Greetings all. I need to pick your brains!! I need to solve a mystery here with my PC. It's an HP system. When I first got the computer, it started up with a bad hard drive and I had to mail it back for service. They replaced it with another, and it was working fine for months.

Then all of the sudden the harddrive would just shut down after a few hours of heavy graphic gaming. I suspected it was overheating.
Then one day, it froze when I was trying to open my email, and I had to hard boot. Windows would not boot up. It would just do the little bios thing in the beginning then when it came time for windows to start, it would go to a blank screen, hard drive light would shut off. After letting it sit for a few weeks I tried it again, and it worked....it started up...but 5-10 minutes into a game it would shut down to black screen, hard drive off. I would let it sit for a few hours and it would start up again.
After going through this for a few weeks, I just stopped playing games on it and just left it on for email and other less taxing things. But now it even shuts off just idling on the desktop. Of course these problems started a few days after my warranty expired!
I've tried full recovery/format, it didn't even finish the process before it shut off. I bought a NEW hard drive, and the computer will not let me even install from my recovery cds. It partitioned and then shut off during recovery process. So I have ruled out the hard drive. I am thinking either powersupply, Motherboard, or cooling fans. Has anyone seen this problem?

Hello DRene,

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Of course these problems started a few days after my warranty expired!I think that's what they are designed to do! :(

A couple of thoughts: If you go into the BIOS you can perhaps monitor the temps from there. You could also try removing the case and use a fan to gently blow on the innards and see if things improve.

Swap the power supply.

Since your computer is in "early retirement," you might get some satisfaction by contacting HP and explaining the computer's "lemon" like qualities from the start. I would play up a "novice" computer user scenario not knowing if this was normal behavior for a computer or not...

I have found HP to be very responsive to complaints...I even emailed Carly herself and was called on the phone within a day...they took care of my problem...

Virtually any component in your computer can cause this problem. There are a few simple tests that will narrow your search for the bad piece.

If you are a novice, the following may seem a little intimidating. However, do not be afraid. There is not much you can do that will make the situation worse.

The first step is very simple and doesn't take much time (<1/2 hour). Open the PC up and disconnect the following devices by removing their data and power cables from the back: any CD/DVD drive, and floppy drive. Leave the boot hard drive connected. Remove all cards from their slots except your video card. Disconnect all other devices if any. Take notes if you are unsure how to reconnect things.

You will be left with only your power supply, memory, CPU, motherboard, video card, and hard drive. Then boot and see if that solves your problem. If you still have your old hard drive, use that since it has Windows installed on it.

If it will run without crashing, then try adding devices back one at a time looking for the one that causes the problem.

If it still has the problem then at least you have narrowed the search. Get back to us at that point.

Also, please post your system specs.

Edit: Oops, I forgot. When you open up the case, check to see if the heatsink/fans are clogged with dust, and make sure all the fans are spinning.

Ok thanks for the advice, I will give it a go this weekend and let ya know how it goes....