HT1767 my imac shuts down within 30 seconds of starting up

It starts up, I get a grey screen and apple symbol, and within 30 seconds is shuts off.
What's up.  I unplugged it, held down the power button while plugging back in.  Turned it on and the same thing.
What should I do?

It is an imac from 2008.
info screen says
processor 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo
memory 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Mac OS X
version 10.5.2
I got this info from a duplicate machine that was purchased at the same time.  Not sure if down machine is running a newer OS version though.

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