Parents computer blanking out, loses data when it does

[MJGunn]

Started last week, my mother was using her computer, the computer freezes, the screen blinks out, goes into power saving mode. She rebooted, and her outlook express inbox (which is what she was working in when the computer froze) was empty, even though she had had quite a few e-mails in there. Its happened a couple of times since then, including twice this morning, and again, it took her inbox with it. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[amdskip]

Have you scanned for spyware and do you have windows updates along with an updated version of anti virus on her computer?

 

[MJGunn]

I'll check with them, but I'm pretty sure they run ad-aware fairly often. As for anti-virus, I know they've got Norton installed, and keep it updated.