Dell Inspiron 580s boots then crashes

[mdl18313]

Have a friends PC that boots up to a point that seems to complete windows 7 for about 30 seconds then crashes and the PC just beeps and screen goes black. Not sure if its a hardware issue like a graphics card that heats up then crashes or that the hard drive maybe be at fault or it maybe the OS is corrupted. Any directions that I should look for?

 

[bigmck]

Have a friends PC that boots up to a point that seems to complete windows 7 for about 30 seconds then crashes and the PC just beeps and screen goes black. Not sure if its a hardware issue like a graphics card that heats up then crashes or that the hard drive maybe be at fault or it maybe the OS is corrupted. Any directions that I should look for?

If this is a desktop, lay it on its side and take the cover off. If it is a heat problem, this might help to cool. If it runs a while, download this to monitor the temp.
HWMonitor CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

[mdl18313]

still crashing

Opened up the case and started up in safe mode with no problems, then restarted the system normally and it fired up and ran, so I restarted the system and it was in the process of loading windows updates before the shutdown and it crashed, then it beeps and won't restart, if i do a power off the restart the system beeps and won't start, but I think if i let the PC cool down for a while it may restart but only for a while, so this points to a heat build up somewhere but I haven't been able to download the heat monitoring software that was suggested before the latest crash...still reaching for straws...

 

[bigmck]

Opened up the case and started up in safe mode with no problems, then restarted the system normally and it fired up and ran, so I restarted the system and it was in the process of loading windows updates before the shutdown and it crashed, then it beeps and won't restart, if i do a power off the restart the system beeps and won't start, but I think if i let the PC cool down for a while it may restart but only for a while, so this points to a heat build up somewhere but I haven't been able to download the heat monitoring software that was suggested before the latest crash...still reaching for straws...

Start it in Safe Mode and see if you can make any progress with that. I'm not sure if you can download in Safe Mode or not, but if you can start it, try to download.

 

[gregrocker]

How many beeps? Google the PC make and model for beep codes. But some are standard so let us know.

Meanwhile work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7
which include how to test for overheating.