Desktop

Right click on My Computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer.

Check the System and Application logs for errors. That will tell you (hopefully!) what the problem was.

You can disable the Automatic restart so you can see the blue screen.

System properties > Advanced, and in startup and recovery click on settings and remove the tick in Automatic restart

Just a suggestion but try changing the memory unit or if you have two then remove one then try to see if the situation improves.

I have had this problem with Notebooks before where only a part of the memory unit is damaged thus creating the occaisional Bluescreen.

If this doesn`t help send me the code and I can look it up or try the microsoft web site under support. I`m not sure exactly where but they have some(but not all) the codes listed and the solution for the problem.

Do a full scandisk and make sure that you don't have a bad sector or stray cluster on your drive. It's not uncommon to get a bad drive right off the assembly line. XP uses a dynamic swapfile setup unless you specify a static, starting with a specified size, then resizing it up to the maximum value, depending on its needs. If you have a bad sector on your drive and XP tries to expand its swapfile on to it, you will get all sorts of fatal exception errors, usually the classic 0E (memory) error, since Windows treats the swapfile as memory, not hard drive (0D exception, if I remember correctly).

This may also be a virus/trojan. I recently had a nasty little guy install itself on my machine using the blue screen to mask its installation. Since the screen pops up so quickly, I didn't catch what happened. Norton also didn't have time to prevent the install, but removed it upon restart. Can't remember what it was called, though. Been fighting too many worms lately.

Most laptops only come with a 30 day subscription to whichever antivirus software they have preinstalled. Make sure that you have the most current update, and perform a full virus scan. Turn up the heuristics, as they may detect unknown viruses as well.

Good luck!
Ed

I am reluctant to give you this answer since it is not an answer really and will be rejected but it is the logical thing to do. Because you just purchased the laptop return it to the seller under warranty. They should be able to pull the log files off the hard drive and figure out the problem to repair. Laptops are expensive and you do not want to waste time troubleshooting if there is a warranty involved.