Lifting this from the poll section to answer and enquire:

Oooh, so it's not just me???? I can't tell you how reassuring that sounds, Jen, even if it's a major pain in the tushie. :p

The bad side is that it might mean it's a bad bug of the system and can't be fixed. The good side is that I won't have to go tell my techs they're brainless morons. Wait, not sure this is a good side.

Seriously, I'm not going to give up just yet. A friend of mine said he would try to look into it when he has time and see if there's anything wrong with the way XP was installed.

But if other people have had problems with XP (home edition) involving unwanted reboots, can you please let me know how and when it happens? Is it usually when you hit the "x" to close a programme? And if so, with what kind of programme does it usually happen? And is it when other programmes are running (such as Outlook Express, WORD...)?

Also, Breanna mentions Service Pack 1 and the problems that go with it. What's Service Pack 1? And does it run with every XP Home edition you buy?

Kaethel

You can get the update here

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/default.asp

My husband has Windows XP and the only problems he's had is with the cursor, which constantly shows the running hour glass, instead of the pointer.

There is also a Microsoft Automatic updater that might solve your problem. Once installed, it finds out what your system needs and then installs it automatically.

What else can we do to help? We need to have Kaethel's computer problem solved so she can keep writing

Hey hey hey! Look what I found!

I did some research online and came up with this. Darned if that little box wasn't there checked on my system.

Q. Why does my computer with Windows 200 or Windows XP keep restarting itself?

A. My thanks to David who contributed the following info in a post to our Forums... "Win XP and Win 2000 have a default setting to restart at just about any error. It makes things difficult to analyze when it blows through and restarts the computer. Settings / Control Panel / System / Advanced / Startup and Recovery / Settings. Make sure the box is UNCHECKED where it says "Automatically Restart" under System Failure."

Jen

Edit: Oh, and FYI, I'm never doing anything in particular when it resets...usually just surfing the web.

What Shadow listed won't fix the reboots, but it *will* give an error message, so you can track down what is going on. I was having the same problems, turned off the "automatic reboot", and it gave me a big blue screen that I could read before I manually rebooted with information so I could track down the problem. I think the one I had before was like IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, and listed nv4...somethingsomething.dll. I did a search on google, and found it was my network card, which I then replaced.

If you can't find anything on Google with the message, feel free to post here or email me, and I'll track it down. I'm good at finding error messages.

Well I'm excited then! I'd much rather have an error message I can fix than just the system up and restarting without telling me anything.

Jen

Kaethel, what is the chipset of the motherboard?

Jose

Kaethel, you could see the chipset on the device manager. In the tree there is a brach that says system devices. On of it should say, Intel, VIA, SIS or even nVidia or nforce.

Jose (who hopes this could help)

Sorry for the delay in replying. Just came home from a very exhausting and stressful day at work. :p Anyway, I haven't had a chance to try Karen's suggestion yet, but I will. Trenna, I regularly use Microsoft update and it didn't do anything. Jen, my reboots tend to coincide with the moment I shut a programme (such as closing the last Internet Explorer window open).

Jose, my video card (not sure it's what your asking, but you'll tell me) is a nVidia GeForceMX 100/200.

Kaethel

It wasn't that. The motherboard is where everything is connected. The chipset is what control the memory, the graphic card the disks...Some chipsets give plenty of trouble. Did the guy in the shop tried to upgrade the BIOS?

Jose

I'm sorry. I have no clue. If I could get my hands back on the list of components of my computer it would help, but of course it's disappeared when I need it. :p If I find it I'll let you know what the motherboard is. Otherwise, is there any way for me to find it? I couldn't figure out what device it was under "device manager".

Kaethel

Back... with the info. All right, my motherboard is called... deep breath... DFI NEB72-S P4 Socket 478. And don't ask me what that means.

Kaethel

Do you see a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) just before the machine reboots, as Karen had in her description? If so, in what module does it indicate the error resides? That would be a big hint as to what the cause is. You may also find something in the Event Log, which is found under Administrative Tools. That could potentially tell you where the problem is.

I've found that often a manufacturer of a peripheral will issue a buggy driver, forcing either an upgrade or a downgrade of the driver to one where the bug doesn't exist. Because the problem driver often is in the latest release, it's often good to go the the peripheral's manufacturer's website to grab the previous driver version. Plus, what's available on MS Update often isn't the correct driver that the manufacturer uses. The MS Update driver is often a generic driver written for the peripheral's principle chipset and is not customized for the actual hardware.

For instance, nVidia (or ATI, etc.) makes the basic chipset for a large number of video cards. Each video card manufacturer licenses these chipsets from nVidia, but customizes the card for their own purposes with completely different drivers and included software. I prefer to trust a manufacturer's website to MS Update.

Kaethel I don't know if you could read yesterday the post before it vanished . I snooped a bit at the DFI website and I didn't found the exact reference of the Motherboard. I found a closer one. It has an Intel i845 chipset, which usually are really stable. Sorry,

When you guys talk about XP restarting itself, do you mean that it happens when you go to shut it down? If so, that happens to me as well. I try to turn off the computer and it just keeps restarting. Would the update posted above take care of that problem as well? I have yet to see a BSOD.... Thanks!

-Mary

It just might, Mary. At least, it wouldn't hurt to try it and see!

All right, since many of us users of XP Home Edition have encountered the same kind of problem, I've just sent an email to Microsoft explaining things. I'll let you know if they come up with a miracle solution. )

All right, back, and with Microsoft's answer. And trust me I'm not a very happy bunny. They don't even tell me what is wrong with the whole thing. All they say is: "As a teacher, you can buy the XP pro upgrade with an education licence. Its price is about € 105." Period. Nothing else! Zip! Nada! Niente!

So :p , basically.

Kaethel

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever had any trouble with HP computers? This is the first one I've bought...we always had Gateways in my dad's house (which is what I'm typing on right now)...and I'm shipping my HP off to San Jose for the second time in less than a year on Tuesday. I'm already going through withdrawl.

Jen
(who's currently looking for a 12 step program to get over IRC withdrawl while her computer's gone)

I've only had one problem with HP, but it was during a computer game and due to some processing chip anomaly that the developers didn't take into account. Other than that, nothing.

I also use XP home and have not had any reboot problems. I have had a few glitches due to incompatiblity with older software, though.

More news from your XP challenged FoLC... After I discovered yesterday (to my horror) that Friday's unwanted reboot had eaten part of my mirc.ini file (eg half my notify list on mIRC disappeared), I was ready to stuff the computer into its box and bury it in a very dark corner of the cellar. But I decided to try and ask my techs again. They made me replace McAfee with Norton first, and run a check to make sure it couldn't be a virus that McAfee didn't detect - it's not. And on Wednesday they're going to replace the memory chips - tech said that since the reboots only happen when I close programmes, it's unlikely to be a hardware problem. Anyway, I'll let you know if he finds anything that is likely to help those of you who get the reboots as well.

Kaethel (not quite totally desperate yet... but darned close )

Poor Kaethel! Don't give up hope, there may be a solution somewhere.

I've been playing with my dad's computer (has XP home edition and does the same thing as Kaethel's, but that post got lost in the crash) and haven't been able to figure out why it reboots itself. So I called my tech guy and this time he knew of the problem! yay! He said it happens more often, but has no idea what it is or how to solve it. However, the problem doesn't occur with XP Pro, that version is more reliable and stable.

So my problem is solved, I'm getting a new laptop with XP Pro and buy my own printer so I won't have to use my dad's computer ever again.

Is it possible for you, Kaethel, to get that version too? It should save you a lot of problems and worries.

Saskia

Saskia, it's what Microsoft suggested. But I replied to them with a major rant saying no way. I bought XP Home last month (for a heck of a lot of money), assuming it would work. I never expected to regret Millenium so badly, but I do! So unless they *give* me XP pro, I'm not going to install it, because I won't spend another € 105 in Microsoft products, when I'm not even sure it's going to work (since for € 105 I would only get an upgrade, not the whole thing).

I'm glad you figured out the problem with your dad's computer. Yes, it does seem to be XP Home that is very unstable and unreliable. On the other hand, Elena uses XP Home on her laptop and never had any problem. But it came pre-installed. Weirdly enough, though, my computer guy says I'm the only customer of his who encountered that problem. When I explained that apparently the problem occurred with XP Home and not XP pro, he was surprised because he says it's the same basis for the OS. )

Thought I would give a heads up in case other people want to try something on XP. My computer has been running smoothly and without a blip for 9 days now, and that all thanks to the most patient, wonderful, awesome, genial, brilliant techie ever (hey John!), who remotely entered my system (that's a very spiffy XP support device, actually) and reinstalled more recent drivers on the sound card. It seems that it was what created the reboots, although I imagine that changing the memory chip must have done something as well (after it was changed, the reboots only happened when I closed RealOne Player, as opposed to happening with, well, every programme).

So it might be worth a try for those of you who have reboots problems. Check your drivers and your memory chip, and see if everything is compatible.

Kaethel