My computer keeps restarting randomly. Ran for two weeks straight with no problem. During those two weeks I installed iTunes, Kazaa Lite, and updated to QuickTime6.4. Then I ran Windows Update. After restarting my computer on request after the updates, my computer began acting up with the restarting. I killed all the processes that the new installations began at Windows startup. The problem continued. I ran Memtest-86 for 14 hours while I went to bed and not only were there no memory errors, but my computer didn't restart once in that time. It doesn't restart when running in Safe Mode, either. One of the Windows Updates was an nVidia display driver. That was the only driver in the updates. I installed a new nVidia driver and the problem seems to be occuring less frequently. I have System Restore disabled, so I can't use that. My question now is just, does anyone have any suggestions? Are there any programs I can download to test/repair my system in any way? How can I install all the Windows Updates just from that one day that I updated? You think I should get different nVidia drivers? If so, where and what? Thanks for the help in advance.

You need to turn off the Auto-restart on fatal error option, you will then get an error message when your PC dies that wont tell you much, but when taken to the "Microsoft Knowledge Base", should shed some more light on the subject: Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties", then click the "Advanced" tab. In the "Startup and Recovery" field, click the "Settings" button. In the resulting window, uncheck the "Automatically Restart" option. Next time you crash, record the error message EXACTLY, and take it to the MKB, or back here.

Another way of getting the error messgae, would be to look in your event log. Start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Event Viewer. Oh, I have the latest Forceware drivers from Nvidia, and they work like a charm, best drivers yet.

Thanks for the advice. I tried unchecking "Automatically restart" and the computer still restarted without any notice. I checked Event Viewer, and none of the events listed seem to be related to my computer restarting. Reading the description of each event, I wasn't too sure if it could be a cause. So I just compared the times of the event to when the computer restarted and they don't seem to match. Currently, I'm using the latest drivers from nVidia's site (5.2.1.6) on my GeForce4 Ti4400. Any other suggestions? Should I try downgrading my drivers, maybe?

What Antivirus software do you have on machine Are the virus defs up to date Computer that restarts randomly like that could be a virus Check your AV and defs and run a scan to check

I'm running AntiVirR Guard for Windows XP (2000 + NT) Personal Edition. It's been updated recently and I've scanned my hard drives and no viruses have been detected. Ugh! I'm having to use an old laptop that I have now. There's not a whole lot I can do on it. I so need to get my desktop running.

Ah sounds like the system 32 virus, a common virus that many kazaa users get, i suggest you get a good virus scanner as soon as possible(Norton, Or Macafee) update it fully then run a full system scan. if you want to check if you have the virus in the first place i suggest you check the running processes in task manager and look for a file running clled "system32.exe". if its there i suggest you do all of the above.