Sudden shutdowns?

Hey everyone, I’m actually getting a little worried here. This has never happened to me before—it first started last night, and now it's happening again and I have zero clue what's going on. Basically, I'll be using my computer, everything seems totally fine, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, it just shuts off. No warning, nothing. The screen just displays Entering Sleep mode and that orange light stays on, looking exactly like it's in standby. The weird part? When I turn it back on, the whole tower starts making this loud humming and buzzing noise. Am I accidentally triggering Sleep mode somehow, or is there something else causing this? It's only happened twice since last night, but I'm seriously stumped. Can anyone help me out?

To smells like a power supply issue to me... When was the last time you actually gave your PC a good dust cleaning?

Larry Ortiz5 said:Smells like a power supply issue to me. When was the last time you actually blew the dust out of that rig?

To be totally honest, I haven't done it in a while. Usually, with my old setups, I’m cleaning them out about once a month because I can practically feel the dust buildup on the fans. But this new build has been so quiet—I barely even hear the fans spinning—so I just figured there was no need to mess with it. Still, you might be onto something. I'll go ahead and give it a scrub. Do you have a specific pro technique you recommend, or should I just stick to the standard routine? xd

I'm certain the CPU is overheating due to dust buildup, just like we discussed earlier.
While you're cleaning, you might as well clean the GPU too.

There should be settings to trigger Sleep mode or an automatic shutdown based on temperature. It could be in the BIOS, Windows, or both. Setting it to 80°C is a smart move.

LP clean

John Turner34 said:I’m pretty sure the CPU is overheating; it’s just a dust issue like you guys were saying earlier.
If you're already opening it up to clean everything, you might as well give the GPU some love too while you're at it.

There’s also usually a setting somewhere that tells the system at what temperature to enter Sleep mode or just shut down entirely. It could be in the BIOS, in Windows, or both. Having it set to trigger at 80°C is actually a decent safety net.

LP clean

So, I gave it a good cleaning and now it’s running perfectly fine without any issues. But then it hit me—looking back at the two times this actually happened, both times occurred right while I was mid-session playing Battlefield 3. Is there actually a connection there? xd

Henry Wilson34 said:Cleaned it out and now it’s running fine without any issues... but thinking back, both times this happened, I was right in the middle of playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Could there be a connection there? lol

Obviously. You're pushing the clock speeds harder, things get hotter, dust blocks the airflow, and then the components just bake...