my laptop switches off in the middle of use what could cause this?
404922
It may be over-heating
599890
You never turn off a PC by the switch or by unplugging it. You risk corrupting the hard drive. Which is what probably happened.\n\nYou may have no choice but to format and re-load.
900198
<>There are issues with some laptop batteries overheating and causing fires.  I suggest you call Dell support and tell them about this ASAP.
675471
From just the information you provided, it sounds like your battery ran down.  Plug into an outlet and see if you can turn on.  If so, charge your battery overnight and your problem will be resolved.  If you can't turn on while plugged into an outlet, you will need service to your laptop.
363560
I had this problem before, I fixed it by reseting the bios to it's defaults, unfortunately I never did find out exactly what bios setting was causing it though. You can take a look under the "power management" section of your bios and see if you can find it, or just do like I did and reset it to defaults.
257161
I heard that happening with some anti virus software.\nTry shutting down after deactivating the software.\n\nIf that doesnt help try finding out if its a hardware problem.\nGet a program called "end it all" which will close down all running applications and your computer should shut down, if it doesnt then its a hardware thing.
934414
try going to control panel and then performance and maintenance and then power options. there's settings here that prolong the life of the battery so try changing your power scheme if it's set for max battery maybe?
276219
Why not check the simplest thing first. Go to Control Panel and select Power Management. Check the entry Standbymodus - is there a time defined? If yes, set it to none or never.
958302
yea this has happened to me before i think it has to do with your power supply, is this an older PC?  Pretty sure its the power supply shorting out a Lil and making it think its restarting
395007
Another common cause of sudden shut-down is overheating. If your laptop is making a lot of noise when it goes down, this may be the problem (or, if your fan is broken, if it doesn't make any noise...). Sometimes these temperatures can be checked in the BIOS, take a look when you restart immediately after it shut down. There are also some programs available for free on the net that can monitor your system temperature.
230512
There is a piece of hardware in the back of the computer called a Power Supply. It converts the electricity from the wall into something the computer can handle. The Power Supply also has a off switch. If you hit that all electricity ceases to your computer, thus making it impossible for the computer to turn on. When that light is on it means the computer is receiving electricity.
942152
I had the same problem. Is was an electrical surge from my power source. Caused by  the fan motor in the processor. I had the motor replaced and it is back to normal.
271989
perhaps your bios battery discharged.
925149
It's either your power cable/power adapter, a bad power connector on the motherboard, or a bad CPU/CPU fan. I had a dell inspiron something or another and my power connector on my motherboard broke so it would not turn on unless I had it a certain way but as soon as I moved it or bumped it, it would shut back off. If it doesn't power on, I'd say get rid of the Dell and go with something more reliable like HP, Toshiba, or Sony (just to name a few) Look on ebay or tigerdirect, or hp/gateway/etc for used laptops.  Good luck with fixing the hunk of junk from Dell.
580663
Are you turning the computer OFF or STANDBY?
75014
Remove the battery and try just ac. I've had some laptops stop working because the battery had no charge. If that doesn't work, get it serviced.
1187388
the computer turns off, because you might be eitehr using MS windows 2000 or MS Windows XP service pack 1 which had lot of errors. USe MS_windows XP Service PAck 2 for the computer to run better. Hope it solves your problem, enjoy.