Virus

[quattro]

I don't know much about computors but my son's computor has started to shut itself down etither in normal mode or on the internet it is obviously to protect itself from a virus but how can I get it to work normally now .It did have the Norton anti virus connected but I don't know wether this is still in force

[mattie]

What operating system is he using and what (error) messages, if any, are displayed berfore it shuts down?

[darth vader]

We'll need more info: what operating system is he running? Do the event logs say anything? Are there any messages prior to shutdown? It might not actually be a virus.......

[darth vader]

that was a simultaneous post, if you think i'm just repeating mattie

[shybearuk]

This sounds like Window's XP's infamous 'restart the computer for the slightest error' thing. If you're using Windows XP:

right-click My Compuer and select properties.
Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings Button in the Startup and Recovery box.
Then make sure that the box next to Automatically Restart is unchecked.

This used to plague me when I got my first XP machine, and I didn't know about this 'feature', so hopefully this will be of some help.

[jamesmwhelan]

You may have a virus

[quattro]

I think he has a Patriot computor and it is the newwst form of windows on it . A box comes up on the screen saying something like 'your computor will be shutting down in 30 seconds save any unfinished work ' or something . He has gone back to work in Germany and I am using the computor in work SHHHH!

[darth vader]

sounds like shybear's diagnosis is correct then - but by following shybear's method for stopping it re-booting you will not solve the problem of why it re-boots - common reasons for re-booting are conflicts in the hardware/bad hardware drivers - check your event log for errors

[manutdstott]

Not so long ago I had a lot of trouble with my pc I am using xp. One of my problems was when I booted it up it would kept restarting & shuting down, I know a fair bit about pc's and no matter what i tried nothing worked. Until I took the panels of and it was full of dust on the mother board, cleaned it and hey presto runs like new.