I have an emachines T6420 desktop PC. Everything on it is working fine but it will shut down with no warning, sometimes after an hour, sometimes after 9 hours.

After it shuts down, I won't be able to power it up again for about 30mins-1hr. If I press the button, it sounds like things start to get going, but then it stops. After being off for a while, then I can start it up again.

The fans appear to be running whenever the pc is on.

What is wrong?

Brian, April 2008

This could be either the power supply or the cpu overheating. It shuts down as a safty measure. Take off your PC cover and put your PC on (make sure you earth yourself first by touching an earthed metal item i.e. radiator) check the fan on the cpu is working. If that is OK, switch your PC off and remove any dust (do not use a vacuum clean or blow on the components) by using air spray. Put the cover back on and it the problem continues, then you now its the power supply which you will need to replace.

Ali, April 2008

Hi this is the standard motherboard problem with emachines, I do alot of these computers, so many go wrong. The boards for these and the Advent,Medion,Packard Bell and Gateway computers all sold by "you know where", were constructed under licence by a german company all using the same chassis and common components. They all have the same fault. Contact me at compdoctor2005@btinternet.com it can be sorted inexpensively

Chris F, April 2008