PC randomly reboots itself

My PC has the occasional habit of suddenly rebooting itself. It can happen at any time but normally when surfing the net. I have a Dell Dimension 4700 Pentium 3ghz 2.75g ram Windows XP, Service Pack 3 It does just happen randomly, every couple of weeks. There's no obvious pattern or moment when it occurs. My PC also crashes every few weeks. A blue screen comes up saying a serious error has occurred but I can't remember the whole message. Sorry to be vague. Can anyone offer me some advice? any programs to run to see what happening? Thanks for any help.

Hi phoenixarizona

Those reboots also sounds like crashes. So here is what I want you to do.

Please turn-off the Windows Automatic Restart function, so we can see which error your system is encountering:

• Go to Start, right-click - My Computer, then Select - Properties
• Click the Advanced (tab)
• In the Startup and Recovery section, click - Settings
• In the System failure section, uncheck "Automatically restart"
• Click OK twice

Now, your system will not automatically restart when the error occurs. This does not mean the issue is resolved, it just means you will be able to see the Error Name when it is encountered.

When your machine next encounters the problem, you will see the Windows Stop Error screen, also known as the "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD). Encountering this screen means that Windows can no longer continue operating normally and needs to be restarted. What is important is that, although daunting, this screen will tell you the Error Name and Number that made your computer unhappy. Please write down this Error Name and Number (using paper and pencil) the next time you receive it and post it back here into this same thread when you reply.

Eventviewer might also shed some light on this.

To discover the type of Errors the machine has encountered recently, use Event Viewer.

• Go to Start - Run, type eventvwr.msc, then Press Enter.
• When the Event Viewer opens, there will be two panes.
  The left pane is for event categories (Application, Security, and System).
  The right pane is for event messages (Information, Warning, and Error). (We want to find errors.)
• Left-click the Application category in the left pane and check for any error messages in the right pane.
  You want to find the one(s) that occurred at the same time your system encountered the problem you have posted about.
• Repeat the previous step for each category, or until you find an appropriate error to investigate.
• Double-click the error message to bring up the information.
• Click the third button on the right side of the information window (copies information)
• Paste the information here

Keep us posted

Regards

Hiya,

I did the first thing you suggested but the Automatic restart option was already unchecked.

I ran the event viewer and there were 2 errors yesterday around the time my pc crashed.
The first was in the application setting and is as follows:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 23/04/2009
Time: 16:55:27
User: N/A
Computer: PHOENIX
Description:
Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 7.0.6000.16827, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 69 65 78 70 6c 6f iexplo
0018: 72 65 2e 65 78 65 20 37 re.exe 7
0020: 2e 30 2e 36 30 30 30 2e .0.6000.
0028: 31 36 38 32 37 20 69 6e 16827 in
0030: 20 68 75 6e 67 61 70 70 hungapp
0038: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0040: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0048: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0050: 30 30 30 000


The 2nd was in the system setting and is as follows:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Dhcp
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 23/04/2009
Time: 16:52:03
User: N/A
Computer: PHOENIX
Description:
The IP address lease (my IP address was here) for the Network Card with network address 00173F7406AA has been denied by the DHCP server (my IP address was here) (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message).


I removed my IP address from the info above, wasn't sure whether it was necessary.

Thanks for your help

:-)

Hi again

I might have to investigate those errors closer. But one thing you could try,
and which might solve it, is this:

Goto start, RUN, type: CMD

This will open your command prompt.

Next type: IPconfig /Release
hit enter
Next Type: IPconfig /Renew
hit enter

*Note that there is a space between the "g" and the slash /. It have to be there.

See if you can reproduce the error.

If you get the error, access eventviewer, and get the fresh error info before doing
anything else.

Also, I gather that you haven't encountered the blue screen again(?) If you do,
please post the error name and the number for that error. Sometimes a driver
is named if the system itself could identify it, post that info if available.


Regards

I haven't had the blue screen recently. When i do shall i post the result here or create a new thread?

I tried what you said and nothing obvious happened but when i checked the event viewer there was this in the security setting:


Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Policy Change
Event ID: 615
Date: 23/04/2009
Time: 20:01:54
User: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: PHOENIX
Description:
IPSec Services: IPSec Services failed to get the complete list of network interfaces on the machine. This can be a potential security hazard to the machine since some of the network interfaces may not get the protection as desired by the applied IPSec filters. Please run IPSec monitor snap-in to further diagnose the problem.



For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Well that certainly sheds some light on it

IPsec is not needed at all for normal internet use, unless you use
a L2TP VPn client. (Which I don't think you do)

Please do the following:

Goto Start, RUN, Type: Services.msc

Find the IPsec entry

Doubleclick it, or right-click and select properties.

Under startup type, select disabled.

Reboot and see if you can reproduce error.

I haven't had the blue screen recently. When i do shall i post the result here or create a new thread?

You just post it here

Regards

Hello again, I did as you requested but nothing noticeable happened I'm afraid.

Hello again,

I did as you requested but nothing noticeable happened I'm afraid.

Hmmm.

Have you tried to powercycle your network components? Meaning turning them all off, including your PC.

Then wait like 5 minutes before beginning turning them on again, starting with the link furthest away from your
PC. For modem and routers, wait till all LED's (little green lights) have settled before turning on the next device.

It sounds like a connectivity problem. I'll investigate those errors further. But right now I have chores, but will be
back again in 1-2 hours again. In the meantime you can try the above. Or maybe another Tech more network oriented
than I, might drop by.


Regards

I'll give that a go next. I too have chores to do so will have to try it tomorrow. Thanks again for all your help, it's greatly appreciated! Hope the chores don't take too long!