XP reboots

[VCTech]

Anyone have Windows XP (i'm using home edition) just reboot when you try to start a program?? I have had this happen to my PentiumIII 933 machine and also on an AMD xp 1600+ machine. Has happened about 2 or 3 times in month on both machines....also XP doesn't report that it was shut down improperly...just reboots normally. Just curious if anyone has experienced this.

[FooL]

Right click on "My Computer" and click on "properties". (or choose "System" from the control panel if you didn't put My Computer back on the desktop) Then go to "Advanced" tab and click on "StartUp and Recovery". Uncheck the "Automatically Reboot" selection.

This won't stop it from automatically rebooting, but it will let you see the Blue Screen of Death.(BSOD) In this BSOD you will see stop codes and memory dumps. You can write down the stop codes and "attempt" to look them up in the Micro$oft Knowledge Base for a fix. In any case you will be able to see a lot more about what is giving you a problem.

Right off of the top of my head, it sounds like you've got a program that isn't 100% compatable with XP. To solve this, look up thier software/hardware compatability list and check everything you're using. I'd also take a peek at WindowsUpdate.com. I know they've already given out a compatability update. (An update where it patches XP to be able to run more programs.)

I hope all of this helps. Sorry I can't tell you EXACTLY what's wrong, but one can hardly ever tell with this problem without sitting in front of the computer.