My does my computer (desktop, Windows XP Media Center Edition) keep randomly shutting down? I have no viruses (I think, my virusscan may be corrupt) yet still the computer shuts off without notice.
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 5
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When was the last time you used a can of compressed air to blow the dust off all of the heat sinks and fans? If a component gets too hot it can cause a restart. If your power supply is failing, that too can cause a restart. So can a bad driver that you've installed. I doubt it's a virus.
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It sounds heat related. How often is it serviced? If you feel comfortable, unplug the unit, open the case and carefully vacuum the inside (especially the fans on the CPU, case, and power supply). Don't touch the circuit boards with your hand or the vacuum nozzle, just direct it in between areas and allow the suction to pull away the dust and fluff.
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Go to your control panel > system > advanced then go down to "startup and recovery" and click "settings" . Underneath where it says "system failure" untick the box that says "automatically restart". From now on when you experience a system failure, you'll get the "blue screen of death" (don't worry, it doesn't really mean "death") that will give you an error number or something similar that you can use to find out what the problem really is. P.S. Please do NOT vacuum the inside of your computer.
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While most people here seem to think it's a hardware problem, I would advise you take a look at what's on the computer. If the problem persists after trying the already mentioned ideas, I would suggest just doing a quick reformat.
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