My PC keeps shutting down for no reason. I have Norton anti-virus and regularly scan for spyware using AOL's 'spyware detector'. Also we seem to be getting an awful amount of 'pop ups'. Do you think it has a virus? Norton is not showing anything.

Two common causes for a computer to abruptly shut down are:
(1) Dust blocking the air flow vents. This causes the processor to overheat which results in an abrupt shutdown. Doing this can damage the processor (which often has its own fan) so if after cleaning out the dust, the problem still occurs, you may wish to take the system to a shop for a diagnostic check.

See an extreme example.

There is an excellent article explaining this problem in detail and providing instructions for cleaning the PC: Fred Langa

(2) Bad Random Access Memory (RAM) card(s). Sometimes these cards will go bad and when that happens, the system can abruptly shutdown. You can remove the cards and take them to a computer repair shop where they can test the cards in a memory testing machine. They will generally do this at no charge, and assume that if a bad card is found, you will purchase a replacement from their shop.

This page may help you with RAM memory cards: Crucial.com By the way, I've purchased lots of memory cards from Crucial.com and have been very happy with their price and performance.

I hope this helps!

Dwight

Thank you Dwight. Don't think thats the problem, Norton turned up a Trojan virus last night and successfully deleted it. It's not shut down since so hopefully it's ok now! If it does it again, I will look at your suggestions.