computer automatically restarts

[Tbag]

when i copy a bunch of images from my digital camera to a folder the computer restarts itself halfway through tranfering and the same happens for my mp3 player, i then have to copy about 4 images at a time for it to work and the same goes for the mp3 player.
It also restarts itself halfway through large file downloads.

why is this?

[TJohns]

I was having that sort of issue on a machine at school who's CPU fan had died - it would run fine with general word processing or browsing, but throw an intensive task at it (ours was color printing on an attached inkjet) and it'd give up the ghost!

Trev

[ChrissyBoy]

Could also be a disk issue. Grab http://www.hdtune.com and see if it can find any issues.

[classfour]

Definitely sounds like something heating up. I'd try doing a defrag on the hard drive first just to see if that helps. If not, open the case and clean out any dust from the RAM and CPU. Boot with the case open, make sure the fans are turning. If all fans are turning, hard drive is defragged, inside is clean; it might be the CPU thermal paste needs a re-application - use a good brand.