Ok so my computer has been acting up I thought I had it fixed but I guess not Kinda long .... It has been randomly restarting by its self back in May my brother inlaw reinstalled windows for us about a week after that it started doing it than we had him look at it again everything was fine for awhile than about a week ago it started to do it again. I've done everything I can think of and Im not very familiar with computers I really just know how to use them :-) Sometimes when it restarts it seems like it shut down but the green power light on the front is still on and sometimes that light blinks RED not sure what that means but if I unplug it for a few minutes than it stops blinking and comes back on. It doesnt run hot and Im not a gamer. Right now Im surprised it hasnt restarted on me yet. And I think I might be missing some files like the registry scan file. Does anyone have any ideas???

Forgot to add this not sure if its needed or important Manufacturer: Compaq Model: 5415wmdam1 OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional CPU/Ram: 1.495 GHz / 511 MB Video Card: ATI Technologies, Inc. 3D RAGE PRO PCI Sound Card: Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller

Random shutdowns is generally an indication of a hardware problem, not a software problem. The reinstall of Windows *probably* wasn't necessary...hopefully it was done correctly or it will make troubleshooting more difficult. "It doesnt run hot and Im not a gamer" How do you know it's not running hot? Have you checked the temperature readings? If so, why didn't you list them in your post?

Your system is possible producing a BSOD which you cannot see because the system is set to auto restart on system error. The following is extracted from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/... 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. Click the Advanced tab. 3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box. 4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times. 5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect. Next time your system crashes you should see a BSOD, please post the codes here.

Usually if the power light blinks red that means the system has not done a random shutdown but it has been enabled to go into standby. When you see the system blinking try moving the mouse or pressing the spacebar on the keyboard, wait to see if it comes back up. Another hardware recovery for standby is to tap the power switch (not press and hold just a momentary tap). Let us know what happens. Richard

Thanks guys I think I figured it out yesterday it shut down and kept doing it so I opened it up and wiggled wires to see if anything was either lose or had a short well I think I found the issue my brother inlaw didnt plug one of the cables to the main board in all the way so I did and it seems to be doing fine