OK I have been looking into this problem for a little while now and I already got a little bit of info.
It is a compaq presario 1500 notebook, OS is windows xp home. I took it into a computer place and had a tech look at it. When it shut off, the power light went off. He said that it is more than likely shorting out, and it is getting shut off to keep it from frying. It made sense to me. I'm not a computer genius but I do know a lot about electric circuits. Anyway, I did a search on the net about it and it came to a thread in these forums. Someone was having the same problem, and someone else gave the same answer. It was probably a short.
One thing came up, but I didn't think of it when the tech was looking at it. A long time ago, months before it started shuting down, it might of thrown a fan blade. I could pick it up and lightly shake it and I would hear something bouncing around on the inside. Now it doesn't make that sound anymore, and I didn't do anything to fix it. It is right where the fan is so I am guessing it is the fan blade. But, could that have gotten lodged somewhere, or broke something to cause the short? I'm positive its not overheating because the fan works fine and I can feel the warm air blowing out.
So here are my questions. What could it be that is possibly shorting? What could cause it? Could being dropped cause it? It started happening after I let someone borrow it, so it may of been dropped. What kind of things need to be replaced? How long would it take to fix it? Would special parts need to be ordered? How much could it cost?
I am not really looking for answers to ALL of those, but if anyone has any info I would love to hear it. I'm just looking for a little bit more detail besides "a short". I am going overseas in 2 weeks and I want to try to get this fixed before I go.