Recently my PC has started shutting itself down whilst in use. It is running normally and then without notice just turns off. It is as though there has been a power cut. It has started to happen more frequently, initially it was every few days until last night when it wouldnt stay on for longer than five minutes.

Is this likely to be the PSU or something else?

Thanks

In my experience this is usually down to overheating... it could be other things but overheating is easiest to check. Take the side off the PC and check to see if there's dust on the fans and heatsinks, if there is get in there (carefully!) with a vacuum cleaner and maybe an old toothbrush or a small paintbrush and get rid of what you can. Then put the side back on and see if that helps.

If not post back and we'll see what we can do.

Hope that helps,

Switch it of at the mains first otherwise some parts wil still be live

Thanks, i did clean it out with a hoover but will get to it with a tootbrush also and see if that makes a difference. It has been worse since i took the hoover to it though!! I was gentle.

Next time it shuts down, see if you can restart it immediately and press F10 or the Delete key to get to the BIOS, then go to "System Monitor" and check the motherboard and CPU temperature readings. If these are stable and not fluctuating or rising rapidly, it could be the graphics card or on-board graphics chip (whichever it is that you use).

thanks, i had another look and cleaned a fan which i had missed. About half a tonne of [Censored] came out! I think that might be the problem............ 

Let us know how it goes.