What you have been experiencing is a stop error. It is very likely that the stop error is disappearing too quickly for you to see. You will need to be able to see what this stop error message is telling you. In order to do this, you must:

1) Right-click on "My Computer" on the desktop, or in the non-classic Start Menu.

2) Select properties.

3) Click on the "advanced" tab.

4) Select the "settings" button under "Startup and Recovery".

5) Under "System failure", uncheck "automatically restart".

6) Click the "ok" button on both of the dialog boxes you have popped up. You may need to restart the computer after this.

7) Reproduce what initially caused the stop error (this should not be difficult for you in your case).

8) When the stop error comes on, it will be frozen in place on the screen, and the computer will not restart until you make it restart yourself. There are two very important pieces of information to record here:

A) Record the small string of information near the top of the screen. It is most commonly "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", but whatever it is, it should be listed on its own in caps.

B) There will also be some instructions listed on the screen; ignore them. Below the instructions is something that is listed that looks similar to this: "Stop error 0x00000000A (Parameter 1, Parameter 2, Parameter 3, Parameter 4)" The parameters vary by error, and the number that precedes the parameters also differs. Record this stop error information, as well. It is also very important.

When you obtain this information, go back to the dialog box in the system properties to make the computer automatically restart again upon stop errors. You can now search for this information on a search engine to look for solutions (many are in Microsoft's knowledge database) or post the stop error here for us to help you. This procedure is also for future reference, in case you get more stop errors; this is a good way to diagnose them.

Good luck.