Automatic reboot

Indeed, I think it's most likely a hardware problem, and DELL should give you a new one that works, which is probably why they think it is a software problem! :)

Just to be certain, throw the Norton stuff away. If it still happens, it's almost certainly hardware.

Regards....Mike Connor

Often unexpected restarts can be caused by many things from a faulty power supply to dodgy ram, so it can be very hard to trouble shoot. Have you tried looking at your reliability monitor which might narrow it down a bit.

You might also want to try running the System File Checker to make sure you dont have a corrupted file.

To do this, click on the Start orb and type cmd.exe in the Start Search box. Rightclick on it and choose "Run as Administrator". Once the Command Prompt opens, type
"sfc /scannow" without the quotes and hit Enter. The System File Checker will start. It might take a while to complete so be patient. Reboot when it has completed.

Or...you might have automatic restart enabled and you are getting BSODs and you don't know it. Make sure it is disabled by going typing advanced system settings in the start search and hitting enter. Click settings under startup and recovery. Make sure automatic restart is not checked and write event to system log is checked. Hit ok and then hit apply. The next time the computer crashes, instead of restarting, you will get a blue screen.