Solved: Blue Screen and shut down while away from computer, sometimes a loud fan

I left my computer on overnight, and when I just returned to it I discovered that it had shut down, and when I started it up, I was informed that Windows had just recovered from an unexpected shut down. I'm sorry I don't have much more info, as I wasn't there when it happened. Though I guess I should mention that the other night, even though I was not doing anything on my computer, a fan was working really hard (loudly), so I just shut it the PC down. I'm thinking it could be overheating, but it is currently quite cold where I am, so it doesn't really make much sense. I'd love if you could help. Here's the details of the error - if it's at all helpful:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 9f
BCP1: 0000000000000003
BCP2: FFFFFA8007736060
BCP3: FFFFF80000B9C518
BCP4: FFFFFA8007B292B0
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\111911-42089-01.dmp
C:\Users\Kate\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-112507-0.sysdata.xml

 

Check your event longs in Event Viewer around the time the shutdowns started to occur.for any critical errors. That should be your first starting point. You can also cross reference the reliability monitor to see if there were any changes around the time that the computer started shutting down that may have caused the issue.

 

There's actually nothing about this in the Event Viewer, but I haven't checked the reliability monitor
yet - I'll do so today. Thanks!

Huh, it says video hardware error. After the unexpected shutdown, I check to see if I needed any new drivers and I think I updated the driver for my video card. So I think I'm good - updating my drivers actually made my boot time a bit faster, it seems. Thanks so much for the help! I didn't know that thing existed, but it's so helpful.

 

Anytime. The Reliability Monitor was just recently implemented with the release of Windows 7. I don't think it was available with Vista. But being I skipped on Vista I can't say for sure. But use both utilities when troubleshooting BSODs and other errors.