Unexpected shutdown and reboot

[John Butler]

Last week my PC suddenly rebooted whitest browsing the Net with IE6.
I was logged into a site that sends animated Christmas cards for a small
fee:and I had opened MSN\Address Book and was copying email addresses to the
address book provided by the vendor.
There was a "pop" from the speakers, the PC shutdown instantly - power
was still being supplied to the monitor and the PC from a Smart UPS - and
rebooted into Windows XP Pro +SP2. The only indication that something had
gone wrong after the reboot completed was a message from Object Desktop that
it had exited incorrectly and did I want to reload the previous theme or
start with a fresh theme.
There were no red flags in the event log.
I would be so grateful if any one can indicate whether this is likely to be
a hardware fault or the result of a software conflict?

Hi All,

My system is a four month old workstation briefly it is the work station
for a small network

Gigabyte 8PENXP Dual DDR
Intel Pentium 4HT 3,066MHz dual
L1 Trace cache = 12K, L1 Data cache 8KB, L2 cache 512KB
Internet Connection via Netgear Wireless Router 4MBs cable
Windows Security Centre Disabled, NAV 2005 enabled, ZoneAlarm 5.5 enabled
RAM 3.5Gb
HDD 2 X 120Gb Seagate Sata non-RAID
Intel 100) CTEthernet card
Netgear Wireless Router MR8 v142
This system is the host for a wireless network for several laptops none of
which were affected.

I just cannot guess what happened.

John

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

From what you have described, it sounds like your system is set to shut-down
and restart when your system encounters an error. To change this behavior,
navigate to the Control Panel/Performace and Maintenance/System. Click on
the Advanced tab on System Properties. Under Startup and Recovery click on
the Settings button. Under System Failure remove the check for Automatically
restart.

 

[chanmmn]

I think for funny behavior is good for you to indicate like do you have
antivirus install, are you running personal firewall. Check for all that
first because today virus is just as powerful.

chanmm

 

[John Butler]

Darrell,

Thanks for your message. My system was indeed set like that, so I have
disabled it and the memory dump setting as well.

John

 

[Bill James]

If the problem doesn't recur then it's probably not something to worry too much about. Could have been a unique combination of apps running at the time, or just about anything. Maybe related to the web site you were visiting and an ActiveX control they started, but probably not. It could also have been an overheating problem, which might happen again if the system is put under enough load, so you might want to check the fans and dust accumulation. But, again, if the system has been stable and you don't see this happen again, it's probably nothing to be concerned about.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User

Windows VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/

 

[John Butler]

Darrell

Thanks you were right. I have followed your advice!

I have researched the topic and found that SINCE SP2, auto logging of
system faults encountered while browsing the web is disabled by default and
if the page file is not set to C: and if system is set to shut-down and
restart when your system encounters an error, the PC will reboot

John

 

[Guest]

John,

I'm glad to hear that it worked. Merry Christmas!