XP Randomly Restarts

[Guest]

I need some help with a problem I'm having with my computer. The problem is
that sometimes my computer restarts all on its own. Then it restarts yet
again as soon as it finishes booting up and is back on the desktop. It has
happened some 5 times in the last month. The last time it happened, i was
getting ready to shut down and i was closing all the programs that were open
when it restarted all by itself. Then the time before that I was on AOL
chatting and I opened Winamp when it happened. So it's nothing specific that
makes it happen. I have an anti-virus program and spyware ones as well...so i
doubt it could be that. Any ideas?

Comp Specs:
XP Home Ed
SP1
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512mb of RAM

 

[Ron Martell]

I need some help with a problem I'm having with my computer. The problem is
that sometimes my computer restarts all on its own. Then it restarts yet
again as soon as it finishes booting up and is back on the desktop. It has
happened some 5 times in the last month. The last time it happened, i was
getting ready to shut down and i was closing all the programs that were open
when it restarted all by itself. Then the time before that I was on AOL
chatting and I opened Winamp when it happened. So it's nothing specific that
makes it happen. I have an anti-virus program and spyware ones as well...so i
doubt it could be that. Any ideas?

Comp Specs:
XP Home Ed
SP1
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512mb of RAM

First of all in order to keep your Windows XP secure you need to
upgrade to SP2 as soon as possible, and to enable the "automatic
updates" function so as to keep it current. You can configure the
automatic updates to just notify you when they are available, or to
download them but not install until you decide to install them, or to
download and install automatically; whichever you wish. But you need
to get those updates.

As for your restarts, use Control Panel - System - Advanced and click
on the Settings button in Startup and Recovery (bottom) section. In
the Startup and Recovery window click on the checkbox for
"automatically restart" to clear it then click on Apply and OK as
needed to exit. That should put an end to the restarts but you may
receive a "Blue Screen Of Death" STOP error message instead. If so
then the contents of the BSOD including any STOP code and the 4
associated parameters plus any file or module names mentioned will be
a direct clue as to the underlying cause of your problems. Post that
information back here if you need further assistance with that.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm