XP shutting down

[mattaggie]

I have Windows XP. Today my computer shut itself down (I leave it on all the time). When I turned it back on, it shut down again within a few minutes. I turned it on a few more times and each time it shut itself down. The amount of time it stayed on varied. It does not just loose power, it actually shuts down. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

[Statica]

Have you checked your fans to see if one of them has stopped working? Or go into your BIOS and look for the hardware monitor and check the temps on your system. Could be overheating.

[mattaggie]

The fans are working fine. I cannot find any temps in BIOS. I touched the CPU heatsink and it does not feel hot or even warm. Hard drive feels fine. I touched what I think it the heatsink for the motherboard chip, and it was pretty hot. Sometimes when I turn it on, there are lots of beeps and then it shuts down. Sometimes it can stay on for around 10 minutes. A few times right before it shut down, a message appeared saying something like "The application has failed . . . . " I could not read all of it because it didnt stay up long enough.

Specs:
Dell Dimension 2400
MoBo is an Intel D845 I think
Pentium 2.53GHz
1GB RAM
80GB Western Digital HDD

[Cricket]

There is a virus (MS Blaster or some variant) that will cause a WinXP computer to shut down. Is WinXP up to date with the Critical Updates? Have you scanned for viruses with up to date definitions?

Cricket

[mattaggie]

I always download windows updates when I am notified of them. I periodically run Spyware S&D, Adware SE, and CCleaner. I have a free version of Norton anti-virus. How would I fix the problem if it is a virus? The PC will not stay on long enough to do much.

[Statica]

When you start your computer .. open up a command prompt immediately (START > RUN > cmd) and type the following command shutdown -a to abort a system shutdown.

Then go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ and do a system scan.

[mattaggie]

ran housecall and it found nothing. spybot and norton found nothing too. adware se found 14 problems. when i did all this, the pc stayed on. however, the keyboard would not work. restarted to get the keyboard working again, but it shutdown after booting up. keyboard still will not work and mouse acts up sometimes. have to use on screen keyboard to type. are all these problems a windows issue or a hardware issue? if windows, i can do a clean install.

[codered6651]

Here is a Trouble Shooting link I found for your particular Dell model give it a try http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...oo.htm#1106187.

[ITlover]

If it is not virus or spyware then most probably there is something wrong with your power supply. Contact a technical Hardware support to visit you and check your Power Supply.

[mattaggie]

thanks for the advice, i will look into it. my pc is staying on, but w/ no keyboard. sometimes when i boot i get no beeps, sometimes i do. and the beeps are never the same patter. i ran more virus/spyware programs and still nothing.