I have a Tohsiba Laptop i've had it for about 2 1/2 years when i turn it on it saids toshiba and then it said windows XP but it just shuts off after that, do i need to buy a new hardrive or what??
i have use laptop for many years and i'd like to reach it very much , so in my opinion if your battery is all right,then the most possible is that there is some thins wrong with your hardrive, may be you should have a new hardrive
The other reason I've seen this is that your CPU heatsink fins are clogged with dust. Especially since you said this was an older laptop. It usually gets hot enough just when Windows starts to load that it shuts down from thermal protection. I would suggest getting a can of pressurized air, blow in from where the hot air leaves the laptop, you'd be amazed how much dust comes out of there.