I'm running a win98 se. Was working fine until about 2wks ago started to shut down and restart for no apparent reason. it has started doing this maybe once or twice every couple of days. I think its the fan going bad and causing comp to get too hot and shut down. Am I right? If so, what do i need to know before getting a new fan? Thanks for any help

Open the case and see if the CPU fan is spinning. If so, blow out the area/cooling fins with a can of compressed gas. If not spinning, remove and take it to your local computer electronics supplier and pick up one like it. They're cheap. Get one with ball bearings, not bushings.

Hi Have a look inside the case and check the fan Are you getting any error messages? With it restarting this can be a sign of bad memory, if you have any spare it would be worth trying it. Good Luck.

danny's and john's responses are very likely, so you might want to open your case and power it up and look at the heat sink fans. if they seem to be working ok then they might be good. then i would suspect the power supply to have gone bad or its on its way out. i had simmilar problems with 2 old computers of mine in my workshop and the solution was to replace the power supply. good luck.