2011 Mac Mini random crashing

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Nov 7, 2003
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Our nearly 3 year old Mac Mini keeps randomly crashing or rebooting itself. It's happening more and more each week.

What could be causing it to do this?
 
As a general rule of thumb, I always consider RAM as the most likely culprit.

But it could be something software related, though less likely imo. Create a new user and log in as that user for a bit and see if the problem disappears, if it does, you've got something going on with your user that OSX doesn't like.
 
It doesn't matter who's logged in. We have three logins for our family.
 
Have you checked the console log for errors?

I would start with the disk utility and verify both the permissions and the disk.
 
How hot is the system getting? If you leave it turned off for a day, can it stay on again for a while, vs. rebooting and having it crash again quickly? I know I have a dust buildup issue with three cats in the apartment.
 
I will check the heat on it this evening.

It has run hot before with something usually stuck running that should have closed. Rebooting it cools it down.
 
Compressed air can probably blast some dust out. I'm not sure how easy it would be to open the case and blow it out.

It's a good thing I thought about computer temps. I checked mine and saw the video card was at 73C :eek:. Turns out the fan on it died. Here's my temporary fix:
fan.jpg
 

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