Video Driver - Computer Shuts Down

Hello,

I have Dell Inspiron 1501 and it shuts down when I start playing online videos. I am guessing it's a video driver problem. Can someone please help!

did you try to update your video driver?
If not..... give it a try first

What is the Operating System you are using? Also you can download the driver for your video card from here.

Hi, i think its the video card, update your video card drivers. also test another card out and try to see if its the motherboard.

Thank you, Everyone!
I am using Windows Vista. I did try to update my video driver using Dell website. It didn't help. When my computer was under warranty, tech people updated drivers and it worked for 2 months. And then it started again... right after my warranty expired. How do I test if it's my motherboard? Also, do I need to install drivers or a simple update is enough? Thanks soo much!!!

First....got to find out what kind you have....eg. nvidia,....ati,....intel?
should be listed in device manager.
then go to the mfg site to see if there is an update.
first ....let us know what kind and the deiver version.
Then we'll see from there.

What is your default video software? I would look at that application first. You may also have under system in the Control Panel/Advanced/startup and recovery, "resart after system failure" checked. Uncheck that and you will maybe be able to troubleshoot better as the system should stop shutting down when the problem is encountered.

Are you trying to play videos on older version of firefox? FF is famous for memory consumption the longer you surf. However it have been improved a hell of a lot more in FF3. But if it was your memory then I expect you operating system to give you a warning when it goes low. If this happens late after starting to buffer the movie or when having multiple movies only it might be memory consumption getting too high to run all processes.

If your CPU is running at over 60 degrees you might be at risk of burning it out. Some systems shut down automatically when the temperature reaches an unsafe level.
I open my system unit and clean the fins on the heat sink that sits under the CPU. When they collect dust it restricts the airflow and prevents proper cooling. I just did that on my system and the CPU temperature dropped by ten degrees!

In my opinion as long as the computer can stay working for days so that i think its not related to temperature and to make sure you can try to play a movie or whatelse. If it is related to temperature you should hear an alarm from the motherboard and then it'll shutdown, and then the problem is probably related to microprocessor.

And also as long as it's done while playing so it maybe related to VGA and as unidentified said .. you should know or tell your PC specifications to be able to decide which part is responsible for such problems.