At a loss, computer shut down

[Apolyc]

I'm at an absolute loss on what to do. The past few days my computer has been randomly shutting down, giving me the blue screen.
My security system does a full scan weekly, and out of paranoia I recently did a hard reset and reformatted the computer. Still it randomly shuts down.
Is this a heating issue? Malware? I really don't know what to do. I've considered getting a liquid cooling system on the chance it is heating related.

[Aucald]

Check the Event Log in Computer Management (right-click My Computer or Computer, or access it through the Control Panel), under the "System" log and see if you can find more information about what happens right before your system registers a reboot. Blue screen errors should be logged as Critical events. Errors of this type are generally hardware-related - so memory, CPU, and motherboard tend to be your culprits with either physical failure or driver issues. Download a CPU temperature application like CoreTemp or similar and see if your cores are running hot, and maybe a memory diagnostic program as well.

[Apolyc]

I can barely stay on long enough to do anything let alone download. Just now I tried and it shut down. Only thing open was Google chrome which had two tabs open, both YouTube videos. One was running and less than a minute in crashed.

[Thunderball]

What kind of a blue screen that is?

[Deathquoi]

I'm at an absolute loss on what to do. The past few days my computer has been randomly shutting down, giving me the blue screen.
My security system does a full scan weekly, and out of paranoia I recently did a hard reset and reformatted the computer. Still it randomly shuts down.
Is this a heating issue? Malware? I really don't know what to do. I've considered getting a liquid cooling system on the chance it is heating related.

You don't need a liquid cooling system. Look at your fans and vents and heatsinks. Is there a lot of dust? If so, get a can of compressed air and blow it out.

[chazus]

Turn on system, go into BIOS before windows even starts (Usually DEL, F2 or F10). Check temps there.

[Shadochi]

Could be that your CPU cooler stopped working. Do you use water cooling on air cooling?

I had the same Issue in November last year. The pump on my water cooler broke down and my computer would shut down within half a minute to a couple minutes, depending on how long it's been since I last tried to turn it on and the ambient temperature.

If you're using and air cooler with a broken fan you might be getting a bit more on time since it has a heathsink. I would check that first, if not might be an unstable power supply or something wrong with the motherboard.

[Kaawumba]

I second the suggestion to get a can of compressed air and blow out all the dust in your computer. Also verify that you are not blocking any of the vents out of the computer. If that doesn't work, it is most likely a dead video card. If the blue screen has a message, that can give you a clue. Write it down, or photograph it. If it mentions a driver that is video card related, that makes it more likely that it is a dead video card.

[Vetis]

if you get BSOD, try windbg to get info from the crash dumps (c\windows\minidump usually).

[Hotmail]

It can't be temperature-related if the computer crashes right after startup. It's probably your memory or hard drive.

[Perryn]

You can't diagnose anything without symptoms...the bluescreen will have a stop code and/or other diagnostic information. While there's tools that can analyze the dump files that normally are created after a bluescreen, often you can get a good indication by the stop code alone. Check the event log in windows, around the time just after your last bluescreen (typically the first boot after a bsod will have a log entry with this information). Then you can google that stop code to get an idea.

If you have reinstalled your computer it's unlikely to be a regular software issue, but could be a driver (as we tend to reinstall the same/latest drivers when we reinstall a system), or, at worst, a hardware issue. If you haven't replaced any parts that normally wouldn't be the case for a "suddenly appearing" bsod issue but for instance a failing system drive could cause odd behaviors like that. Other culprits that appear over time would be yes, cooling, or a failing power supply.

But check for that stop code first, should give you an indication.

- - - Updated - - -

Missed that you say it does this consistently and quickly after boot. Could still be temperature but check whether it still crashes if you boot into safemode (that will also give you the chance to check the event log).

If it still does it in safe mode chances are higher it's hardware related but on the positive side a quick crash means that once you've identified the issue you should be able to tell pretty quickly that that's the case (ie, replacing the faulty part or improving the cooling if it's cooling related, will lead to an immediate and obvious improvement).

Some of the trickiest issues to resolve are issues that happen only occasionally without apparent rhyme or reason, because then you can never be really sure you've fixed it unless you go for weeks or months without it happening again. In that light, a quick crash is a positive thing, ironically

[GnomeEU]

A BSOD really could be anything, you should try switching parts in your PC, and see what fixes the problem.
if you wiped everything already then some part of your hardware is Broken.

For me it was my PSU, although it was a really expensive one, it was just broken after a while.
Took me forever to boot and after a few minutes i got random bluescreens.
Also when i started stuff like Fur Mark - GPU Burn, my pc shut down. Thought it was the Graphic Card but was actually the PSU.
So yeah, switch stuff, see what fixes it.

Actually i had a problem like this with an old CD-ROM Drive a while ago that was apparently causing system instability.
When i removed it suddenly everything worked fine.

[Thunderball]

A BSOD really could be anything, you should try switching parts in your PC, and see what fixes the problem.
if you wiped everything already then some part of your hardware is Broken.

For me it was my PSU, although it was a really expensive one, it was just broken after a while.
Took me forever to boot and after a few minutes i got random bluescreens.
Also when i started stuff like Fur Mark - GPU Burn, my pc shut down. Thought it was the Graphic Card but was actually the PSU.
So yeah, switch stuff, see what fixes it.

Actually i had a problem like this with an old CD-ROM Drive a while ago that was apparently causing system instability.
When i removed it suddenly everything worked fine.

With the information he provided it can be absolutely anything: overheating of CPU/GPU, faulty memory (that get used when he boots Windows), faulty PSU, problems with the motherboard (basically has the same symptoms as PSU problems), even a faulty CPU.

[Krimzin]

That is a cooling issue.
If you can log on and then shortly there after you get a blue screen thats what it is.

Go into your bios and watch the temp..

[chazus]

It can't be temperature-related if the computer crashes right after startup. It's probably your memory or hard drive.

While I'm not saying its not a mem/hd issue... it definitely CAN be temp related if its crashing that fast. Please don't give bad info.

[Hotmail]

While I'm not saying its not a mem/hd issue... it definitely CAN be temp related if its crashing that fast. Please don't give bad info.

You are right... I don't know what possessed me to say that. I think I was a little grumpy at the time of posting because I dislocated my hip when I tried to get out of bed yesterday.

[lockedout]

While I'm not saying its not a mem/hd issue... it definitely CAN be temp related if its crashing that fast. Please don't give bad info.

What would cause your temps to get so high just on start up to trigger a shutdown?

[chazus]

What would cause your temps to get so high just on start up to trigger a shutdown?

I've seen plenty of systems do it. The most common cause is Intel stock cooler with the plastic pins, and one of the pins broke, so that the heatsink literally isn't touching the CPU. I've also seen stock thermal paste dry out to the point of solidifying and cracking/separating. I've also seen dust caked so thoroughly that unless the computer literally sits off for a good hour, simply 'trying' to turn it on over and over again is enough to overheat it. It could be a bad board thats causing high voltages. It could be a lot of things.

Again, I'm not saying it is or isnt the issue, but it can't be ruled out without more info.

[lockedout]

I've seen plenty of systems do it. The most common cause is Intel stock cooler with the plastic pins, and one of the pins broke, so that the heatsink literally isn't touching the CPU. I've also seen stock thermal paste dry out to the point of solidifying and cracking/separating. I've also seen dust caked so thoroughly that unless the computer literally sits off for a good hour, simply 'trying' to turn it on over and over again is enough to overheat it. It could be a bad board thats causing high voltages. It could be a lot of things.

Again, I'm not saying it is or isnt the issue, but it can't be ruled out without more info.

Friend of mine was running his PC with no cooling solution at all. Not even the stock one. He now has one but for about 2 months he didn't and never had it shutdown. I would wager it is something else if it is happening after sitting all night and just turning off right after start up. You're temps would take a few mins to spike and then trigger a shut down.Bad board or other hardware issue causing voltage spike seems more along the lines of what OP is suggesting.

[Cilraaz]

Friend of mine was running his PC with no cooling solution at all. Not even the stock one. He now has one but for about 2 months he didn't and never had it shutdown. I would wager it is something else if it is happening after sitting all night and just turning off right after start up. You're temps would take a few mins to spike and then trigger a shut down.Bad board or other hardware issue causing voltage spike seems more along the lines of what OP is suggesting.

Yeah, not buying that. A missing heatsink will cause any modern CPU to shutdown nearly immediately. Even 486s had passive cooling via heatsink.