Unexpected reboot. Lose Norton

[Bikesavage]

I am running XP Home in an HP. About 5 to 10 times a
week, my PC screen flicks black and restarts. Even if I'm
not using it. No warning. Norton is gone from taskbar on
restart and has to be recovered with HP program recover,
then totally updated from scratch. Norton says check
Windows, Microsoft says check HP, HP says it's windows.
If it reboots when I'm out of the room, I don't always
notice that the virus protection is gone. It's enough to
trash this new paperweight. No viruses. Scanned and
checked with auto back turned off, no error messages,
nothing.....just restart.....Norton gone. Sick of
reloading. Happening for a few months. HELP!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Open Control Panel, open System, go to the Advanced tab, click Settings
under Startup and Recovery, remove the check from Automatically Restart
under System Failure. This will cause the system to blue screen instead of
restart. The message on the blue screen may give a clue as to the source of
the problem.

If your system is clear of viruses, open Control Panel, open Administrative
Tools, open Event Viewer, look for errors corresponding to the crash, double
click the error, the information contained within may give a clue as to the
source of the problem.

Download the Upgrade Advisor from the following site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
Note: If you have access to a broadband connection it might be best to
download using that as this is a rather large download. Once downloaded,
run it on your system, it may find some hardware or software compatibility
issues that might be the source of the issue.

Check for the latest drivers for your hardware, especially your graphics
card and soundcard and all peripherals connected to your system. No not use
Windows Update for this, go to the device manufacturer's web sites and if
you install updated drivers, ignore the message about drivers being unsigned
by Microsoft.

 

[John Dingley]

One other point - when your machine "crashes" or closes in an uncontrolled
way, it takes ages for norton to come back up - but it will - leave it for
about 10 mins.