unscheduled shut downs

my friend contacted my earlier today about his PC shutting down:

Quote:

---

PC just arbitrarily shuts itself off (not touching anything)? It just decides to do a hard shut down periodically. Started doing this several times per day now. Hardware or software issue? I ran a registry checker on it and found a bunch of problems and cleared them off but it’s still doing it (just did it again minute ago).

---

I suggested it may be related to overheating, especially the CPU fan and he informed me that it's a laptop (no cpu fan(?), but he'll check the case fan when he gets home.

Any other ideas?

The air passages are probably plugged up.

Seen that more than a few times. Cleaning them is normally all that is needed.

ok, he's going to check that the fan is working, I'll tell him to blow it out with compressed air too.

Download, and install SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
Post your computer temperatures:

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Provide processor info (hold Windows key, and hit Pause/Break key to find out).

Before he hits it with compressed air, tell him to block the fan blades with something. Spinning the fan(s) too fast can destroy the bearings.