having troubles with XP

Hey folks I am new here and I have no idea what I am doing so i'll just get right into it...

for the past year or so my computer would work just fine then it would **** out..

it would shut it's self down then when it gets to the start up screen of the computer - where I can pick safe mode or not it kept repeating it's self. it would start up then power down and on and on...

then I had a friend fix it


Four times...


so now..what's happening is I would get this message saying that Windows has to check my D-drive for consistency or something like that.

(that happened the Third time my computer crapped out)

I would sometimes let it do it's thing then go into my computer and do what I do on it.

then just starting today, It started to shut down again.

Why is this happening?

can someone tell me if something is ninja wrong with this and if so can it be fixed?

Thanks A ZILLION!!! if some one can come to the aid of a NOOB.

thanks again.

 

Hi AgentGraves,

Just calm down a little.

The computer can shut down due to a variety of reasons & I am not sure what your friend did four times to make it right.

If you can get your hands dirty do the following:
1. Swap the power supply with your friend & see if it works ok.
2. Clean the inners of your cabinet specially CPU fan & heatsink.
3. Are you using any graphics card? Clean its heatsink also.
4. Swap your RAM with your friend.

These are just generic guidelines. Do these & report back.

 

Hi AgentGraves,

While rsinfo seems to prefer to jump right into the big guns and offer some elimination steps related to hardware, the above may be asking for a bit much for a beginner. All of the suggestions are good ones and would cover the most common hardware issues but may also require that friend that you mentioned. How about some steps from the software side of things? Things that you should be able to handle yourself.

First thing to ask is:
*Did that friend mentioned what your prior problems were?
*What method(s) did he/she use to fix ya'?

Next let's make sure you aren't automatically restarting on a error. I'm reasonably sure your checkdisk error is the result of those forced shutdowns or reboots. You'll need to double check the setting that controls that:
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/troub-03.html

*Note in the above link the instructions to check for errors using your event viewer. Please do so and cutNpaste any such errors here.

What's your personal habits for making sure you are viral and malware free? Using good updated programs and practices for keeping clean and safe?

As a beginner are you a risk taker in that you do something first before clearly understanding what your doing, such as deletions or bad /goofed installs and uninstalls or are you more cautious and only do what you clearly know is safe or proper? Just trying to get a better idea of OS "use and abuse" history and system operator (<-yourself).

To rsinfo,
No offense I'm just trying to cover the bases since all is unknown at the moment.

 

Hi Greek goddez1,

I would also like to have more info before I do anything, but from the looks of his post he looked very upset. Hence the steps.