[bigdave]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but here goes:

What could be a cause of random shutdown the occurs frequently. If say your OP Sys was XP Home SP2 with Norton Internet Security 2005. This is happening to a guy I know on another Forum. He doensn't know his PC Spec but all runs good besides the random shutdowns. He won't download Ad-Aware and Spybot claiming they crased his PC the last time he downloaded it. This also happened to me when I installed Win2000 SP2 back in 2003. Once I installed Win98 the prob was fixed. I now run XP Home SP2 with no probs.

Any suggestions as to cuase?

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He should Download ad-aware, spybot - search and destroy, HiJackThis, and AVG. These are very reliable programs. What happened to him before may have been a misuse issue. Depending on when and how he used them.

Also exactly how random are these shutdowns. Is there any similarity in the timeframe from when he starts the computer to when it shutsdown? If so this could indicate a batch file in start-up. If not It could be a Virus, Trojan, or even advance malware.

But keep in mind that it could also be a setting on his computer itself. I believe that would be in the BIOS.

If there's anything else I can do for you please let me know

[Lightninghawk]

He should Download ad-aware, spybot - search and destroy, HiJackThis, and AVG. These are very reliable programs. What happened to him before may have been a misuse issue. Depending on when and how he used them.

Also exactly how random are these shutdowns. Is there any similarity in the timeframe from when he starts the computer to when it shutsdown? If so this could indicate a batch file in start-up. If not It could be a Virus, Trojan, or even advance malware.

But keep in mind that it could also be a setting on his computer itself. I believe that would be in the BIOS.

If there's anything else I can do for you please let me know

[The one]

hmm strange definatly look into the pests first but then if to no avail then a theroy which i have seen in practice is that if the psu used cannot supply constant power to the rate the pc demands it then it could cause to shutdown however it is generally restarts that happen not shut downs and also check temps, could it be temperature issues causing the shutdowns, not sure but just a thought other otpions to consider.

[Capn' Crunch]

My experiences with random shutdowns or restarts have been this

1. RAM was bad. Brand new computer used during a lightning storm (very bad)

2. Virus. Message popup saying some file was bad or something, can't remember the details, and would have to shutdown in 30secs.

This one was a little tough since you gotta work fast lol.

3. Overheat. Should occur roughly the same time each time. May be preceded by short constant beeps.

Also you said this is random right? Like in the middle of doing something/anything.

If you can find a pattern like time to crash or during certain programs.