HP pavilion a6500f PC keeps restarting by itself.

My HP Pavilion a6500f PC running on windows vista home premium keeps restarting by itself. I have tried using system restore and even restoring it to its factory edition. I have also cleaned out the cooling fans thoroughly and ran Norton internet security system scan that found a few "minor" problems but was not able to complete before it restarted again. The time between restarts varies from a minute to a few hours. i am not very experienced with computers, but i know a few things.

Welcome
Bottom line, there is a problem and very well may be hardware
Make a memory test
Make a hard drive test.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/246994-guide-to-using-memtest86/

Test Hard Drive www.carrona.org/hddiag.html or this test www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Finally, take this test it might pick up a problem
http://windows.microsoft.com/upgradeadvisor

I just turned it on for a couple minutes and it is now giving me a blue screen saying the system encountered an uncorrectable hardware error. This is not the first time I got this message, I'll keep it up if you need more info from it.

I tried again and did a couple of the scans and downloaded a couple updates and i found this in Problems and Solutions:
Shut down unexpectedly
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Files that help describe the problem
Mini010107-01.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt
View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer.
Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: FFFFFA80074C43F0
BCP3: 00000000B2000040
BCP4: 0000000000000800
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Im sorry 124 is the most difficult to diagnose, there is a proforma response, which covers it all
Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try - Windows 7 Forums
Start with the suggestions in my above post.

Try to give us the actual reports as suggested.

I'm sorry but there is no way I can do as suggested on a computer that restarts by itself. Is there any other information you can give me on what the problem is? And also would I be able to get it fixed at a store like office depot?

You can probably turn off automatic restart
Automatic Restart Vista - How To Disable the Automatic Restart on System Failure in Windows Vista

I did that before but I double checked it and it was unchecked. Any more ideas? By the way thanks for the info you have given me

Not much that I can do from here. Im limited by what you tell me and my distance from the computer.
I have to go with hardware (I feel that it is). The only remaining steps if it hardware is have a friend, help. You can use the 124 code post that I gave you as a guideline or bring it into the shop. I dont know how to test if it will not even boot.

hello vistauser99
One thing you could do is Check your system for hardware changes,or any new hardware,Even if you know you have not.
As well as uninstall your Anti Virus,Let your system restart, when restarting You want to enter in Safe Mode With Networking By Tapping the Function8 Key (F8) about every one second to get to the advanced start up opts. When there scroll down w/ your arrow keys and choose SMWN and press enter.

Here you would want to use Command Prompt(CMD) In the "RUN" Menu option>in Accessories, Run in elevated session(As Administrator) type in Command prompt> chkdsk \r and at the prompt type( y )then enter,
This will check your HDD for errors when it restarts. Try this As well as Command in (CMD) SFC \scannow