Hi everyone, I have been visiting this site for a long time. I just decide to post my problem hoping one of you experts can offering me some suggestions. I have a dell 8400, 128mb running on XP home edition. For the last 2 to 3 weeks, when I first turn on my computer, it will start booting normally for about 15 to 20 sec, than it will shut off by itself without any error messanges. I would restart again, but it will shut off again like before. Sometimes, if I try 3 or 4 restarts, it will stabilize, but next morning, same problem will repeat itself. I have considered virus, fan problem, software conflicts, but all are without resolution. I have just reformated my hard drive, but again this problem persists. I am currently not running any window programs just dell utilities. Thank you for reading this. If you have encountered this problem or have any suggestion on how to resolve this, I very much appreciate.

How far into the booting up process does it manage to get? What does it accomplish, item by item, before it shuts off? Does it always get to the same point, or does it vary?

It varies. Most of the time, I think that window dose finish booting successfully. I would open an application (window media player, internet explorer..etc), suddenly it will shut off.

I had an AGP graphics card do that to me once, constantly. It may be something along those lines maybe?

Have you tried loading windows in safe mode? Hit f8 repeatedly during startup until it gives you a text menu including items such as "start windows normally" and "start windows in safe mode" etc.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would cause it to run correctly some of the time and automatically shut down the rest of the time, but obviously there's something...

•Have you installled any new hardware lately? (especially at around the time that this problem started?)
•Have you installed any new software recently (especially at around the time that this problem started?)
•How often do you used windows update and have you updated to SP2 yet?

Sorry to throw all the questions at you, but it might help narrow things down.

I had this problem when my motherboard died. The capcitors were shot, but they would hold enough charge for the computer to boot and then it would turn off. I couldn't get it to boot a gain until it stored enough energy in the caps again. It might not be your problem, but it was mine. Just a thought

Thank you for trying to help, sporks5000 and all others. Spike: I do have a ATI Radeon X300 SE.
I have not thought of it as a source of problem. Just wondering, how did you end up solving your problem?
Sporks5000: I just formated my hard drive 3 days ago. I have not installed anything new, infact, I have removed
most of other preinstalled programs. The win xp in my computer comes with sp2. For the last two times after formate
my hard drive, I was able to boot in safe mode without being shut off (just an observation, before this formate, I
got shut off even in safe mode)(some good news I hope). Poertner 1274: my computer is fairly new though, less then 6
months old. However, I did turn it on and off fairly common.
Thank you for all your inputs. I really appreciate it.

I don't know much, but have you looked at the PowerSupplyUnit as a possible culprit ?

From what Ive been reading in here, PSU's seem to be guilty of just about everything but bad weather....

I may be way off, so just a thought.....peace.

I dont know about you but My bois tell me the temperature of Processor and memory etc... maybe you can check there and see if it is a overheating problem. If as suggested by the others its an issue with your graphics card I would recommend going to there website and getting the latest driver that may solve the problem.

Hope this helps!
Puppetgrimm1

I have the same problem with the Radeon X300 I will get ride of this card soon as I've had bad luck with ATI cards. Will switch to MAtrox or GForce. The stupid card doesn't recognise a Sony GDM 5410 monitor during windows XP setup and goes to sleep right after the second boot. Only found out by switching to a LCD. ONce windows is installed and the correct driver for the monitor installed everything is cozy. What crap! GDM 5410 has been used to install countless windows OS on countless computers but not with this graphics card, boy did this give me a bad time.