Heres a strange one.. im at my wits end... tryed pretty much everything short of throwing PC out window :P Problem is this: I turn on PC it loads windows XP up everything is fine.... however after 5-15 mins of windows being on the PC will cut out, ill reboot PC and greeted with "your coumputer was shut down due to a Thermal Event" message, all i was doing is sitting on Desktop... now his the strange part... IF i Run say Windows Media Player Maxamized or any game Ie DOOM 3, Black & White 2 it will stay running fine. until i exit to desktop and after which 5-15 minutes later it will die again!!! Im Confused surely playing something that would put a strain on the system is more likley to overheat the PC than just having desktop open.. Ive ran Nortons Anti virus, Ad-aware, Xsoft spy as a friend recomended, but that hasent helped.. Nortons System works wanted to run a repair on my C: drive but when it got to final Stage PC would "Thermal event" ARGH!!! its doing my head in what can be wrong... any ideas anyone? i only reformated a few weeks ago dont fancy doing it all again :( Mucho Thanks in advance! :)

Do you have a variable speed CPU fan that is linked to CPU activity? If so, it could be set to low for when the CPU is idle or at a low percentage and speeds up sufficiently when the CPU is working hard. Stuart

Did you consider that the pc stays on because the OS is no longer in control [when in the game] and when you exit, it regains control then shuts down? What do you think "thermal event" means? I'm guessing your cpu fan died. I would suggest you get your hardware checked out before your continual attemps to run it destroy the laptop. Golly gee wilerkers everyone! Learn to Internet Search

Ive played with Fan settings... I can See and hear the Fan spinng quite happly. I know thermal Event is something to do with CPU over heating.... I could understand it if i could hear the Fan going crazy moments before it turns it self off.. but it dont.. you wouldnt know anything is wrong with my PC until, POOF! it turns it self off and when you press the power button it greets you with the Thermal Event message. And surely the OS is incontrol when running window media player?!?! :) Thanks for feed back so far tho.

It's possessed. Take it to a priest. You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

What make and model of computer is it? A Dell Optiplex GX 260, 270, or 280 perhaps? Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

If you are seeing the thermal event issue on an Intel mother board, check out the small 4 pin power connector. I would be interested to know if anyone is seeing tarnishing on two 12V pins on the mainboard. Also try wobbling this cable and or the main power cable and see what happens. Let me know what you find. TTFN RWBJ