My computer has started to shut down randomly, could it be the fan?

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An often forgotten aspec of computing; keeping it cool. I saw a reference in the replies to use compressed air. I would like to add to this "with caution" as a full can can often dispense the air with in it in it's liquid form and damage components. I rebuild old computers to give away to school kids and one of my most used tools is a small cylindrical two-handed pump used to blow up those long balloons that make animal shapes, it cost about $4 from a toy shop and with it's pointed nozzle I can get right into the processors vents without removing the heat sink.
Another tip for users: IF you have to place your CPU on the floor, put it on a small box. Just getting it 6" off the floor makes a lot of difference as to how much dust is sucked in.

Pay particular attention to the heatsink blades mounted on top of the CPU and on top of which the system fan is mounted. Dust often gets clogged between the blades and is difficult to see from the outside. I usually need to carefully remove the fan to clean it with a thin blade. If you otherwise clean your PC but still get overheating errors then this might be your problem.

Occasionally the cause can be hardware. About 15 years ago I had a similar problem; I don't remember if the Pc shut down or complained of a memory error. The PC supplier eventually found a pin bent over when he removed the CPU!

Additional reason for shutdown may be a problem with the energy supply which comes in a "block" with several plugs (wires) to connect to hard drive, cd/dvd drive etc. If that one is failing, pc will shut down on regularly and unexpected (no warning) moments and sometimes not start at all, even after hitting the power button on-off, sometimes until you wait for e.g. 30 minutes or 1 hour.

So yes, first possible cause of the shutdown is that the fans do not properly work, whatever the reason may be (dust, not powerful enough, bad power contact etc.). The second one is the energy supplier itself.

Also software failure is a possible cause, though hardware not functioning, the most probable.

I have a dedicated computer for security with several cameras. I have had many many warnings of system overheat. Over the weekend sometimes I found the computer shut down on monday and had to reboot it. There were no dust bunnies and I cut a hole in the side of the case and installed a 6 inch 220 volt fan. The problem continued for about a year then it started failing every hour. The FIX was to replace the 1.2 year old power supply. Craziest thing I ever saw. But its been working now for 4 years without a hitch.

Vacuming can be dangerous.
While cleaning the keyboard of my notebook I was using the brush attachment on the vacum cleaner hose to clean the keyboard. This worked good. So I thought using the hose attachment without the brush would work even better. It sucked three keys off the keyboard. Luckily I had just replaced the dust bag so I found all the parts to the keys. But it was a real hassle getting the keys back together.
Fred Langa, on one of his newsletters had a really good article on cleaning computers, with tips and dangers to watch out for.

I've also seen the blades of a cooling fan physically blocked by a wire inside the case. With more and more elements crammed inside, many of which have multiple wires running to and from them, it's very important to close the case carefully and then make sure the fans are operating properly. A high-frequency clicking sound can also be a warning that a wire is starting to brush against a rotating blade. Not only can this cause over-heating, but there is a real possibility of an eventual short circuit if the insulation is completely worn off the offending wire.

Another possible cause is the motherboard itself. There is a temperature sensor on the board under the processor. If that sensor has failed and is indicating an extremely high temp, the board will shutdown. This is usually a surface mounted, non-replaceable component. The fix would be a new motherboard.

To clean the inside of my computer, I simply use a drinking straw with the bottom taped (with electricians tape) inside of the edge attachment on my vacuum cleaner.

Just wrap the tape gently around the straw until all the suction is coming from within the straw only. When finished, just peel the tape off along with the straw and throw it away.

This makes getting into the fan crevices so much easier and insures that I don't accidentally ram my hardware components with the hard vacuum attachments.

Of course there are are micro attachments that you can also buy, but this method is cheap and works well enough for me.

re: oveheating and cleaning...would it be wise to install a fan running at low speed a few feet away from the unit?

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