Hi,

I have a computer problem that is very strange. While in Windows, the computer sometimes shuts down automatically without any warning, and then restarts. No error message is displayed. It may either do the full regular shut down process, or switch off immediately while the computer buzzer makes a turning off warning (which is fast). The restart may go ahead immediately after the computer turns off, or some seconds later. The computer can then switch off and on again repeatedly for a number of times (which number is also not constant).

N.B. The automatic restart setting is switched to off, so an error page or blue screen should show up. But there is still no message given. No problem was highlighed even when starting by pressing F8 and selecting disable automatic restart process.

The computer is not troubled by this problem while running in safe mode, and the BIOS setup page also continues running indefinitely. So it might be a problem related to Windows XP. The strange thing is that the computer appears fast and reliable when this problem does not materialise, thereby showing no symptoms.

Tests already run: Full virus scans by Avira showed no serious problems. Malwarebytes scans revealed some registry items that had to be deleted, and they were fixed. CCleaner suite of tools used to optimise performance, and rectify any deficiencies with the registry. Scandisk was completed. Hardware scans revealed no problems with the hardware.\ No overheating resulted.

System details: Windows XP Home Version 2002 Service Pack 3 Dell Inspiron I6400 Intel (R) Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0Ghz 2GHz, 1GB RAM