OT: Random Reboots

[Suicide Junkie]

XP likes to reboot to hide the fact that is just hit a bluescreen error.

Somewhere in the settings, you should be able to turn that off, and then at least you'll have a chance that the bluescreen message will hint at the problem.

[Fyron]

System Properties (right click on My Computer and select Properties) > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery, disable "Automatically Reboot." From the blue screen, you can almost always see what the problem was, in a roundabout fashion. There will usually be a driver file listed, which you can track down to see which piece of hardware is causing the crashes (if it is a hardware problem).

Every so many months, I seem to get random reboot problems lasting for a few days, which inexplicibly disappear. I have never been able to figure out what causes them.

[Thermodyne]

Several worms can do this. You got SP2 and all the updates on it? Also, there might be an answer in the logs. Take a look and post tem if you are not sure.

[Kamog]

I sometimes get random reboots if I play games and don't restart the computer every so often. I have Windows ME. I shut down and power up my computer every day and also try to reboot the computer every time before I start playing certain games to avoid this problem.

[El_Phil]

A mate had random reboots for no obvious reason and it was an overheating processor which was cutting out when the temperature was too high. He cleaned out the fan and heatsink and it was fine.