To list a few -
Overheat.
Defective hardware.
Malware (virus or excessive spyware).
Bad power quality from the wall socket.
Corrupted software install.
The good news is that you can make that Blue screen stay up long enough to read it or you can look in the windows error log and post the info back here for help.
To specify what Windows does if the system stops unexpectedly
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
- Open System in Control Panel.
- On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
- Under System Failure, select the check boxes that correspond to the actions you want Windows to perform if a Stop error occurs:
Using Event Viewer
Event Viewer maintains logs about program, security, and system
events on your computer. You can use Event Viewer to view and manage the event logs, gather information about hardware and software problems, and monitor Windows security events.
Open
Event Viewer.
Notes
- To open Event Viewer, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.
- For information about using Event Viewer, in Event Viewer, on the Action menu, click Help.
- For more information, click Related Topics.
You can check the temperature using a free utility that comes with the PC, in Bios right after a crash or using a free dowenload like SISOFT Sandra. 35- 55 deg C is normal. The P4 CPUs can run a little hotter than that. If you have high speed graphics the newer cards have a utility in their control panel to read temp.