My computer randomly shuts down. No warning just a black screen. It then tries to restart and locks up before the windows is starting screen. I'm confused. If anyone has a few minutes to help me out I would appreciate it. Does it shut down or reboot?It reboots, or tries to and locks upDownload BlueScreenView:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
unzip downloaded file and double click on BlueScreenView.exe to run the program.
when scanning is done, GO to EDIT - Select All
Go to FILE - SAVE Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt
Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all of the content, and paste it into your next replyI downloaded the program, had no errors when I opened it the first time. Should I wait for next crash to find errors?No. If that's the case then you're almost certainly looking at a hardware problem. The three most likely culprits are the power supply, ram or the hd. The last two are easy enough to check:

1) To check the ram, download memtest (http://www.memtest.org/). Burn it to a cd using a dedicated .iso burning UTILITY (http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm), make sure the cd drive is at the top of the boot order in bios, then boot to the newly created cd and run the utility.

2) Right-click on a command prompt icon and open as administrator. In the command prompt window type:chkdsk /r  (then press ENTER). You'll be told the disk is in use and asked if you want to run checkdisk on the next boot. Say yes, exit the command prompt window, and reboot.

3) To check the power supply you need to replace it with a new one.I ran the memtest, that passed. I just built this computer, so the power supply should be ok, key word "should". Its been a few years since I've built one so I'm wondering if I missed something.What brand PSU ? ?
I've SEEN them flakey right outta the box.

Easiest test is to swap a known good one in there of the same or greater wattage...Thermaltake TR2-600wTheir units are generally well built....still wouldn't hurt to test just to rule it out as a culprit...I will look into that option. Only thing I didnt buy when I built this was my video card. It is a few years old and have been wondering if that could be that cause. If so I SEE BUYING one soon anyways.Could be...
But you have the same option as with the PSU...borrow a known good one and swap it in there...

Don't spend cabbage you don't have to...I hear you. The finding one to try is the hard part. Everyone I know gets a BestBuy special but I will see what I can find.The black screen error is caused due to faulty registry settings and improper registry keys. It is recommended to use the registry cleaner software in the system that will help in deleting the faulty entries from the registry. The registry entries might have been created because of malware infection when connected with Internet. The user should download the registry cleaner software only from the genuine website and it must be of the latest version.You can safely ignore the advice above...