HP laptop Vista starts up and shuts right down

computer was seen first with a "courderoy" type looking screen, shut computer down and let it rest. Then when starting back up, it just kept shutting down, then start up, then shut down.

Hi, could you tell a bit more, please?

When exactly in the boot process does the computer shut down? Do you see Vista starting up at all? If it doesn´t even make it to a Vista screen, you probably have some hardware error that makes the computer unable to boot. In that case you need to see some local technician. Could be a memory problem or whatnot.

If however, the computer starts to load Vista and quits from there, you have a Windows problem. In that case please try and let us know if you can start in safe mode (restart computer and just before Vista starts loading tap the F8 key a couple of times).