ongoing unpredictable "crashes"

[Mike Heymann]

Have ongoing problem with system crashes mostly on but
also offline. Offline crashes often occur while running
antivirus software but at differing points of a scan.
Sometimes the system will "doublecrash" during process of
rebooting. Crashes will almost always occur when trying
to dig out detail of crashes via XP itself. Online scan
via Symantec's website says no viruses. After all
crashes and auto reboot...window always appears &
says "system recovered from serious error". File detail
of error always the same...sent several on to Microsoft
but no response or feedback. Need more proactive way to
find and cure the problem but my HP software support
folks don't have any suggestions either other than
sending the generic error reports on to Microsoft.

 

[Roger Abell]

In the System Properties (r-click properties under
My Computer) go to the advanced tab and click on
the startup and recovery options where you can set
the system not to Automatically reboot.
With it set this way, when it next crashes it should
leave you with a screen showing the stop code and
some traceback info. From these you have a chance
of determining what component is malfunctioning.