[Techtalk] OT but I'm desperate.... Windows....!

[P Casper]

Michelle,

To try and stop it from rebooting itself, try this:

"This can be caused by an optional feature of Windows 2000/XP that will
restart the computer if any internal stop errors happen. To disable this
feature, please follow the process below:

    1. Right-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and select
Properties from the pop-up menu.
    2. Click on the Advanced tab in the System Properties window.
    3. Click on the Startup and Recovery button.
    4. In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, be sure that the
'Automatically Reboot' option is unchecked in the System Failure section.
    5. Click OK to the Startup and Recovery dialog box, then click OK on the
System Properties window. You will then be prompted to restart the
computer."
--Poppy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle Howson" <a.howson at student.unsw.edu.au>
To: <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
Sent: 16 October, 2002 9:49 AM
Subject: [Techtalk] OT but I'm desperate.... Windows....!


Hi everyone,

I hate to do this to you all, but it's 3am and my options are pretty
narrow...  I did a google as best I could, but nothing turned up.  So
here's hoping someone out there has an inkling what might be my problem.

Simply, my primary box is a windows box, and it's taken to spontaneously
rebooting itself with no obvious cause - nothing freezes up, I'm generally
just sitting doing -nothing- and it will just reboot, flashing a blue
screen up far too quickly for me to see it.  It was happening a lot when I
was waiting for big print jobs from Acrobat Reader, but I thought it was
just Acrobat being horrible.  I've had Acrobat issues before.  So I
reinstalled - still happened too frequently to be normal.  No time to fuss
though, so just resolved not to print from Acrobat until I've figured it
out.  Except now it's happened from Word as well.  Tada - at least I'm
fairly certain it's a printer problem now!

System information: home built computer...  AMD-K6 mobo 500mhz, 128mg RAM
(adding another 128 in about 2 weeks, can't wait).  New Geforce 256 video
card, old 3Com ethernet card, horrible old Cmedia sound monstrosity (anyone
out there got it configured properly? I'm still struggling)... aside from
the sound card, everything is functioning normally to the best of my
knowledge, hardware-wise.  Oh, the offending printer is an HP deskjet 690C.
 I have the correct driver installed... to the best of my knowledge....!
OS is Windows 2000 Pro, installation only a week and a half old.  XP died a
miserable death 2 weeks ago (still don't know why, though Acrobat reader
and printing issues were involved there as well) and so I rescued my data,
reformatted and reinstalled completely clean.  Oh yeah, 40Gb drive.

um.......can't think of what else I should mention...........

So, I think problem #1 is infact that I don't know what's going on behind
the scenes - because the blue screen flashes up so quickly and no other
errors appear, either before or after the reboot.  Can someone tell me
where to find a log, or something, that can bring some light onto that
matter, please?  Once I've dug up some error info I'm sure we may
actually get somewhere.  I just have NO idea where to look.  While I'm not
a computer newbie at all, I've managed to stay away from the innards of
microsoft's operating systems and normally I'm fine, things chug along and
I can fix most problems.  Not this one, no way....completely stumped.

And all this at the worst time.  I'm working on a major uni assignment,
which is already late.  So this is advance warning that I'm short on sleep,
high on stress, and I may be a little less....  .  Can't think of the word.
 Oh I'm sure you all know what I mean, we've all been there at some point
or another.

So.  #1 - error log or something similar to clue us all in
#2 - anyone experienced something like this?  Any known
problems/solutions?  Any bright ideas at all?

I'm going to crawl off and get back to basics with a pen and paper, for
fear of losing hours worth of typing.  Look forward to hearing what anyone
has to say.  And again, my apologies for bringing this to a linux tech
spot.  I've been lurking for almost a year though, and from what I've seen
I'm pretty sure I won't get lynched :)

the-completely-stressed-Michelle

PS I'm also looking for a good HOWTO for getting an ethernet card
recognised and configured for a LAN under RH7.3, so pass a URL my way if
you know of one *grin*  See I'm not completely OT!  hehe