Shutdowns

I've got a Toshiba laptop running XP that is about four years old. Two days ago it started shutting down as if the power button was pressed. This happens randomly during use, generally within 20 minutes or so of boot up. Sometimes when I restart I get the options to Safe Start, or Use Last Known Good Configuration, but not always. Running a Safe Start does not make any difference in the laptop's behavior. At one point I thought that the problem could be related to PCcillin since the scan won't finish before shutting down, but uninstalling and trying again did not change the behavior. Fans are running, and don't appear to be blocked, and I will probably disassemble next. I am getting the impression that it shuts down only when both fans are running at high speed, but have not proven that. I think that the problem may be overheating because if I restart immediately after it shuts down, then it shuts down again more quickly than if I give it a few minutes. Any advice or similar experiences will be much appreciated. If I need to replace hardware, I am not sure where to start. PWee (Sorry - I meant to put this in Hardware…..)

Hey buddy maybe a bit of software like everest will help you see if you are overheating, be warned though on the disassembly laptops are fairly delicate and you could end up forking out if you have not takien care of static