Blue screens and power offs, what could eb the cause?

[Arizona Web]

I have this Dell 2gig celeron with 512 ram. Ever since I got it maybe once or twice a month it would juts instantly shuit down if I was heavy into a graphics program. Around 2 weeks ago it just started shutting off all the time, like 6 times a day. Sometimes it gives me blue screens, but I haven't caught the error yet. I did get one of those dialer trojan type things around the time this started happening which may or may not be related (I hit a bad site by mistake and slipped and hit the wrong button in the javascript box then got a dialer.exe trying to dial in to porn sites I think). I did find JAVA.nocheat during one virus scan as well.

I also find that when my grisoft antivrus does a scan, it shuts off my computer every time. Any ideas how to fix this? You think I have a bad stick of ram, a virus that can't be found with trend micro, or a bad video card? I can't figure out why this thing keeps shutting down on me but it is really really annoying.

[alc6379]

Exactly what model Dell is it?

There could be a number of things. I'd think it to be a heat issue, mainly, like a CPU heatsink not seated correctly, or maybe a power supply getting too hot. Open your case, make sure your heatsink's on there right, see if that doesn't help. You might also want to feel the air coming out of the back of the power supply-- if it's too hot, you might have a power supply going bad.

The have Diagnostics built into Dells that you can try, if you've never erased your hard drive. As the system boots, hit <F12>. There may be an option there to launch them. Do a full extended system scan, see if it comes up with anything.

[Dani]

I have actually had similar problems with AMD processors and ATi video cards (back in the day). Intel and Nvidia seem to be a better combination for me. I would try the simplest things first - make sure you're using the very latest video card drivers direct from the ATi or Nvidia website. Flashing your BIOS won't hurt either ;) It could also be any of the other things you suggested - a bad stick of RAM, a virus your antivirus software hasn't caught, etc.

How much ram is in your system? One or two sticks? If it's one, can you try moving it to a different slot? Try removing one stick at a time and do some graphic intensive gaming, and see if you can reproduce the error.

[Arizona Web]

Try removing one stick at a time and do some graphic intensive gaming, and see if you can reproduce the error.

no way! I'm not a gamer. Anyhoo, I only have one stick. I am going to try running AVG to see if I can get it to shut off.

[Dani]

What I actually meant is to use the graphic-intensive programs that would freeze the machine. Regardless, try moving your stick of RAM to a different slot on the motherboard. The RAM might not be in all the way or it might be the ram slot that's bad.

[Catweazle]

no way! I'm not a gamer. Anyhoo, I only have one stick. I am going to try running AVG to see if I can get it to shut off.

Then download and use 3DMark 2001 or 3DMark2003 in 'looping demo mode' to stress the system and show up any problems which may exist. If it runs those continuously without problem, it's unlikely to be your hardware at fault!

You can download them from Futuremark

You may not want games on your system, but the simulations contained in a Gaming Benchmark program like this is the ideal way to stress and test your system's hardware and its installation.