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WEIRD random reboots in WinXP

K

Kango

Member
Hi there. I've been running my current computer for about 18 months now, and since last week it's been acting really weird.

The thing is, last week it started rebooting itself occasionally. But ONLY when I'm out of the room and not paying attention it. When I go to dinner and come back, sometimes it's rebooted and at the WinXP login screen. Sometimes I come back from the bathroom and it's rebooted. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. It has never ever rebooted on me while I've been using it... and I use it a lot! I coded for 12 hours straight the other day, with no interruptions. But when I went to bed and woke up it had rebooted again! If it'd just reboot on me while I'm using it I might be able to figure out what's causing it.

I know it's not a problem that can be easily diagnosed with the details that you guys have, but do you have any suggestions about ways I could further investigate? I almost feel like my roommate is playing tricks on me, but it's happened a few times when he's at class. Ugh. This is the least sensical computer problem I've ever had. Rebooting without rhyme or reason, ONLY when I'm not there to see it. Geez. WEIRD.
 
have you checked the event viewer for any error messages?
you arent getting small power brownouts by chance, are you?
 
Hi Kamgo. I had the same thing happen to me, but on Win2K, and it took a while for me to discover that my system was configured in such a way that upon detecting an error, it would write a "small memory dump", and then reboot because the Automatic Reboot option was checked (this is all in the Startup and Recovery dialog box of System Properties). So, the few times my system detected a problem (as always, due to video drivers 😀), it just rebooted instead of giving me the BSOD. Maybe its the same with XP. By the way, the Small Memory Dump isn't worth very much for debugging... gotta use the Large Memory Dump. Good luck.
 
I've recently had the same problem with a W2k/sp3 installation and Win XP/sp1. But this began after I installed some new hardware (PCI firewire/USB2.0 card).

A new BIOS cured that problem (but created another.. I lost the use of #2 PCI slot!)

Asus A7V mobo, BIOS 1011, VIA 4.43 4in1 drivers.
 
Kango, As debugger stated change your "Action on error" to "Halt" (or whatever) from "Reboot" then you will get the BSOD if that is the problem.
 
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