My PC was built for me rather than bought from a manufacturer. It runs Win XP as an operating system. Recently it occasionally switches off and re-starts followed by a Microsoft message indicating a device driver fault. I had assumed this was associated with my iPod as it was attached via firewire at the times the PC switched off. This has now happened without the iPod attached. The only other factor I can think of is that my PC fan is continually on at present as the room in which I am working is hot. Could this be a contributory factor?

Any advice welcome

Gareth

Can you post us the exact BSOD error message?

Thanks for getting back to me. I am not sure what you mean by BSOD error message, but assuming it to be the Microsoft message it tells me that the computer has just recovered from a serious fault and offers me the option to send the information to Microsoft. Normally I ignore this, but on this occasion I sent it, to be told the failure had been caused by a device driver. On every occasion this happened my iPod was active. The PC simply shut down and restarted. I removed the iPod and all was well. Unfortunately this has happened on one other occasion when the iPod was not active. My CPU fan has been working extremely hard (hot weather in the UK!!!) and I wondered if this was a contributory factor.

Thanks again - hope this is of some use

Gareth

Switch your PC on after being off all night and go straight into the BIOS. To do this, press F2 and Delete alternately every second (as soon as the power is switched on) until it goes into the blue BIOS menu screen.

Go into the screen that reports the temperatures, voltages, etc and make a note of the temperatures. Then run your PC normally for a couple of hours, reboot and go into the BIOS and note the temperatures again.

If you can tell us what processor and graphics card you've got, someone should be able to advise whether it's getting too hot.

Alternatively, you could try opening the system case and running a mains-powered fan next to the PC to cool it down when it's really warm like it has been recently. Looks like it might be cooling down this week though so that might solve the problem anyway

Many thanks for your advice. I must say that the cooling down of the weather in London does seem to have helped - fan does not come on so quickly. Just in case, however, I have noted your requirements - the results are as follows:

On initial switch on
CPU temp 34C/95F, System temp 30C/86F
Following usage after 2-3 hrs
CPU temp 49C/120F, System temp 47C/116F

My processor is Intel [R] Pentium [R] 3.000GHz with 1.00 GB of RAM

I regret to say I do not know the Graphics card details - if it is critical how do I find such details?

Again my thanks - look forward to you evaluation.

Gareth