I have a former TIME (yes, I know - now!) computer which I bought secondhand. Without warning it switches off, then re-starts. Doesn't seem like a "crash" as such, but in any event i have completely re-loaded (and upgraded) the operating system (now has MS XP SP2). How do i start the trouble-shooting process to find out what is causing this?

Martin, February 2006

If you installed anything knew make sure you UNINSTALL ALL DRIVERS THAT ARE NOT BEING USED. I had the same problem after purchasing a knew sound and graphics card, i disabled the card but didn't uninstall the drivers. Thats were my error was.

Yazan Kamal, March 2006

Sounds like it could be some sort of hardware conflict or that your processor is overheating or even being starved of power.
I've also seen this occur with Ram errors and psu faults.
When this problem manifests itself check that nothing within the pc case is getting too hot as the computer can shut down to protect the processor if overheating occurs.
As previously mentioned it could also be a faulty graphics card or even an outdated mother board bios especially if you've upgraded other software/hardware recently.
It could be one or more of a number of things and i'm afraid it's a case of trial and error which could be both costly and time consuming.
Hope this helps.

Simon, March 2006

I had the same problem whilst playing a medal of honor game. I took the back off and cleaned everything with an air duster, checked everything was correctly seated like RAM sticks and all the other sockets and whatnot. It still did it so I bought a new graphics card and has never done it since. Weird cause I had a 128 graphics card which was more than capable of running an older game that isn't very demanding. If your running something graphics intensive it might be that.

McWhitey, February 2006