Question : Problem: PC Shuts Down Discriminately Among Different Task

Hi Everone;

        My main pc discriminately powers down when doing various task.  For instance, when attempting to configure a Linksys Wireless - G Range Extender, the pc automatically shut down without any warning.  It also did the same thing the other day when trying to watch a DVD.  Interestingly, it rarely powers off when playing mp3's or being online.  With this in mine, I do not think this is a hardware issue of a pc component overheating, however, it may still be possible.  During the times the pc powered down, the room which contains my main pc was a little warm because of the heaters being on.  

           Another possibility which merits consideration is the fact my pc also had various Trojans on it.  At boot up, McAfee Anti-Virus gives me a message indicating a trojan has been blocked and deleted.  When I attempt to run a full scan following the given initial results, the pc automatically shuts down everytime.  With this in mind, I am wondering if it is possible that a malware variant like a paticular strain of a Trojan could possibly cause a pc to shut down.  And, if this is the case, I am wondering how I can perform a full anti-virus scan without the pc abruptly shutting down.

            In closing, I strongly suscept this pc still has malware on it.  I was able to do a scan or check using HiJack This which only gave one faulty registry entry which made reference to disable regedit.  
I also was able to run CCleaner which allowed me to clean up this pc fom cache files, temp files, cookies, recycle bin, etc.

            I will look forward to hearing from everyone.  I am confident any strategies recommended will be instrumental in troubleshooting this sitation.

           Thank you

           George

Answer : Problem: PC Shuts Down Discriminately Among Different Task

I think you originally had a hardware problem before the virus added to it.
- That virus is designed to steal information and damaging the hardware is not in it's best interest. (It's also not given as a symptom of Win32:CTX.)

So I am back to "what motherboard?".

And, what is your power supply?

Erratic/random shut-down or reboot problems can usually be traced back to bad capacitors on the motherboard or inside the power supply.
It usually gets blessed off as "bad motherboard" or "bad power supply" without bothering to analyze the failure any further.

If I know what you have I can check for known problems.


.