Emachine winxp 'booting' off

original problem

my son plays on runescape and now my computer kicks off whenever he's playing & makes this beeping noise until we turn it off. We made him quit playing.

bigger problem
now, my computer kicks off whenever I try to run my antivirus/spam

I have AntiVir PE for anti virus and spybot for spyware removal.

I have tried running these in safe mode & it still kicks off & starts beeping until we shut it off.

I tried running http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and you guessed it, it kicks off & starts beeping
(I hope I'm calling it the right 'kicks off' and 'beeping' I don't mean to sound dumb here!)

how can I get my antivirus/antispam to work with it kicking off?

I can get online & everything just fine (other than runescape), what can I do?

thanks ahead of time.

*I don't know what all I need to include to ask this question I hope this is enough

It could be overheating; everything you mentioned that sets it off just happens to add load to your processor, etc. A good start would be to open the case and remove the built-up dust bunnies with a can of compressed air, then start the computer and check for fan operation on the processor heatsink.

The model number of that eMachines unit would help.

thanks for the suggestions! I will try that now!

here are the numbers

W3050
S/n CA74B10017118

I found the motherboard for your computer (I assumed you have the desktop W3050).

http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache...s&client=opera

There's really not much you can do, aside from cleaning out the dust and making sure the heatsink fan on the CPU is running. There's probably no case fan in the back, and the chipset just has a heatsink - basic cooling.

One thing you could do is to check in the BIOS for a thermal limit/overheat warning setting. There may not be one, but if there is make sure it's not set so low that any activity at all is enough to set off the thermal warning. It should be around 85°-90°C. (I've seen them as low as 48°, usually by accident.)

the cleaning worked like a charm!!!!!!!!!! thanks!

You might also want to check the label on the power supply. If it says Bestec, now would be a good time to replace it before it fails and takes out the motherboard. That brand is infamous for doing that.