- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: me15ter
Hm...depending on the age and the wear of your comptuer, it could be the WinXP Auto-shutdown feature that shuts the computer down when it gets too hot. It's a pretty common occurence with older computers or with uncleaned ones. Check to make sure your fans aren't clogged with dust, dirt or just simply blocked by being up against a wall or something. The OS automatically force-shutdowns computers when the system overheats to prevent things like the CPU from melting into sillicon.
Give it about a half hour or so, then check the ports for dust and dirt. Vacuum, take it apart and use an aircan, put it back together, then reboot and see if it helps. I would also check to see, like Orcface said, if its your PS that's acting haywire, as well as if you've OCed your processor, take it back down a few notches to prevent overheating, make sure your cooling/heatsinks is/are working properly, etc, etc.
^The probable cause.
My PC used to randomly shut down at times, so I opened it up and it was caked with dust. My videocard was full of dust, my heatsink was full of dust, everything was just dusty.
I vaccumed it out and it's fine now.