text: why does my computer shut down on me?? i am really scared when that happens. i am really scared at night hen all the lights are turned off cause on my moditor it is all sorts of colors on it. and it makes like a screaming kind of sound. i am reall scared! there are many reasons why this could be happening. to give you a more appropriate answer, you would have to be much more specific. for instance, do you have a widows based computer or a mac? (if it's crashing i'm assuming windows). :p  what operating system is installed (ex. windows 95, windows 98, windows me, windows 2000, windows xp, etc.)  next, we need to know what kind of hardware you have.  is this a dell, gateway, ibm?  what kind of software is installed on the machine?  for now, i'll give you some ideas.  perhaps your computer is freezing due to some software you added that is causing problems.  when did the crashes start? if you did not have crashes until after you installed or downloaded a program, that may be the problem. try to remember, and uninstall any programs that you don't use or need.    spyware/adware/malware can cause problems for your computer as well. try to use programs that can detect these and remove them from your system. some examples are: spybot search & destroy, adaware and microsoft's antispyware.  do you have a good virus scanning program installed?  viruses can cause problems for your computer. some examples of antivirus software are: norton antivirus, panda antivirus, mcaffee antivirus there are also some free versions out there if you look for them, like avg.  these are all software based things to troubleshoot, however, you could also have a hardware problem, like bad sectors on your hard drive or bad memory.  that may not help you or be too much for you to think about right now.  if so, here is a sure fire solution:  turn your computer off before you go to bed.  good luck!