My laptop has been overtaken by something. The thing is, once I boot it up it only stays on for about 30 seconds before it shuts its self down. I can't access anything long enough to figure out what is wrong. What do I have? And how do I keep it on long enough to fix the problem?
I have a Gateway (don't laugh) running windows XP & Intel Celeron processor. I don't know if that info. helps

Jared, October 2006

Try running the computer in safe mode, to do this, when you switch on your laptop keep pressing either F7 or F8, a DOS screen may appear giving you the option to start in safe mode. When windows starts in safe mode go into start, control panel and re-start the computer to an earlier date to when the problem started. I'm sorry if this does'nt help.

William Cushway, December 2006