Why Is My Computer Crashing Randomly? The Most Common Cause And A Plan Of Attack
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It's one of those things that actually helps,
not only me of course, but other people who are looking for answers when they search.
Let me read you today's question.
My pc is not quite a year old yet but it recently started to crash even while just
running word. Anti-virus check, and everything's in order. What could possibly be the matter here?
So by crash what I mean is that your computer switches to a blue screen with all those numbers
on it, black screens, or just shuts down. It reboots unexpectedly all without warning.
By far there is one thing that causes this more than anything else. It's where
anytime you're experiencing random crashes you want to start looking. And that is heat.
Heat is the enemy. The most common cause of random crashes is an overheating computer.
The most common cause of an overheating computer is blocked airflow. The most common cause of
blocked airflow… well around here it's corgi fur, but in reality it's dust and dirt blocking the
vents to your desktop or laptop computer. Fans in your computer blow air through it
to try and keep it cool to try and keep it at a proper operating temperature. If the vents
that they are getting their air from somehow get blocked, and they can't move enough air to
cool your computer it will overheat. And when computers overheat they start to crash. Desktop
computers are certainly vulnerable to things like corgi fur and other things in the home.
Laptops in particular are actually vulnerable to just being used wrong. In fact sometimes
the problem with a laptop is that you're using it in your lap. Somehow, as part of that that
positioning it is blocking the vents that allow the fans to push air through. My recommendation
for most laptops is that you try and use them on some kind of a flat surface rather than your lap.
After blocked vents and dirt, the next most common cause for overheating computers is still
heat related: it's the fans themselves. I have several times encountered machines on whom the fan
has stopped working or is just no longer working at capacity.
That's one of those things where you'll actually have to take a look inside your
machine, if you can, to see if the fans are running properly.
When it's in use it's important to realize that random isn't always completely random.
The CPU inside your computer generates heat when it works hard. So if your computer is
sitting there doing nothing the CPU is cool cooler than it is when it's working hard.
One of the ways to understand, or at least get a clue that heat is perhaps an issue,
is if your computer more or less consistently crashes when it's working hard. Simply fire up
task manager and look at the CPU meter. If that thing is pegged over 80 90 100 and that's when
your computer is reliably crashing, you're probably facing a heat issue. If it's idling
during that time there's still a possibility but the chances are less. It's usually having to do
with heat and heat becomes the most apparent cause of crashes when the CPU is working hard.
Now i do want to mention a few other possibilities, that people at least think of,
and that are worth looking at to begin with. Malware doesn't cause crashes as much as it
used to. Back in the early days malware was often written just to crash, just to cause problems.
These days malware is usually written in order to work properly and kind of
hide behind the scenes. Crashing malware doesn't serve that purpose. So most malware
authors are actually writing relatively good code that's working properly and not crashing.
Hardware failure is always an option. Your computer could in fact
be experiencing some kind of a hardware failure. It doesn't have to be the CPU.
It could be the motherboard. It could be one of the expansion cards. It could be something else
related to your computer. Unfortunately a crash is a fairly generic thing it could be caused by
a hardware failure just about anywhere in your system. Next to the fan though
failing RAM is probably the first thing that I would look at if the computer starts crashing
randomly. Software is what most people think of but the good news here is that for the most part
software the programs you run on your machine will not cause your entire computer to crash.
The program itself may crash but windows will keep on running. Your other programs
will keep on running. It's just that one program is having a problem. That might end up crashing.
Now the one exception to that rule are device drivers. Device drivers operate at a low level in
your system and, yes, if a device driver crashes it can in fact cause your entire system to crash.
Again this tends to be kind of hardware specific. Some hardware manufacturers make great drivers,
some make poor drivers. Some drivers just get updated periodically and they will have a problem
and sometimes they'll get updated to fix a problem. This is one of those scenarios where
once again you want to make sure you're running the most current device drivers for the hardware
that's on your machine. Be that through Windows update or through the updates made available from
the computer manufacturer or hardware manufacturer themselves., But device drivers if they're having
a problem if they're poorly written, they can cause your system to fail and crash randomly.
And yes your hard disk could cause the problem. If you've got a bad sector on your hard disk or
an intermittent sector on your hard disk or the SSD happens to be in the process of
failing. A bad read could load bad code into memory and cause the system to basically do
something completely unexpected. It's rare but it is something worth looking at especially with a
traditional hard disk. If you're suddenly seeing system slowdowns as it tries to read the disk.
So here's my plan of attack if your system is crashing randomly here's what I suggest you do.
First make sure it has unrestricted airflow, then make sure that it's free of dirt and dust
and that the fans are all working properly. Try running a CPU temperature monitoring tool.
Speccy is one that I use that is free and does this and a lot more.
Run a memory diagnostic like Memtest86. Run a hard disk diagnostic as provided either by the
disc's own manufacturer or just run CHKDSK /R. Make sure the operating system and the device
drivers are all as up-to-date as possible. And of course make sure that your security software
is up to date. Hopefully somewhere in there your issue will get resolved.
For related links including all the software that I’ve mentioned, for updates and more
visit askleo.com/4437. I'm Leo Notenboom. This is askleo.com. Thanks for watching