random reboots

Hi

I have had a problem with random reboots for a while. Sometimes it is a
week between episodes, others 2 or three times a day. When the system
starts up again I allow it to go through the scandisk routine and it often
finds some lost bits of things.

Is there anyway that I can find who is causing these random reboots? I
thought that it may be caused by a loose AGP card caused by an installation
of new RAM- but I removed that and reseated it, but no luck. My wife
remembers this starting before I ever took the back off the machine anyway.

I would like to obtain a tool that could tell me what is wrong with this
system- pref a free one - as it may only be used once or twice.

Any suggestions? Does XP have a scandisk type program that will identify if
it is my HDD that is causing this?

--
___,
\o
| |
/ \ . l
____________o

Use this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310560

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
"dougie" wrote in message
...
Hi

I have had a problem with random reboots for a while. Sometimes it is a
week between episodes, others 2 or three times a day. When the system
starts up again I allow it to go through the scandisk routine and it often
finds some lost bits of things.

Is there anyway that I can find who is causing these random reboots? I
thought that it may be caused by a loose AGP card caused by an
installation of new RAM- but I removed that and reseated it, but no luck.
My wife remembers this starting before I ever took the back off the
machine anyway.

I would like to obtain a tool that could tell me what is wrong with this
system- pref a free one - as it may only be used once or twice.

Any suggestions? Does XP have a scandisk type program that will identify
if it is my HDD that is causing this?

--
___,
\o
| |
/ \ . l
____________o

"dougie" wrote:

Hi

I have had a problem with random reboots for a while. Sometimes it is a
week between episodes, others 2 or three times a day. When the system
starts up again I allow it to go through the scandisk routine and it often
finds some lost bits of things.

Is there anyway that I can find who is causing these random reboots? I
thought that it may be caused by a loose AGP card caused by an installation
of new RAM- but I removed that and reseated it, but no luck. My wife
remembers this starting before I ever took the back off the machine anyway.

I would like to obtain a tool that could tell me what is wrong with this
system- pref a free one - as it may only be used once or twice.

Any suggestions? Does XP have a scandisk type program that will identify if
it is my HDD that is causing this?

--
___,
\o
| |
/ \ . l
____________o




Shut off "automatically reboot"
Right click on my computer and select properties,
next click on the advanced tab,
under "startup and recovery click the settings button,
under system failure uncheck automatically restart.
This will most likely stop it from happenning if not the next time it shuts
off
you will get a "blue screen" which will contain an error code write this
code down
word for word and repost your problem with this code.
If no error code is displayed the reason for the stop should be in the event
viewer.
Good luck

"dougie" wrote in message
...
Hi

I have had a problem with random reboots for a while. Sometimes it is a
week between episodes, others 2 or three times a day. When the system
starts up again I allow it to go through the scandisk routine and it often
finds some lost bits of things.

Is there anyway that I can find who is causing these random reboots? I
thought that it may be caused by a loose AGP card caused by an
installation
of new RAM- but I removed that and reseated it, but no luck. My wife
remembers this starting before I ever took the back off the machine
anyway.

I would like to obtain a tool that could tell me what is wrong with this
system- pref a free one - as it may only be used once or twice.

Any suggestions? Does XP have a scandisk type program that will identify
if
it is my HDD that is causing this?



here is one link:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

it has a good ram testing utility (free download)

also, if you want to test the harddrive
the website of the drive's mfg should have a free download of a diagnostic
utliltiy