A windows 2000 machine, you say? Does it have any antivirus protection installed? Does it have a firewall installed? What sort of internet/network connection does it have? (i.e. a direct connection to a high speed provider that would make it prone to hacking/viruses?)

How about video card? Updated video card drivers? Latest Windows 2000 Windows Update patches installed?

DirectX 8 and 9 might also cause random resarts. Make sure you're using the latest version of DirectX along with the latest video card drivers.

Random reboots can also be caused from RAM memory being incorrectly seated in the motherboard. i.e. has the computer recenty received a small jolt/physically moved or anything that could shake things around inside, even just a lil?

Was any new hardware recently installed or removed? IRQ conflicts among hardware devices may also be problematic. A fresh Windows installation may have reassigned IRQ ports to different devices. Check the System Information program under Advanced Tools/System and look for problematic devices.

We're on a dsl line, no anti-virus or fw... I've tried to get Jeff to install that, but he thinks it's ok as long as there is no email coming in... :rolleyes:

All patches & updates from MS were current when it crashed.

I did gently move the machine to remove/replace the mouse shortly before the crash. I'll check the ram.

no new hardware except the mouse.

Could the crash have caused there to be a bad spot on the hd? Should we consider installing a new internal bootable drive?

Thanks so much.... we're primarily mac people. This pc stuff still baffles us. :o

First of all, on a DSL line antivirus and firewall are mandatory. While it's true that many viruses are transferred by e-mail, it most certainly isn't the only way to get a virus by far. (On a high speed network such as a DSL line, hackers can VERY EASILY break into your system without a firewall!)

If you're really dead set not to install a firewall, at bare minimum please activate the Windows XP built-in firewall. You reallllllly do need antivirus protection and a firewall though.

It might be mouse drivers?? I doubt it though. I would open up the computer and just ensure all the PCI cards and RAM are correctly snugly seated in their respective places. A lose connection somewhere may be a cause of random restarts. In addition, the few minutes it takes to open up a computer and check it are more than worth the hours of aggrivation.

I would agree, you need antivirus software and a firewall. There are free antivirus software packages around, but I would spend the $40.00 for Norton Antivirus (IMHO: The interface is much more userfriendly than McAfee) Make sure you do updates at least every week on your antivirus software. For firewalls, check out ZoneAlarm: http://www.zonelabs.com from ZoneLabs. It is pretty robust, and works well. Just make sure it is configured properly to allow connections to the services you want.

Also: check out http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp, this is a free online virus scan from mcafee (I know, I did just say I didn't like their UI, and I don't, but this service is pretty cool :-) It is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a virus.

Good Luck!

Art Bell radio show........lol


BIG"B's Linked Online Security FOR XP
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SOFTWARE
Top Four Security Downloads (you must have them)

• FIRE WALL DOWNLOAD HERE
• AV DOWNLOAD HERE
• SPY WARE REMOVER DOWNLOAD HERE
• ANTI-TROJAN DOWNLOAD HERE

Note: All downloads above are worthless without updates

HARDWARE

• ROUTERS
• Netgear
  
  RP114, RT314, RT311, MR314, RP334, RP614, MR814, HR314, DG814
• D-Link
  
  DI-713P, DI-604
• Linksys
  
  BEFSR41 with firmware version 1.43 or later
  
  BEFSR81 with firmware version 2.42.7.1 or later
  
  BEFW11S4 with firmware version 1.42.7 or later
• SMC
  
  SMC7004ABR
• Siemens
  
  SpeedStream 2624 Wireless DSL/Cable Router
• ECT...

• Routers built without NAT will serve no protection
• QUESTION: What is NAT BIG"B"
• DEFINITION:Network address translation(NAT) is used to remap IP #'s from one address range to another range of network addresses. For TCP and UDP, this also can include the port numbers. The IP#'s/port #'s are changed when a packet is going out through an interface and IP Filter matches it against a NAT rules.
  
  Packets coming back in the same interface are remapped, as a matter of course, to their original address information.

SUPER SECURITY MEASURES

• SMOOTHWALL
• QUESTION: What is SMOOTHWALL BIG"B"
• DEFINITION: SmoothWall is a best-of-breed Internet firewall/router, designed to run on commodity Intel (or compatible) PCs, and to give an easy-to-use administration interface to those using it.
• SMOOTHWALL.ORG

This has been another BIG"B" PRODUCTION

i would strongly suggest kaspersky Anti-Hacker or kerio for a firewall
and always install to a dif dir other then the default dir makes it harder for trojans/virii to disable your wall same should be done with anti virus

and this thinking you only get viryes through email is silly my scanner just caught a worm the other day that was imbeded in a script on a web site so on that note go be safe :-)

PS plz think twice about installing Zone Alarm its bloated and a resource hog and also has been known to have uninstall issues
and black ice well i wont even go thereif you do install zone( :-( )
dont freak out when you get warned every 10 sec it usualy normal net trafic :/

ya know "B" i found that the new AVG has been causing blue screens
for alot of ppl 3 o out of 5 atleast that iv talked to that have installed it on xp
not sure whats up with that i myself had the same problem and uninstalled and havend had a BS since
rather unfortunate cause iv been using avg for a very long time

I use AGV 7.0 on winxp with out any problems!

yet heh
but yea a few ppl i know havnt had that problem not sure what is lurking behind the problem