My computer keeps shutting down randomly, help!?

My laptop was doing that to me. It would shut down randomly or so it seemed. The first time was just after I downloaded a game from Yahoo, as soon as I started to play it, my system turned off. After completely eliminating the possibility of a virus having been downloaded in the game, my laptop went on like that for sometime with an occasional shutdown.

Here is what I found. I noticed it would shut off when I had more downloads in progress or many browser windows open. It seemed to shutdown when more memory was in use. After rebooting there is a message that quickly goes on the first screen saying press F2 or F12 or some F# key to get in to set up or run diagnostics.

I ran all of the Dell Diagnostics. Everytime I got into the memory diagnostic, it would shut off. Anyway, using that diagnostic I finally found a bad memory module.

See if you can get into the manufacturers diagnostics and run them all. Watch what test is running because the diagnostics won't have a chance to show a failure message, your computer will shut off.

If you have an internet connection, go online to TrendMicro and have them scan your drive and remove any virii. Then download AVG Free Anti-Virus 7.5. Unplug your internet connection and uninstall Norton; install AVG.

If the problem persists, it's most likely an over-heating issue. Unplug your system power and clean the dust out of the fans, fins, power supply and heatsinks. Also, ensuring you are grounded to the case and power is not plugged in, gently "press in" to re-seat all chips, cables and connectors on the motherboard, drives and perhiperals.

If you are technophobe enough to be worried about messing this up, recruit a geek to help. Most are willing to get you going for free in a situation like this.

"Face of Mankind is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) in a persistent world. You will control a single character in the science fiction game-world. It will be available for download in 2006. Once installed on your PC you will have access to an ever changing game-world via your internet connection. Thousands of players throughout the game world co-operate, compete or co-exist in a realistic and futuristic world of the 24th century.

"The plot is constantly evolving, with new missions created constantly. The skill and luck of the players from rival factions change the balance of power. High ranked players create missions which are split and handed down through the hierarchy. The objective of the game is to evolve your character to its ultimate potential, whether that is the accumulation of wealth, power, social status or all three."

most likely a heat issue or driver conflict. try reseating the heatsinks on the cpu and gpu. if that doesn't work remove the newer hardware like a wireless card that was my problem, a d-link card that i overpaid for. so now i used the ethernet adapter to my modem/router instead of the wireless option. i've had a bad ide cable that was fun :( and bad memory as well but at least you can troubleshoot the ram easily with the windows memory test, get the ULTIMATE BOOT CD it's worth dowloading.

It could be a lot of things, but one thing to check is to make sure your computer is cooling properly. Games are usually pretty graphic and processor intensive and can make your system very hot. This could cause the computer to shut down. Make sure your computer is in a well ventilated spot and your fans and heat sync is working properly.

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM. IT WOULD SHUT DOWN AND THEN RESTART AGAIN. EVEN WHEN I WAS IN DIFFERENT PLACES. I ALSO HAD NORTON IT DIDN'T"T SHOW ANYTHING EITHER. DID AS HELP IN WINDOWS SHOWED NOTHING. I HAD TO FINALLY SEND IT OUT AND HAVE IT RELOADED. PERSON WHO DID IT SAVED ALL MY STUFF AND CHECKED FOR VIRUS WHICH I HAD A FEW. SOO GO SOMEWHERE RELIABLE. I RECOMMEND FRY'S. COSTLY BUT WORTH IT.

Barring any of that, bad powersupply, overheating or other bad component would be my guess. First two are more probable if you are running a game that requires a lot of horsepower to run.