WinXP is shutting down for no reason. Help..

[Guest]

Hello

I'm running WindowsXP, and I haven't had any serious problems up until now. A few days ago my computer started shutting down randomly, then re-starting. There were several 'blue screens of death' with various error messages. Each time this happens, it seems to be something different. One told me irql_not_less_or_equal, and other told me there's a problem with some software/hardware i've recently installed. Another time it said "beginning dump of physical memory". Scandisk runs most times the computer re-starts. It has found (and supposedly corrected) errors in the temporary internet files and other locations. I've done a virus scan, and it found nothing. I've searched on the not_less thing, and I've only found that it has something to do with my drivers, and I should re-install those. I don't know how to go about doing this.

I went to Windows Update (to see if i'm missing drivers/service packs, etc). There I found I was missing some stuff, so I attempted downloading and installing it. On the re-start I got a message saying Windows is unable to run because of a corrupt or missing file. Somehow I got around that. My files are all still intact, so the system hasn't crashed entirely.

Any idea what this is? Please email your thoughts to (e-mail address removed)

Regards
Miranda

 

[Guest]

A bad memory stick will cause that. I had a similar issue. runs fine until it needs the memory that is bad and then shuts down and reboots. Check your hardware

Hope this helps

 

[Guest]

I took my computer in to be checked out for the same reasons. They swapped memory and it still acted up. They said it was the profile boot up that the computer didn't like for some reason. With other profiles I really don't have that problem. That means transferring all the programs from my profile desktop to a new one and deleting the old one.
Will that solve the problem? Don't know?