I fixed a computer for a lady a few days ago. It ran fine on my system for hours and hours of burn-in and updates. Now it is giving trouble at her place. The computer reboots sporadically. Maybe three times a day. When it is hooked up to my monitor, keyboard, and mouse it does not do this. Is this a short in one of those three items? Because if it were overheating, it should have turned up during the reinstall of Windows (or during the AV updates, the SP updates, burn-in, etc. that ran for hours). The only other thing that occurs to me is that I updated it behind my firewall, while she runs it normally using dial-up. Could it be something hiding on their ISP's network? I did test it running with the modem, and had not signs of trouble. I'm baffled, because when I run it on my equipment, it doesn't give any trouble. However, she hasn't brought all the machine with all the pieces over yet. When I've had it, I've just had the tower. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

reboots heh, goto c:\windows\minidump. then go here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314084/EN-US/ and look up minidump bugcheck codes here; http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ddtools/hh/ddtools/BCCodes_050cb2bc-a343-467c-9ec0-e10dbb415a9f.xml.asp that should give you a few clues. You can also look in event log for Bug check codes. if its the same bug check each time, that should clue you in.

To have XP display the error message instead of rebooting: 1. Click Start, and then right-click My Computer. 2. Click Properties. 3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 4. Under System failure, click to clear the Automatically restart check box. 5. Click OK, and then click OK.

Could be the firewall that u have and she doesnt. I had rebooting problems and when i turned off my DMZ it didnt reboot anymore. I've never heard of equipment(keyboard,mouse,etc...) restarting computers though.

"I've never heard of equipment(keyboard,mouse,etc...) restarting computers though." Actually, on 2000/XP systems, if the mouse or the keyboard shorts, it can trigger an error. Depending on how the error is treated, it can lead to a reboot. If she brings the machine in again, I'll mess with checking the error codes. If she just calls again I'll have her change the reboot settings. (Jeez. Why didn't I think of that?! Oh well. Doesn't matter if it works, right?) Thanks. Any additional suggestions are still welcome.