While
testing my RMI server using multiple clients I encountered a nasty Windows reboot. When I started the 17th GUI client the screen would go black and the system would reboot.
After much fooling around with memory testers and searching the web for answers I found an obscure
J2EE bug report saying that a W2K server reboot problem had been fixed by upgrading the video driver.
That turned out to be the correct fix here as well. The card in question is an ATI RagePro and the good driver is 5.0.2195.5013.
I hope this is of help to anyone else who encounters this problem.