sudden shut down and restart while using solidworks

[sojouner]

we have 2 "new "machines at work , both are pentiun 4s running @1.8 GHZ(intelp4 845 pe chipset on mother board i think) with 512 MEGS RAM AND 3d labs video card 64 meg wildcat(?) dual vid out puts running on win xp.
the problem is we are getting random shut downs and reboots . i want to know if anybody else is having (had ) a similar problem.
ithink that it is a power supply problem.
what does a p4 1.8 ghz proc supposed to run on? is it 1.5 volts ? during boot up I see the bios saying 1.5 volts( although I don't know if it has anything to do with the proc voltage)
i thougt that a p4 1.8 ran @ around 1.75 - 1.85 volts?
anyother suggestions would be of great help!
thanks brett

 

[WilliUSF]

Glad to hear you figured out why your system was crashing. As for the reboot...Not sure if this is EXACTLY the same with XP but with Windows2000 but you can set your system to reboot automatically if the system crashes. It sounds as if your graphics driver was crashing your system but instead of getting the "blue screen of death" your system was simply rebooting. Go to System Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery. See if there is a check box for "Automatically reboot" under the "System Failure" heading.
If the system simply reboots after a system crash you have no idea what happened but (believe it or not) the Blue Screen will sometimes give you a message to help solve the problem.

 

[littlef8]

I'm glad you have the problem solved. If this should happen in the future, look under the event viewer to see what errors you are getting. Also, under system/system recovery and restore, there is an option to reboot the computer when there is an error. If you turn that off, next time you will be able to see the error rather than rebooting and it will give you a direction to go in.

I've been there enough times.