or something. Now I am considering taking the fan and heat sink off and cleaning off the processor. IDK.

edit: So a couple of bumps quieted the fan down. I suppose there was dust in there or something.

[Spongebob]

So, in order to cover all my bases, I decided to open up my computer and blow it out with canned air. So I did that. I noticed a bit of dust around my cpu fan and heat sink, so I spent some extra time blowing it out.

Now the CPU fan is loud as fuck. It's like Pavarotti. I guess I blew dust "into" some part of it that I shouldn't have or something. Now I am considering taking the fan and heat sink off and cleaning off the processor. IDK.

edit: So a couple of bumps quieted the fan down. I suppose there was dust in there or something.

I've had a fan whose bearings wore out and it made a lot of noise until it died one day.  A fan can be replaced pretty easily if that's the problem.

[vulcanlogician]

So, in order to cover all my bases, I decided to open up my computer and blow it out with canned air. So I did that. I noticed a bit of dust around my cpu fan and heat sink, so I spent some extra time blowing it out.

Now the CPU fan is loud as fuck. It's like Pavarotti. I guess I blew dust "into" some part of it that I shouldn't have or something. Now I am considering taking the fan and heat sink off and cleaning off the processor. IDK.

edit: So a couple of bumps quieted the fan down. I suppose there was dust in there or something.

I've had a fan whose bearings wore out and it made a lot of noise until it died one day.  A fan can be replaced pretty easily if that's the problem.

I would love for that to be the case, but there's my computer restarting, crashing, and the monitor flickering off that has me suspecting hardware failure.

Thanks for your help on this, SB. I truly am clueless on this stuff as you probably already gathered. 

I haven't downloaded any of the heat detection stuff or anything yet. TBH it looks like I'll need to watch videos just to learn how to use the stuff. I've decided to get the external drive first because if the power supply fails, then I can just replace it. If the hard drive fails, I lost some shit.

It wasn't, like, super dusty in my computer. I was kinda hoping it was dust because, that's the cheapest one to fix.

[Spongebob]

I would love for that to be the case, but there's my computer restarting, crashing, and the monitor flickering off that has me suspecting hardware failure.

Thanks for your help on this, SB. I truly am clueless on this stuff as you probably already gathered. 

I haven't downloaded any of the heat detection stuff or anything yet. TBH it looks like I'll need to watch videos just to learn how to use the stuff. I've decided to get the external drive first because if the power supply fails, then I can just replace it. If the hard drive fails, I lost some shit.

It wasn't, like, super dusty in my computer. I was kinda hoping it was dust because, that's the cheapest one to fix.

Hmmm, well this does sound a bit more complicated.  I understand your frustration.  I think it was about 20 years ago when I didn't know anything going on inside the box until my computer started acting strange, so I just dug in and basically learned how to rebuild my computer.

Getting the backup is the best first step, so you don't lose any data.  I'll check a few things and get back to you; maybe give you some other ideas.