<SOLVED> Linux Mint 18.1 keeps closing at random moments

[jimis2001]

I have a very weird problem with my computer. At seemingly random moments when I work with my computer, suddenly the screen stops receiving a signal, the sound gets muted but the tower still indicates the system is up and the fans can still be heard spinning. I have found no way of reproducing this behavior and the only regular pattern I notice is that it happens 20-30 minutes after the system boots and if it doesn't happen then, it will never happen unless it's rebooted and it has, also, only happened while using Chromium or playing Minecraft but I'm not sure if they have to do with it or it's a hardware issue. I have, actually, had a problem 3 weeks ago when the system crashed while loading a lot of memory and when doing the cold shutdown the home partition became unreadable, and even though reinstalling seemed to fix the problem, it may be the cause for this "bug" to happen. Please help me out to solve it, it has become incredibly annoying.

[Dngrsone]

This sounds like a hardware issue.

First thing I would do is boot up a live Linux disc like your Mint installation disc and run memtest 86+. I usually let it run for a good 12 hours if not overnight.

If you get any memory failures with memtest, then you have a memory problem: either one or more RAM sticks or (very rarely) the memory management hardware on your motherboard. I have seen instances where a bad memory module will pass memtest fine but still cause problems, but again that is a very rare occurrence.

If it is not a RAM issue, then I'd look at the rest of the computer hardware. Start by cleaning out the machine-- blow out all the dust, clean the heatsinks, make sure all the fans are operational (not all fans will run all the time, but usually the fans will all spin during the power-on self test when you turn the machine on). Anything overheating could be causing issues. If you see anything weird with the video right before or right as the machine fails, then I'd go straight to the GPU. Otherwise, I'd suspect the power supply first, followed by hard drive, any other peripheral, then the mainboard.

[jimis2001]

@Dngrsone Alright, thanks for the help! After a good clean the problem stopped and I'm happy to get rid of this annoyance.
Just one last question, since I'm new to this forum, I'm not really sure what to do with this thread? Mark it as solved and leave it that, or delete it since it doesn't belong in the Software section? Thanks (again) in advance!

[Dngrsone]

Mark it SOLVED and if the moderators wish, they will move it to a more appropriate forum.