Can anyone tell me why Windows rebooted itself recently?

[Guest]

My Windows XP HE computer has just rebooted itself. Has there recently been
an upgrade from Microsoft that would account for this?

I'm concerned that if there hasn't, then I may have a virus or a trojen.
However, if there has, then I'm somewhat dissapointed / annoyed that a
message dialog did not pop up and wait until I acknowledged the need for a
reboot, and hope that whoever did this will in future code upgrades requiring
a reboot to wait for my acknowledgement.

 

[Guest]

The "Restart your Computer now?" dialog is modal. You must acknowledge the
dialog to regain any focus other than the dialog. It does, however, default
to "Restart Now" when you hit the enter key. You probably missed the
appearance of the dialog, and inadvertantly hit the enter key to dismiss it.
All installed updates that need a restart include the "Restart your Computer
now?" dialog, and it is always modal.

 

[Guest]

I was not at the time doing anything with the keyboard or mouse or any other
input device.

Has there been an update from Microsoft that would cause the computer to
restart itself? I'm asking because today I saw a computer at work behave as
mine did. If the behaviour is not the result of an update, then I may have a
new virus or trojen to deal with.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My Windows XP HE computer has just rebooted itself. Has there recently been
an upgrade from Microsoft that would account for this?

I'm concerned that if there hasn't, then I may have a virus or a trojen.
However, if there has, then I'm somewhat dissapointed / annoyed that a
message dialog did not pop up and wait until I acknowledged the need for a
reboot, and hope that whoever did this will in future code upgrades requiring
a reboot to wait for my acknowledgement.

Two points.

1. You are presumably blue-screening, and you are set to the default
of rebooting whenever that happens. Right-click My Computer, and
choose Properties. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup
and Recovery. Under System failure, uncheck the box "Automatically
restart.

Now when the problem occurs again, instead of restarting, you will get
the blue screen with diagnostic information. Post back with those
details for more help.

2. Such behavior is very often caused by a hardware problem, such as
overheating, power issues, or bad RAM.

 

[Bob Johnston]

Strangely my own second machine, which is running Vista Business (so I am
really in the wrong group) appears to have re-booted overnight, after
receiving an update, as it was sitting atthe login screen this morning ??

 

[Guest]

No blue screen. I said nothing about blue screen. My problem is that the
computers around me are rebooting themselves without any involvement from me.

At work today we had another computer reboot itself. It was one my
supervisor was using. He was in the middle of using it to back up files. He
was most annoyed that he was interrupted in what he was doing by the reboot
dialog. There were two buttons in it: "Reboot Now" and "Reboot Later" which
ws greyed out, so he had no choice but to stop and wait while the computer
rebooted itself.

Anyone care to explain why it is necessary for Windows X to have to force a
reboot after an update from Microsoft?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

No blue screen. I said nothing about blue screen. My problem is that the
computers around me are rebooting themselves without any involvement from me.

I know you said nothing about a blue screen. *I* am the one who said
it. If I wasn't clear, let me say it slightly differently: you are
getting a blue-screen type of error, but the computer is set to the
default to reboot instead of showing you the blue screen.

It's a terrible default, in my view. I recommend that you do as I said
in my earlier message and turn off that default so you get the blue
screen instead. That blue screen gives you diagnostic information that
can help you determine what the problem is.

 

[Bob Johnston]

I'm not sure you are following the track of this Ken, I have experienced the
same as Craig the day before yesterday overnight. It's the first time that
I've seen a Microsoft update automatically reboot a machine, but I am sure
it did !! By the way, I am not set to reboot on a blue screen !!

 

[Guest]

Ken,

The reboot behaviour has occured once only on each computer I have been
using, but on both the computers I use and on my supervisor's computer over a
24 hour period.

After my computer at home had rebooted itself I noticed a popup message in
the system tray. The first few words stated that my computer had been
updated. I could not read the rest of the message before it disappeared.

I have done as you instructed and removed the tick from the automatically
restart checkbox. I have noticed there is a ticked box indicating that
events are kept in a log. Would examining the log help? Also, is there a
log showing when and how the OS was updated?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,

The reboot behaviour has occured once only on each computer I have been
using, but on both the computers I use and on my supervisor's computer over a
24 hour period.

After my computer at home had rebooted itself I noticed a popup message in
the system tray. The first few words stated that my computer had been
updated. I could not read the rest of the message before it disappeared.

I have done as you instructed and removed the tick from the automatically
restart checkbox. I have noticed there is a ticked box indicating that
events are kept in a log. Would examining the log help?

Yes, that's a good source of info about what has happened.

Also, is there a
log showing when and how the OS was updated?

 

[Swifty]

It's the first time that I've seen a Microsoft update automatically

reboot a machine

I've seen this happen twice as I recall (once was today). Tell your
supervisor to ignore the "Boot Now/Boot Later" message, and especially
don't close it.
I believe that the system will wait forever for you to do something with
that dialog, so just don't. If you (or supervisor) are really concerned,
then install a dual display setup, drag the dialog onto the alternate
display and then turn it off.