Hi everyone, My friend's Windows XP system recently overheated. He's tried cleaning the system inside out hoping to get rid of the clogged dust inside, which could possibly be the cause of the overheating. Unfortunately his system is still not functioning. At first he could login for 20 min. or so and the system would auto-shutdown itself after the 20 mins, then after that situation after a while he began geting a DOS-screen saying the computer has overheated. Now it has just gotten worse and the system will not startup at all. Any ideas as to how to fix this? Replace the parts maybe? What parts are usually the culprit? On behalf of my friend, Thanks a lot guys for any help.
The most common failure is the thermal compound or TIM between the CPU and heatsink. If it's a DIY system, check there first. This assumed the fans are working properly. Normally Intel Pentiums throttle down when overheating, instead of shutdown. It sounds like the BIOS overheating settings are triggering the system shutdown. If it won't start up at all, it could be the power supply, or a bad CPU...but usually Intel CPU's survive moderate overheating, AMD not necessarily so.
@ i would go with 2centsworth power supply even thought it mabey working but i think it is on it's road out also do a search on cleaning cooler fans on google.
I used to have the same problem. when I opened up my computer I discovered my fan wasn't working. Got a new fan a radio shack & over heating problem solved. The only problem I haven't solved is when I turn the unit on it still gives a fan failure, which I'm still working on.