windows 8 reset problem

[Boysground]

I wonder if the experts can give me some advice. My son is at college and his win 8 laptop today got very hot and then flashed a blue screen and restarted itself. When it restarted most of the contents were gone. Fortunately all the important stuff was also on a separate drive. He has windows, internet explorer and a couple of other things, no media player, office etc. In his words it seems to have done a factory reset.

I was wondering if anybody knows the cause, is the computer dying? It does ask for the win 8 key on startup, I cant find the disc yet.

Thanks for any advice
BG

 

[Lincs Lass]

Got an HP laptop on W8 thats forever doing it ,screen go's blank with out warning and then into restart mode

 

[Boysground]

This one has reset everything and lost lots. Looks like self restarting is not uncommon if you look on google.

BG

 

[Notquiteretired]

Most builds have a DR (disaster recovery) partition (area of the hard disk) sounds like they have gone into DR mode and 'followed the bouncing ball' not realising what was happening.
Upgrade to Windows10 (if it'll run it) Win8 is a terrible operating system

 

[Boysground]

Thanks will give it a go. Just need to find the original windows disc for the key number. Means going into the boys room, not a good thing.

Bg

 

[Mursal]

Its not in "safe mode" ?
The screen will look different with less options as you describe. If the operating system encounters a problem it will restart in safe mode. You will have the option to go into full mode as it boots up? Most likely the battery is on the way out?
Teenagers are the best in the world, but you'd want to take what they say with a grain of salt.
He might be looking an upgrade?

 

[Mursal]

You could also try:
Control Panel
Back up my computer
Select recover system settings or your computer
Follow the links to restore your operating system to a previous date.