Random reboot...scared me just a bit (a lot, actually). Possible causes?

[satine]

In the middle of doing normal internet stuff last night (running Firefox, MSN messenger, and Avast virus scanner, if it helps), my computer randomly shut down and restarted, which it doesn't usually do. On rebooting, it showed a blank black screen for a prolonged period of time before loading the desktop as normal (with an alert to say it had recovered from a serious error). It's done this once before a few months ago, but the difference this time was that for a split second before the crash and reboot, a darkish blue screen with writing appeared, too quickly for me to read what it said (apart from something about "startup options").

Has anyone seen this before? I am praying this is not something to do with the "blue screen of death" I've read about...after all, everything seemed normal after the reboot. What are the possible causes of this and what can I do about it? I have a technician I can call out if necessary (though the timing's not good for various reasons) but I don't want to do this unless it's absolutely vital and something that needs to be fixed urgently.

I'm running Windows XP, Service Pack 2 installed.

Thanks a lot. Any help would be appreciated.

-Emma

 

[Bruce]

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Options > Event Viewer

You should be able to find some info in there. Look for a savedump from the time it happened.

 

[T^2]

I don't think you need to be too worried. Some times windows just crashes for no reason. That blue screen was most likely a error screen saying that a program was not responding and that windows can reboot or something similar. Unless it starts to happen on a regular basis I think you are okay.

 

[ben-mr]

Well, there was a windows update last night, and my computer rebooted, so it might be that, but that doesn't explain the errors?

BEN-MR

 

[themoose]

wait, wait, this is MICROSOFT windows. MICROSOFT. Things like that just happen.

 

[Yellowmc]

That has happened to me a few times, it always happens when im using firefox though. It has never happened when firefox is not open.

 

[tz25.com]

Hey thats scary... Last night i was just surfing the net and the pc just rebooted on it's own for no reason what so ever...

Im also running Windows XP, with Service Pack 2 installed.

Im from the UK with Blueyonder Broadband... i noticed you are in the UK are you with Blueyonder? May be it's something to do with them...