Computer just switched off?

[samz90]

I was using my computer when it jus suddenly switched off and started back up again. The error report says that it was a serious error. What happend? Did it overheat?

[theo_wyvern]

could have been a power surge or some such - if it happens again obviously somethibng to worry about but otherwise these things happen !

[samz90]

it did happen the other night aswell, maybe I will invest in a surge protector.

[AussieGeoff]

G'Day

If you are running XP have you looked in the Event Logs, errors are reported here, usually in a less cryptic form and will usually name the program or service that caused the crash.

Right click on My Computer then left click on Manage>expand Event Viewer and check the logs, especially the System log (you can sort them into date, type etc).

Geoff

[qapmoc]

A surge protector is not what you need for power dip protection, what you need is a UPS.
A surge protector is intended to stop or at least reduce the high voltage peaks which can occur on a power network for various reasons and which can instantly kill your power supply. Its always a good idea to have one but it will do nothing to help you if you are suffering power dips (brownouts) only a UPS which will keep the power up even when it goes of completely will do this.

[dodgyshirt]

Did it just say Serious Error or did it say Serious System Error. If the latter,it was your Operating System which suffered the error and was probably caused by corrupted drivers or drivers for a recently installed piece of hardware which are incompatible.

[PhilBy]

Funny you should ask "did it overheat"? But over the past few weeks my system has been progressively getting slower & slower until it finally crashed (Suddenly switched off & started up again) the other day causing me lose several hours work .... I was working it hard with 9 or 10 programmes open but it has done this literally every day since I purchased it seven months ago and managed the task quite well.

Today I took the case off to add some extra RAM in the hope that would sort the job out, once inside I found the cooling fan was choked to death with thick brown dust, it was that thick it looked more like fur and took me a good 20 mins to clean and so, just out of interest I declined to add the extra RAM to see if cleaning the fan gave any recognisable improvements.... I am quite chuffed to report it is running as fast as ever.

I'm not saying this could be your problem but worth checking out all the same.