That could very well be a hardware problem.  And with a new system, I would suspect that the CPU heatsink either is not installed properly or the heat sink compound was not applied properly.  Intel CPU's have an internal thermal sensor and if the CPU overheats it will shut itself off. 

Open the case, with the PC powered off, and check the heatsink assembly and make sure it's tight.  Since this is a new system, you may want to contact Dell support with the shutdown problem.   I seriously doubt that it's a software issue or Vista and if you have XP it would probably be doing the same thing.

Is there a utility that will allow me to check the temp of the CPU?  It seems odd that it would happen consistently with the same software action.  Makes me think software more than hardware issue.

I think the XPS systems have the ability to monitor the CPU temp (many Dell's do not).  Download "speedfan" and see what it tells you.

I've seen Roxio cause a lot of problems, but not cause systems to power off.

There should be a Dell diagnostic partition on the hard drive (I think F12 or CTRL/F12 will access it at boot up). Run the full set of diagnostics and see if it shows up anything.

I ran all diagnostics supplied on the Dell diagnostic partition, and all came back normal.

I also downloaded and ran a CPU temp monitoring application.  My cores never exceeded 38C.

While I still can't rule out a hardware issue, this really is seeming like a software related issue.  After some additional online research, I did find another user with a similar problem that occured when they ran Roxio's MyDVD.  Perhaps some sort of badly written codec?

As I noted before, I've seen a lot of problems with Roxio software (so many bugs that I quit using Roxio and went to Nero for CD/DVD burning) but never something to cause a PC shutdown.

You should have the Windows DVD Maker, try it on making a DVD and see if it shuts down with the Windows program.

Yes.  A while back I had purchased My DVD for an older XP system.  The software was so bad and caused so many problems I ended up uninstalling it and returning it.  I was hoping by now they would have stabilized it a bit, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I installed a Lite version of ULead's DVD MovieMaker that came with my camera and that converted and burned no problem, so I'm feeling a bit more relieved now.  Nothing more disconcerting that facing the prospect of a hardware failure on a brand new system.

How do you like Nero?  Also, this might be a bit off topic, but do you have any experience with converting analog video to digital?  Any recommendations on external USB devices or internal cards for connecting analog camcorders and VCRs to my Vista system?

Thanks again for your input.

I don't do a lot of Video, most of my burning is music, as I'm also a musician and have a home computer based recording studio.  I've been using Nero, for several years.  The last Roxio I had is V8, for XP, and it was buggy and none of the modules were really stable.  I went to Vista and V8 wasn't compatible anyway.  Nero is getting "fat" and has some "bloatware" in it (not really needed functions) but it's still the best burning package. I have CD burning buit into my professional recording software (Cakewalk Sonar 8) but the "experts" on the Sonar forum all tell me not to use the built in burning and that Nero is the best option.

I do have a DVDXpress USB interface (that comes with a recording program) that I've used to input analog video from a camcorder and from a VCR to the PC, and it works fine.  If it's just for short video's the PC is OK but if you want to convert VHS movies to DVD you are better off buying a standalone DVD recorder.  It ties up the PC for a long time, with the recording and then the burning.  Standalone DVD burners are relatively cheap, now.

I had the same problem with an E6500 that I recently purchased. The problem seems to have been resolved by changing the SATA from Intel Rapid Restore Technology (IRRT) to standard AHCI. There is no performance loss when making that change. Downside is that you lose RAID features and have to reinstall the OS.