Hello Edward,

Could you please provide a little more information? 

1.  What was happening when the system began shutting down on its own?  Was any new hardware or software installed? 

2.  Is it able to boot to Windows? 

3.  Have you run MSFixit?  http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/diagnostics.support.microsoft.com

4.  Does it do the same thing in Safe Mode?

5.  Have you been able to run an antivirus scan?  If not, here are two good free antivirus scans that you can try:

go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID+231276 Microsoft Security Essentials
home.mcafee.com/Downloads/FreeScan.aspx McAfee Free Virus scan

6.  Is it crashing on a particular application?  If so, have you tried to uninstall, reinstall and update that application? 

7.  Have you been able to capture the mini dump files?  Each time the system shuts down on its own, it will create a report in the mini dump files as to the cause of that shut down.  You can run an analysis on the mini dump files to isolate the cause.    To capture the mini dump files:

Right click on My Computer and Open.  Double click on C: drive.  Open the Windows folder and within the folder, you will find the mini dump folder.  Open the mini dump folder.  Copy the files and attach to an email or run them through Blue Screen Viewer (a free download).

8.  Is there any information in the event logs on the system?

9.  How about the diagnostics?  Is the AC adapater, battery inidcator and power button solid on, blinking, solid amber (for the battery) or off?  Is the system providing any beep codes?  If so, how many beeps?  How about the 3 LEDs in front of the system (Off/Hibernate, Standby and On)?  Are they solid on, fluctuating or off?  Have you run the extended test in the Dell diagnostics utility? 

Please let me know what you discover.

~Maureen

#Iwork4Dell