Windows Rebooting

A friend's computer recently started rebooting after about 20 seconds of logging into windows 2000 Pro. He is able to boot into safe mode however. Thinking it may have been a variant of the msblast worm the fix was ran for it to no avail. Any ideas or other recent attacks on MS software?

Since safe mode loads the bare minimal, it makes me wonder if there is a driver that it doesnt like...perhaps the videocard? Try updating all drivers for hardware.

I'll try that, but still seems odd that the setup would just suddenly start doing that after eleven months of stability.

Open "System Properties" | "Advanced" tab | Startup and Recovery-->"Settings" button | Uncheck "Automatically restart", under the "System failure" field. The next time your friend's computer crashes (when the system stops unexpectedly), it won't automatically restart...but will show an error message on a blue screen (BSOD)--hopefully.

If and when the BSOD appears, write down the error message exactly, and post it in this thread. I would also suggest running Event Viewer (in order to access the error logs, and check for any critical errors)...Start | Run | Type eventvwr.msc and click OK | Highlight "Application" and "System" independently in the LH pane | Right click the error message(s) (critical errors are in Red), and select "Properties" | Write down a couple of the error messages exactly as they appear (under the "Description" field), and post them in this thread.

Also, open the System Information tool by typing msinfo32 in the Run box. Expand "Components", and click on "Problem Devices"...look for any problems that might be listed there.

From the hardware angle, check to see if the CPU fan is clogged with dust, and that all the fans are working and cleared out. Also check the heatsink contact.

Additionally, did you check to see if your friend updated any drivers or installed any shady stuff recently?