my computer is rebooting on its own during normal operation

The first thing to do is to make the computer stop on a BCC (informally a BSOD) and not automatically restart when an error is encountered. Do this by right-clicking Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab then click Settings at the bottom alongside Startup and Recovery. In System Failure remove the tick from ‘Auto Restart’. Now, when a BSOD occurs, the STOP error details will be displayed on the screen. Make a note of the hexadecimal error number (the format is 0x00000aaa, where aaa is the error code, e.g. 07B). Also, there will be an error name, like INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE and the message may point to a specific file. After noting the error, you will have to manually turn off the computer, i.e. press and hold in the power button, wait 10 seconds then restart. Look for an explanation of your error number as shown in the left pane here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms795508.aspx

my computer is rebooting on its own during normal operation Hi SteveAre you using the Windows 7 Release Candidate?If you are, then the shutdowns are normal and are part of the expiration process for that beta version. You should have been seeing alerts, starting in mid-February that the system would start shutting down, every 2 hours beginning on March 1.You can verify the version you are using by pressing WinKey+R to bring up the Run dialog box, type winver in the Open line and pressing OK. This will show a dialog box with the Version and Build number.If it shows Build 7100, then you are using the Release Candidate.Let us know what you see. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Since Windows system uses separated user mode and kernel mode memory space, stop errors are always caused by kernel portion components, such as a third-party device drivers, backup software or anti-virus services (buggy services). The system goes to a BSOD because there is some exceptions happened in the kernel (either the device driver errors or the service errors), and Windows implements this mechanism: When it detects some errors occur in the kernel, it will kill the box in case some more severe damage happens. Then we get a blue screen or the system reboots (it depends on what the system settings are). To troubleshoot this kind of kernel crash issue, we need to debug the crashed system dump. Unfortunately, debugging is beyond what we can do in the forum. A suggestion would be to contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) via telephone so that a dedicated Support Professional can assist with your request. Please be advised that contacting phone support will be a charged call. To obtain the phone numbers for specific technology request please take a look at the web site listed below: Microsoft - Help and Support If you are outside the US please see Microsoft Worldwide Home for regional support phone numbers. Meantime we can try some available steps as a general troubleshoot. 1. Please remove the antivirus and run the system with a period. If the issue does not occur, mainly focus on antivirus settings and compatibility. 2. Disable Automatic Restart and see detail information on the blue screen. 1).Click Start, in the Start Search box enter sysdm.cpl. 2).Click the tab Advanced. Under Startup and Recovery, click the Settings button. 3). Uncheck “Automatically restart”. 4). On the drop-down menu “Write debugging information”, choose “Small memory dump”. 5). Click OK. When Blue Screen displays, try to find which *.sys file is cause the blue screen. Usually it is listed in the bottom part.Arthur Xie - MSFT