No expert myself, but my first thought is 'heat'.
Given the age of this laptop I bet you've never cleaned it? A spontaneous shutdown is often a sign of overheating and that could mean the air vents are clogged up. It's a relatively easy thing to resolve in a Desktop PC, but not so in a laptop.
However, have a look at Bob (Proffitt's), guidelines in the Laptop Troubleshooting forum sticky thread here;
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19681_102-0.html?messageID=3196452#3196452
(Post #6)
Post #7 might be useful as well.
Other than that, what is this "Registry Easy" program you have installed? We often here horror stories of so called "Registry cleaners and Optimisers", and tend to suggest users stay away from them.
Mark
hello, today while "browsing" the web, I suffered 2 seperate "spontaneous shut downs", where the screen went black, and the laptop shut down ... for no apparent reason. Obviously , I was able to re-start, and continue. I use an aircard connection, and Gateway laptop 2008 vintage.It is a "lower priced" grade of laptop,but generally adequate for my use ... I was using Norton anti-virus, but just this past week subscribed to "Registry Easy" , which I was told would help my ability to download the Ebay program, which until recently , I could not do.I am still having problems downloading programs, even when my aircard signal strength "meter" reads I am at full strength.I am not a "whiz-bang" kinda guy with computer tech, but I do have a legitimate interest in making my computer run well.I don't use my laptop to download music, or play online games.I run scans frequently, and de-frag regularly as well. Can someone please advise me on what else I can do to optimize the performance, while also protecting from the evil things one can open their computer up to while being online ? Thanx, I'll be back to check, and update on progress.

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