Computer Reboots Unexpectedly

[JamesJ]

A couple times this morning my computer rebooted on it's own.
I scanned my system for viruses and found none. I formatted my
hard drive yesterday and installed a full version of xp. I'm having
problems with a couple of my office programs particularly Access 2003.
The reboots occurred when Outlook 2003 was open and I was
clicking on a button. I can't seem to duplicate the reboot now.

Any help will be appreciated.
James

 

[Will Denny]

Hi James

If you don't see any error messages, right click on My Computer, select
Properties and then the Advanced tab. Click on Settings under Startup and
Recovery and disable 'Automatically restart'. Next time your PC reboots,
you should see a Blue Screen. Could you please post the Stop Code from the
BSOD?

Also, please have a look in the Event Viewer to see if any entries there may
refer to the problem.

 

[JamesJ]

I disabled the 'Automatic restart'. What is the BSOD? I'm the
only person using this computer so I don't go into any of the
administrative areas.

Thanks,
James

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

If your PC is rebooting you may be missing seeing a Blue Screen - aka Blue
Screen Of Death (BSOD). Disabling 'Auto restart' could show that screen
with an error number on. That in turn could help isolate the rebooting
problem.

If you're not seeing that screen - the Event Viewer may show something.
From Start>Run type

eventvmr.msc

Expand the entries in the left column and look for any 'Error' details.

 

[JamesJ]

I don't see that blue screen, all goes black and restarts.
I don't understand these .msc files. When I try to run one xp
can't find it. I copied eventvmr.msc and pasted it into
Start>Run and xp didn't find it.

James

 

[Will Denny]

Sorry - that should be

eventvwr.msc

 

[JamesJ]

The first one looked fine to me. Ok, enough of this.
I did fine sevgeral warnings with the source as 'userenv'
I don 't know if they coincided with the reboot
but I'll change 'Automatic restart' back to see.

James

 

[Will Denny]

Hi James

Is this the one:

http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=1090&source=userenv

 

[JamesJ]

Ok. Doesn't look awful. It seems two apps were trying to
do something to the registry at the same time.

Thanks much,
James

 

[Alex Nichol]

The first one looked fine to me. Ok, enough of this.
I did fine sevgeral warnings with the source as 'userenv'
I don 't know if they coincided with the reboot
but I'll change 'Automatic restart' back to see.

If you turned off the auto-restart then the likelihood is that the
machine is rebooting at a lower level because of a hardware failure -
maybe over heating (check the CPU fan is running enthusiastically),
maybe faulty RAM

 

[JamesJ]

Aha! A bad video driver. After unselecting the Auto Reboot
I got the BSOD and it told me what file was causing it.
All fine now

Thanks
James