My computer has been shutting down randomly lately. At first I thought it was a faulty outlet in this wall(i have had blackouts in that outlet before, that didn't affect anything else in the room). then i realized that while the computer shut itself off, everything else(i have a printer, scanner, speakers, and phone plugged into the surge protector and outlet as well) stayed on. then i thought it might be going into hibernate mode(Which would be weird, since I DO NOT have it set up to hibernate. my computer is set up to stay on all the time, except for when i turn it off. Plus, I have no way that I know of to take it out of hibernate mode). The reason I thought it was hibernating is because when it shut off, the power light was flashing(the one that is ALWAYS on to let you know the computer is on). I have a dell computer with the power light and the activity light at the front of the tower. I've run ad-aware and virus scans and come up with nothing unusual. all my viruses are quarantined, and all spyware i've found is deleted, but i'm still having problems. My computer has run at least as long as 4 hours and as little as 20 mins before shutting down. If anyone has any ideas for this, please let me know.

Power Management in Windows XP http://helpdesk.nus.edu.sg/support/user/guides/power/win2k.htm ==================================== http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=5 http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html Hibernate. If your desktop PC computer is NOT a laptop then you can stop Hibernate. Go to your Control Panel, Power Option and select Hibernate Tab. Uncheck Hibernate. That stops that Windows XP program running and wasting resources. The mysterious hiberfil.sys http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html

Information about cleaning computer components http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm http://www.wiscocomputing.com/articles/maintenance.htm http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/4compcare.html http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial118.html Getting The Grunge Out Of Your PC http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=2 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=3 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=4 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=5 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=6 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=7 Fred Langa cleans the dirtiest PC he can find, and along the way shows you how you can easily tackle yours.

...I have no way that I know of to take it out of hibernate mode..., if monitor properties ~screen saver ~power ~hibernate [never] and [never] are seleceted, as well for monitor and drives set in never mode, then it should not be in hibernate mode, check hardware connections and video / cpu temperatures, check power supply... seach in hardware forum: General Hardware . 6B 69 6C 72 6F 79 20 77 61 73 20 68 65 72 65

thanks for the help, guys! i know that it isn't actually hibernating - that's just what it looked like to me. i have never set my computer in hibernate mode, and the first thing i checked was to make sure that it was not set to hibernate. i'll try cleaning out my computer. i've got a can of compressed air, and i should be able to find a soft cloth to wipe it down. if that doesn't work, i'll try checking the hardware, although i'm a bit of an amateur, so that might take me awhile, so i can find someone competent to help me. do you have any suggestions for programs to use to monitor the temperature and hardware? thanks again!

Motherboard/CPU temperature http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=204 http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php MBProbe http://www.majorgeeks.com/download283.html Motherboard Monitor (MBM) http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

sorry for not posting again sooner. i haven't had internet access(or access to my computer) for awhile. i ended up getting the computer checked out and was told that my motherboard was faulty and advised to just get a new computer, which is what I'm typing on now. Thank you all for your help and suggestions!