windows shuts down - no warning

[Guest]

I am running Windows XP w/SP1 and it periodically shuts down with out warning; just goes from humming along happily to completely dead, bam! I was running a very old ATI graphics card (3 or 4 year old) on a newer mother board (about 1 year old). When I installed MS Combat Flight Simulator, it would consistently shut my system down. I purchased a new middle of the road graphics card and installed it. This worked somewhat better but still occasionally shuts the system down.

There are a couple of web-sites that I can go to that consistently shut my system down like this. One is US News and World Report: www.usnews.com shuts it down every time within seconds of bringing it up

Any idea of what could be doing this or how to track it down

 

[Guest]

I am not sure about going to specific websites, but your problem might be caused by overheating. Most new motherboards check the CPU to make sure it is not overheating. Overheating causes an unexplained an immediate shutdown like the one you described. You might want to get a better CPU fan. Also, your system might be consuming too much power. What power supply do you have? Too little will also cause the described problem.