 | By Brian Livingston There you are, minding your own business, when your computer suddenly reboots without warning. The causes for spontaneous restarts are many — but there are ways to get Windows to help you identify the culprit. |
Make Windows reveal the cause of restarts
If you have a problem with your computer rebooting with no explanation, reader Tom Rosania has a troubleshooting tip that can at least give you some description of the problem:
- “1. In Windows’ Control Panel, double-click the System icon. (In Vista, you also need to click Advanced System Settings at this point and confirm in User Account Control.)
“2. In the System Properties dialog, click the Advanced tab at the top. In the Startup and Recovery box, click Settings.
“3. In the System Failure box, uncheck the checkbox that says ‘Automatically Restart.’ Then click OK twice to save your settings and exit the System dialog.
“Now, whenever a system error occurs, you will most likely get a blue screen with some diagnostic information. At the very least, just the presence of the blue screen tells you that your computer had a system error. And, if you can’t understand the information on the screen, your neighborhood computer geek or someone online probably can help you.”
Copy text from most error messages
Neil Krish Goundar sent in a trick to copy the text of Windows error messages when there’s no obvious way to do so. This can make it easier for you to send the information to support sites or anyone else who needs the information.
- “In Windows, if you want to copy the text out of any message without typing it manually, press Ctrl+C on your keyboard when the message appears. Then, in an e-mail or word-processing program, press Ctrl+V to paste the text found in the title, message, and buttons.”
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