Windows encounters an error and shuts off automatically

Every so often my brother in laws cpu will just reboot for no reason, when it boots back up it says windows encountered an error and had to shut down

perhaps this has something to do with the problem
when you boot up it starts off with an error saying some delete folder cant be found or something like that

another thing he told me, which ive never seen before, is for some reason his task manager isnt accessible

ctrl alt delete doesnt let u get 2 it, says it has been disabled by the administrator(he is the admin)

he runs xp

thanks for any replies

 

sounds like either his hdd is dying or there is overheating i could be wrong though

 

A failing hdd will bring up the bsod with a warning mentioning backup your data your hdd is about to fail.

To me at first glance not being able to use task manger is the tell,it suggests virus??
Anyway moving on, best bet remove the hdd & recover the data or if your able too,do it from the computer to dvd or whatever media of choice,you'll need to scan the data afterwards to avoid infecting self again,then do a destructive reformat & reinstall,yeah you could attempt a repair if it's a virus but the time it takes to post logs & get help usually takes 2-3days & in that time you could've been backup & running in that time,then there's the issue of the OS just not working how it use too,been there done that now i just clone drives instead

if hdd is out of machine scan for viruses you could attempt a checkdisk but chances are it won't fix the issue

lastly get your self a copy of acronis or ghost,it would be good to get another hdd too but it's not necessary,if you need help in cloning or image making use the link

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

Of coarse it may not be a virus in which case ignore the post except for the last paragraph that's a life saver coz system restore is bloody useless.

 

i was able to actually get on his cpu for awhile yesterday

and nothing went wrong, until i used a program and transfered files ftp style

i used ftp client, i guess its possible that has a virus???

but seems if i just transfer a few files, no issue


transfer a bunch, REBOOT


maybe that narrows it down?

i mean i let it run for over 10 hrs never shut down, used that program a few times and transfered a lot of files, presto

 

There's only so many options as it could be anything so it's either software or hardware,fixing the software is simple it's just a reinstall from scratch if it's hardware it's a matter of knowing which bit,unless of coarse there is a ton of dust gunking up everything inside,then again an over heat issue would cause cpu fan to be at full blast full time,& since you were able to run for quite a while that would rule hardware & over heat issues out,which leaves us with what appears to be a software issue,i can only suggest a reformat,once done just do a few tasks on it without connecting to net,if all goes fine then go get updated etc

ps: bear in mind i'm only guessing @ what could be the prob,the fact the comp ran with out issue & was able to reboot usually suggests the hardware is ok,other than that,it's all i got

Edit: I've had times where transferring a stack of files the comp has collapsed & rebooted,i'm not sure of the reason but it had something to do with certain files in the folder,ended up doing it in safe mode

 

you can try running spinrite from grc.com but it is 80 dollars

 

Can you get it to run in safe mode. Sounds like a software/driver issue. Can you do system restore or maybe uninstall anything which may have been installed or updated of late.