RANDOM REBOOTS AND SHUTDOWNS

[Target]

I had a Compaq notebook a while back that seemed to have some of the same issues you describe.

Mine turned out to be a failing cooling fan for the CPU...... CPU over-heated and caused the issues for me. If you can, see if your FAN comes on a runs to keep yours cool. Should come on automatically when the CPU has been under load for a while.

Axel gave you some pretty good advice, and are all things you could check out easily enough as the problem could be there as well.

Random issues are tough to track down, so be sure to come back for more help if the problem persists after you have done some of the checking suggested.

[J-X]

Have a Latitude 300cpi notebook that randomly reboots and shuts down. I am running win95 on it. It seems that after I ran the patches for win95, oulook 98 and IE4.0sp2 it got this way, but I'm not 100% sure. I put the newest BIOS on it to no avail. Any suggestions?

[Axel]

Might seem random, might even be you've got multiple problems, but chances are there's one or two root causes you'll be able to track down to find what's wrong.

I always like to start with a thorough scandisk and a defrag in safe mode to see what's up on the hard drive. Don't start the defrag until after you've removed all the tmp files on the system, erase your internet history and temp inet folders, uninstall anything you don't want or use any more. Cross-linked files are a very common cause of computer problems.

Next - what's running on the system every time you start it up? - pull up the task manager and make a list of what's listed there right after start-up.

Next - reduce the number of days IE4 holds on to web pages. Mine's set to erase stuff every day.

Next - check device manager for conflicts in IRQ's and between components.

Next - put a post-it note on the computer and, for the next few crashes, make a note of what was running when it happened. - uninstall and reinstall the program that's running every time it happens.

Next - and from here on out - keep those virus definitions up to date and do a scan of your hard drive twice a month or so, or each time you have a serious problem.

That's a place to start.

And remember - this is Microsoft software. - It isn't unusual to have a crash and have to reboot several times a week, at least not in my world/experience. see the joke about "what if Microsoft made cars" - that'll take the edge off http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

If all of that comes back clean without results, come back for more as there are some much more involved things we can walk you through.