Excuse the OT - but figure this is the most knowledgeable and responsive forum around. Running WinXPPro - I get a little brown box that pops up to inform me that Windows must shut down now because the "remote call procedure" has shut down.

There is a sixty-second counter (I think it's sixty seconds) that allows me some time to close my programs, sign off, etc. At about the 7-second mark, windows begins shutting down and will eventually reboot.

After reboot, the process will repeat itself, whether or not I actually do anything on the computer. If I allowed it to go on, I think the computer would cycle up and down all day long.

My work around is to initiate a system restore as soon as a reboot is complete. I select a point about a week back. The system restore seems to fix the problem.

This happened to me about two weeks ago during a recording session (fortunately, it was a studio session, not a live performance). Performing a system restore allowed me to continue with my work.

Haven't had a recurrence until this morning. I was online reading the news, etc. when that box popped up again.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what might be causing this? I never download from questionable or unknown sources, haven't opened any unknown email of late - hope this isn't some annoying virus or worm.

Thanks for any advice.

Caruso