abacab
Select 'Small Memory Dump'

Done this, too, now, so just have to wait for the next "unplanned shutdown" haha!

abacab
maybe it will not happen again.  Let's hope!

Haha! Yeah... Lappy been on for seven hours solid now and not a blink...
 
I should have mentioned, actually, that I've been having problems recently where things would freeze for about thirty seconds or so, even the little clock on my Logitech keyboard (which has a seconds hand).
 
I'm wondering if that has some kind of bearing on things, in that I haven't experienced that so much lately, but then I started having these crashes. But that happened more when I was using Chaotica to render some fractal frames for one of my animations and I haven't used that software for a bit.
 
So, yeah, perhaps changing all the different power and USB settings will sort things out... Only time will tell...
 
Thanks again,
 
andy

Update:-
 
 
Nothing to say other than, no crashes since changing all that USB power management stuff...
 
(could be the kiss of death that...)
 
 
Massive thanks again to everyone who pitched in here

abacab
Glad to hear you got it sorted!  Sounds like you are good to go! 
 
Make a note to check the power settings after any big updates.  No telling when Microsoft may try to reset the defaults again. 

Thanks, John.
 
Yeah, good point, and I really need to copy all the good stuff above cos I am likely to forget all that.
 
cheers, and thanks again,
 
andy