Dell machine arbitrarily crashing

hoping anyone can help, because Dell can't!!
I've got a Dell machine, Intel P4 processor 'with HT technology 640', 250GB hard drive and 1024MB memory. The OS is XP home edition, service pack 2. My problem is that the machine is arbitrarily crashing - sometimes it will run for 2 hours, others for up to 8 (but never longer) before it automatically powers down. there seems to be no rhyme or reason in terms of the programme i'm running at the time, or anything. sometimes i can restart in safe mode, but not always... checked out the power supply, air flow, run adaware and spybot (all clean) - all the basics that i can think of but now stuck. if anyone needs any additional info, please let me know!

 

You say you've checked out the power supply, by what means??

Also, what about the drivers you have installed for the hardware, are they all up to date??
The power supply could be the problem if it keeps randomly shutting down. Does it just turn straight off or does it go through the whole windows shut down process?

 

check the cpu temp. move the computer to a different location. make sure no parts inside are physically damaged.makesure all addincards are securly in place.

 

Swapped different appliances into the power socket and working ok over a period of time; the hard drive is also plugged into a powerboard which also supplies current to the monitor and printer - when the drive crashes, they still have power. drivers are all up to date and unfortunately it just powers straight down, no shut-down process.
dumb question, but how do i check the CPU temperature?

 

You should be able to check the cpu temp. in the bios. Do you know how to do that??

However...you need to monitor the temp. while you are using the comp under the usual load, while you are running the programs that you usually run!!

you can do this by downloading and installing a monitoring tool that detects your temps, etc while you are using the computer under it's normal load.

Roger

 

Thanks D3m3nt3d...I'm on my mother in laws slow dial-up and was doing about 5 things at once, and didn't have time to search for him...thanks again!!

Roger

 

thanks guys... will try the suggested.