What are the signs your computer might die? I ask for a reason, Obviously!

[hellas1]

Hi,

I recently had multiple windows open & was downloading a couple of Rome Total Realism things, .exe's actually & patches.
I realize that this can cause a drain on a P.C.'s memory BIG time...it's understood.

BUT Norton 360 tells me that a particular .exe was draining 1 CPU core excessively or something like that: I've got a Intel Quad Core 2 CPU.

Nevertheless, the issue hasn't come up again.....yet.

So, What ARE the signs that your P.C. is dying?

Hard drive "grinding"? I've never heard it so I can't tell actually.

Please post and Thank you!
hellas1.5.......Too Po' to get another P.C. right now, gotta wait until 2012 & Windows 8!

[Magicman2051]

Signs your PC is dying, without sarcasm or intent to confuse, you have any Norton software on it.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

lol norton sucks it tends to use more resources then the apps it tries to condem as using to much

[Bolkonsky]

It's not dying if I had to guess, but by the sounds of it, you've got a lot of junk on the PC. Start by uninstalling Norton and downloading Microsoft Security Essentials, and MalwareBytes. Do complete scans with both of those, and remove anything it finds. Then go through and start uninstalling pointless programs or see what's taking up lots of memory at a time, and uninstall those.

Your PC does't just start dying. Things that could happen is the Hard Drive goes, in which case you'll most likely hear a clicking noise coming from the case. Your PSU or CPU could overheat and start burning out, but Windows will likely warn you of that, or your Bios will. Most of the time, it's a saveable issue because like I said, when you reboot, you'll be informed. RAM chips can go bad unexpectedly, but not all at once, and running a memtest will diagnose this. If your PSU starts smoking, smelling bad, popping, then you know that's going. Probably the most common issue, PSU's are replaceable and not expensive. Finally, if your motherboard goes, well, your computer won't turn on at all. That's extremely unlikely though, I've had motherboards that were older than me and still worked.

[Squid]

I've had motherboards that were older than me and still worked.

I fried two mobos in under a year, and neither was overclocked, though I think it was a short in the PSU that was the ultimate culprit.