My laptop is a "Tecra 8100". It's a computer I bought at a resale computer store (they take in computers, fix them, update them, etc. then re-sell them). It runs on Windows 98/SE. I've had this computer for a year now and I've had no serious problems. I regulary do disc-defragment and clean out the temp files. Recently, it's been shuting down suddenly while I'm in the middle of something. It appears to happen only when I'm online (could it be my online software?). I read another post where someone meantioned overheating. Where I live it gets into the 100 degrees during summer and my computer is right in front of a window, could that have anything to do with it? And my room is pretty dusty, is there a way to clean dust out of a laptop? Also, I've used scan-disc before and had no problems with it, but all of a sudden, it won't work for me. It says "Scan-disc has had to restart several times because something is writing to the drive." But no other programs are running. So my computer starts shutting down randomly (not every day, maybe once/twice a week) and san-disc won't finish no matter how ling I leave it on. Sorry for all the info! I just want to stop this before it gets serious. Thanks :)

When scandisk keeps restarting it is nearly always just as it said, something is writing to the drive (with or without your knowledge). Assuming you've used Ctrl-Alt-Del and msconfig (Startup tab) and found nothing untoward then it might be malware. Are you running a malware finder (Ad-Aware or similar) and a virus checker? You might be able to get scandisk to run from Safe Mode but it would be well worth finding out what is interrupting it (especially if it's malware). Derek.W

Quite a few laptops have problems with overheating; frequently the ventilation ports/fan etc. are well covered/clogged with dust. Dell 5000 series suffered from this not too long ago... Check/clean out the ventilation etc.? If you're happy to - open the laptop case and blow out the dust (a decent vacuum cleaner); check all the air-ports are clear; check the fan is clear and actually works. Siting any electronics in direct sunlight (100degree temepratures...?) is not a good idea. PC/laptops especially do not respond well to hot locations - do you?