Windows XP Crashing Question
 

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I hope someone has an answer. See, for about the past week, after about 10 hrs. or so of my computer being on, it restarts itself, and when I log back in, I get the "This system has just recovered from a serious error" message box. I want to know if anyone else has had this problem, and if (not) so, is there a fix besides reformatting the hard drive.

I got a Windows XP Home Edition if that explains any.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

I've had similar problems trying to run a game on a resolution that it doesn't like. I'll change the resolution, get quick blue screen, and then it restarts by itself. Then it will come up with that error message when it restarts. If you have the Windows XP disks isn't there a "repair" function if you restart your computer with the cd in? That might help.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Thanks. I'll try that pretty soon, and see what happens :)

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

First off, how about some system specs?

Have you recently changed any components? Installed any new software? Altered the layout of your funiture (and thus the Feng shui of the room)?

Do you have a antivirus and antispyware program(s) running? Bad spyware can cause reboots and system instabilty, espically on certain time intervals when they try to do something 3vil.

Random restarts are just a part of computing these days (and if anyone from the Mac crowd trys to tell me they don't have them I'm laughing. Seriously). When it happens over and over again at set intervals, I start to suspect either a piece of software doing something on a timer or a component overheating.

-Andy A.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

First turn off the auto restart after failure.
Hit windows key+pause break
Go to the advanced tab
go to the settings under startup and recovery
uncheck the automaticlly restart box in the system failure section

Now if it restrts it will stop at the blue screen (if there is one) and you can use it to try and narrow down the problem.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Windows XP Home Edition, COMPAQ Presario 6000, AMD Anthlon XP 2.2 GB, 256 (I believe) meg of memory.

I installed Avant Browser 3 days before this started happening, and I uninstalled it yesterday, and it still has done it. I don't have any anti-virus and anti-spyware programs installed on this computer, I use TrendMicro's online scanner (works pretty good).

Ogre: Thanks, I did that, and I'll see what happens.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

It can never hurt to use one (at least an anti-spyware one - they're free for personal use). I suggest Ad-Aware 6.0 Build 181. Download it from DownLoad.com.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Thanks :) I downloaded it, and now I'm gonna run it.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Make sure you update it first! :)

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

As mentioned there could be several issues that could cause this. I saw Andy A's post mentioning a component heating up and it reminded me of a similar issue I had.
One of the computers I have is an AMD-K6 500mhz that was custom built 3 or 4 years ago. The computer worked fine for a 1 1/2 years but then started randomly rebooting. It could do this several times an hour or not do it for a few days. After making sure all the fans were clear of dust, deleting software and swapping out components to no avail I finally removed the fan from the chip, cleaned both surfaces and readded heat sink compound between the two. To this day the computer has never acted up again. I can't say this is your problem but something you might want to possibly check.
The suggestion to run the Ad-Aware software is good to. I have it on all my computers. Another freeware program I have on all my computers is SpyBot-Search and Destroy. I don't have a website off hand but it should be easy to find.

I found the website for it, link is below.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

[quote=Andy A.]Random restarts are just a part of computing these days (and if anyone from the Mac crowd trys to tell me they don't have them I'm laughing. Seriously).[quote]

Can someone from the Linux crowd laugh at you then, because I've had my Linux server stay on for as long as the power will, and I've had my Linux workstation (with rather insane compiler flags) stay on for several days at a time, only turned off because I wanted to get some sleep ;).

As for Windows, I'd suggest trying to get a copy of either Win2k Pro or XP Pro, as XP Home has plenty of it's own issues, at least from personal experience.

Another Spyware detector is Spybot S&D, I can't remember the website, but I'm pretty sure it's either on Download.com or a quick google search should find it for you, I use it on any Windows computers I have, works like a charm.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

I posted a direct link for Spybot S&D (Search and Destroy) in my previous post yesterday, the one before yours. You are right about it also being available on Download.com. PC World and other computer magazines also had it available for download. Spybot is currently up to version 1.2

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Hey, thanks everyone for their replies. I'm safe to say no restarts today. I've got Ad-aware and SpyBot both on my computer, and both updated. It's helped a lot on CPU speed also.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Watch out using both S&D and AD Aware on the same computer. If you do noy purge your recovery section of the S&D then Ad Aware will see that as still being on your computer and try to mess with it.

If you have Ad Aware on your computer and you go to run S&D then you will get this message. It's really no biggie - that I have noticed anyways.

Re: Windows XP Crashing Question
 

Thanks for the heads up :)