As per thread title.

It happened a few weeks ago, once last week and again today. PC had only been on for an hour or so.

Operating system is Windows XP Pro - and the computer has lots of cooling equipment stuff fitted inside it (no idea what as I'm not a teckie)

It's well ventilated (well, it's in a big cupboard underneath my desk) and otherwise runs spot on.

Please bear in mind when replying that I'm not a computer geek - so be gentle with me in terms of terminology. :)

It is likeley one of a couple of things.

A) Heat
B) Your PSU could be dieing
C) Your RAM could be dieing

any other signs, like errors before it restarts..???

i remember there bieng an ntl virus a few yrs ago.... effected most ntl users.... including me.

this gave you something like 20 secs before closing down, then restart.

It could be a program causing a serious program error which could be causing a system reset. There is a setting which stops it from rebooting when this happens, so it displays a page showing the error.

Right click on your 'My Computer' icon & select properties. I think the option is near the bottom on the right hand tab, but I'm not sure of that because it's a while since I used a PC with windows on it (I run Linux on my computers at home).

I'm sure Ghozer can point you to the exact location.

Try doing this, it wont stop your computer from crashing, but it may very well give you a clue as to why.

Right click on ''My Computer''
Select 'Properties'
Click on the 'Advanced' Tab

Then under 'Startup and recovery' section click 'Settings'

Look down the list of options that have tick boxes, the bottom one is ''Automatically restart' make sure this is UNTICKED.

Click 'OK' the 'OK' again to close the system properties box, then carry on using your computer as normal.

Now next time it crashes you will get a blue screen instead of a auto re-start (you may have seen this before), Carefully note down what it says (there are sometimes clues into what the problem is, I identified a driver update once from this information)

Then post what it says back here, we may be able to offer some suggestions

C

Another tip: If your computer is constantly rebooting so you can't get into it to turn the error restarting off, video the boot sequence with a video camera or digital camera. By freeze-framing the video you can often read the bluescreen that gets displayed for a fraction of a second.

I've done this on several occasions.

As said it could be software or hardware, if you click control panel > then administrator tools > event viewer/log it may give you an indication of what could be causing it. Failing that you may need to diagnose hardware faults; I'd download a program for measuring temperature etc. and then there are other tools we could point you to to test various bits and bobs.

Another tip: If your computer is constantly rebooting so you can't get into it to turn the error restarting off, video the boot sequence with a video camera or digital camera. By freeze-framing the video you can often read the bluescreen that gets displayed for a fraction of a second.

Or when you see the blue screen you could press the pause/break key,this pauses the boot process.

Then when you want to continue with booting just press the Print Screen/System Request key.:thumbsup:

any other signs, like errors before it restarts..???

i remember there bieng an ntl virus a few yrs ago.... effected most ntl users.... including me.

this gave you something like 20 secs before closing down, then restart.

Not a sausage. Just disappears in an instant.

Try doing this, it wont stop your computer from crashing, but it may very well give you a clue as to why.

Right click on ''My Computer''
Select 'Properties'
Click on the 'Advanced' Tab

Then under 'Startup and recovery' section click 'Settings'

Look down the list of options that have tick boxes, the bottom one is ''Automatically restart' make sure this is UNTICKED.

Click 'OK' the 'OK' again to close the system properties box, then carry on using your computer as normal.

Now next time it crashes you will get a blue screen instead of a auto re-start (you may have seen this before), Carefully note down what it says (there are sometimes clues into what the problem is, I identified a driver update once from this information)

Then post what it says back here, we may be able to offer some suggestions

C

I've done that - so we'll see what happens next time. Thanks. :)

I'm sorry I havent' replied to everyone, but either it's not relevant, or I don't understand some of what you've said.

Hey, we all have our strengths - and computers aint one of mine...;)