Hello everyone, I am having a bit of trouble with the office machine at work. It runs a DOS based program for payroll, which is one of the reasons they've not upgraded. Anyway, here is the problem... The computer will randomly power down as if it was unplugged from the power source. It has never powered off while in use. I have disabled all references that I could find to power saving features, both in Windows and BIOS. Something else I noticed that was strange, both the CD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive went out at the same time. Tested on another system and they are both bad. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Hmm, I'd go for the theory that your computer's power supply is defective, If you happen to have a replacement one, do replace it. Another potential reason could be the presence of virus/spyware with the ability to turn off your computer at random as you say, I think It doesnt hurt if you run a virus/spyware scan. But I think the Power Supply one would probably be like more accurate. Hope this helps

Hello and thanks for the reply. This paticular system is not connected to the Internet (Windows 95 system). The system shuts down after 8 - 20 minutes, normally in the 15-20 minute area. I removed all extra PC cards and drives. I added each one back waiting 20 minutes after each. It no longer occurs when I remove the two ISA cards (multimedia and modem). Could this indicate a problem with the PSU since two cards and two drives have failed? Thanks again!

ISA!, I then assume that your comp is a bit old, heh. Since you mention the fact that several ISA cards have failed as you install them then I wouldnt discard the chance of the ISA slots to be defective (they're probably just too old). If your card's got PCI Slots, use those instead and see if there are results