xp spontaneous reboot

[gary]

Computer running xp spontaneously reboots when doing
mundane things like creating a Word document. Reporting
to Microsoft web support returns a message indicating a
driver dll problem. I have updated XP and all drivers.
Problem recurrs.

Any suggestions on what to do would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[neil]

The re-boot is instead of BSOD, if you go to system
properties>advanced>start & recovery you can turn it off. Next time it does
it will show the error message although it might not help to begin with you
could then re-post with the error.
Other things you could try would be to reseat memory, video & audio card,
see if that helps.

Neil

 

[Chris Lanier]

Windows XP Shut Down Issues
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_restart.htm

Troubleshooters for Windows XP Shut Down
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

Computer running xp spontaneously reboots when doing
mundane things like creating a Word document. Reporting
to Microsoft web support returns a message indicating a
driver dll problem. I have updated XP and all drivers.
Problem recurrs.

You have something - by the sound of it a driver -that is crashing,
and the system's 'automatically restart' is cutting in. Turn this off:
in Control Panel - System - Advanced, click Settings in the Startup and
Recovery section. There uncheck 'automatically restart'. You can also
usefully change the 'write debugging information' to (none)

You will probably now get a Blue screen failure instead, but for a
driver failure the bottom line of this will usually indicate the file
involved - something.sys

Look for that in Windows\system32\drivers and r-click it; Take
Properties and the Version page will usually indicate what it is for and
the makers. Go to the maker's site and look for their latest released
(not Beta) drivers for XP, rather than any that may be on Windows Update