This started about 3 months ago. I turned on my computer and just got the amber light. My daughter suggested that I unplug the computer for a minute and plug it in again. That worked and I thought that it was just a computer thing, but it happened a few more times and I decided to not turn off the computer and leave it on all the time. That seemed to work for a while. About 2 weeks ago it went off during the night. I did the plug thing and it went on, but it seems to be happening more and more often. Yesterday was the first time it went off while I was using it. Just shut down with no warning. I've checked all the connections and everything seems fine. My printer and speaker don't go off when the computer does. My computer is 5 years old and I was thinking of getting a new one, but I'm not quite ready yet. Does anyone have any notion of why it shuts itself down sometimes? Thanks

My guess is your power supply is going bad.
They aren't very expensive to replace if you can do it yourself.

Jenny, what exactly is my power supply? Is it the plug, is it something inside the tower, is it the power strip that I have everything plugged into? Sorry to be so dumb.

Its inside the tower toward the back where the power cables goes.Here is an example---
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153113 )

I guess it could be a variety of things, but standard procedure in a case like this is BACK UP YOUR FILES NOW! The only other simple thing I can suggest is something is over heating. Open your case and make sure all the cooling fans are working, There are several, case cooling fans, CPU cooler fan, chipset fans, and video card cooling fan. While you're at it, check if there's piles of dust and pet fur clogging anything up. If your case has an air filter make sure its clean too. One thing you can try is leave the case cover off and see if that helps. In most cases it will drop the temps. If you feel uncomfortable with any of this, you might want to seek local hands on help. At the local computer shop here it costs $35 just to put it on the bench. Not sure from there, I've never done it. Sorry I couldn't help more.

Albert

That happened to me on my old windows 98 computer...It was the fan...The unit was over heating...I had the fan changed ,and it worked fine...

Make sure you clean off the dust or hairs on the breather cabinet, ...Back of the unit ,and front..

Thanks everybody for the input. I'll be sure to check on everything you all said. I'm so glad that GameBoomers exists because there's always someone here that helps me.