BLUE SCREEN of DEATH!

Well… my computer was working fine. We moved and had no internet connection for about a month. In that time we have tried to play on the computer, and was successful… the first couple of times… Then it started with the blue screen. I would promptly turn the computer off so as to avoid any costly damage. I just recently turned the internet back on (within the past week) and now it stopped…. no more blue screen. Well yesterday, out of the blue (no pun intended), it decided to do the crash screen… I worked on a few things, received a little bit of help from another part of this site. It has continued to do this repeatedly, and many times the computer staying on just long enough to tell me that it was unable to launch windows…. So I was pointed in this general direction. I am honestly surprised that this time the computer is working long enough for me to post this. Haven't been able to make it stay on all day. Is there anything that I can do, I'm not sure if it is virus related, but I have a pretty good feeling so. I have ran the quick scan on Avast, and rid our computer of the 2 infected files. I had also attempted to run the full scan, and to no surprise, it shut down on me, thus completely nullifying the previous 4 hours spent waiting on the scan to complete…. Please help me! computer has been completely off for over a week now, cannot turn it on like normal otherwise it immediately shuts us down, just tried out safe mode with networking just to see what i can do. please help!

Hi Fergueson. You said you tried out Safe Mode with Networking but you didn't say what happened? Did it work or did you still get the BSOD? Need the information from the BSOD before I can do anything to help. BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death

I do apologize for not being more specific! I have no clue as to why i thought that i could do that then, while the kids were still awake it has been working in safe mode, is how I am accessing the internet at this very moment. Now as far as any specifics on the BSOD, it happens so fast that i don't catch too much, many consecutive sequences of numbers and such. I have noticed it showing a possible problem file, which was NTFS.sys, and a few others which I cannot remember off the top of my head. Thank you for your time and look forward to speaking again.

Just received this message: ******************************************************************* Address a problem with your computer You received this message because hardware or software on your computer caused Windows to shut down unexpectedly and restart. This is a serious problem, commonly referred to as a stop error or blue screen. If you have received this error more than once, we recommend that you do the following: Back up your files to avoid data loss in case of a complete hardware failure. Contact the original manufacturer of your computer to determine the specific component which is failing. How do I find my computer manufacturer? Click the Start button , type msinfo32 in the Search box, and then press ENTER. Your computer manufacturer is listed as the System Manufacturer in the right pane of the System Information window. Click to go online to see contact information for most computer manufacturers Additional technical information Although we know the problem is caused by a hardware component, the error report does not contain enough information to tell us the specific component. It is likely that the problem is being caused by one of the following computer components: Random access memory (RAM) System board Central Processing Unit (CPU) Power supply ******************************************************************* I would find my system manufacturer…. Acer, which I already knew.

Working in Safe Mode is a good thing. That means the problem is some software or driver that loads during a normal boot is causing the problem. We should be able to figure out what it is and remove or replace it.

To record the BSOD info, you need to turn off Automatic Restart:

Right click on My Computer.
Click Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery Settings.
Uncheck box for "Automatically restart".

How to use msconfig to determine what is causing the BSOD problem.

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP or Vista:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, boot to Safe Mode again, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system.
Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

Thanks for the assistance, I am about to try out your suggestions and will report back what I discover. Thanks again for your time!

Ya know, I have always wondered how to go in and adjust which programs started up with the computer. After glancing through and taking off the ones that have been auto starting that I know for a fact I don't want on there, it only left a small handful that I was unsure about. I started to go through it in 4's. The first four were: Java, Microsoft Windows Operating System (x2 - one's location was for window's sidebar, the other for eHome\ ehTray), and Acer eAP Launch Tool. Rebooted, and after about 20 seconds in, up popped the BSOD. Am trying again, with only Java enabled, seeing as how I had my suspicions about this program. We were alerted sometime back that we needed to update our Java. Had put it off for a while, and when we went to do it, we would make it to the part to where it should have began to download. Then the window would disappear, and the computer did absolutely nothing in regards to showing it was downloading anything. Continue to receive message, and yet each time we would try, no luck…. So, as I mentioned, am trying it with only Java enabled just to see and am not having any problems thus far. Now, with the other two, the MS Windows O.S. start-ups, and the acer Launch Tool, are those absolutely necessary? Will it cause problems with my computer without it? I feel as if I am computer savvy, more so than your average run of the mill computer user, but it's not particularly my forte when it comes to making major changes to the computer without causing irreplacable harm. Thanks again for being patient with my ignorance, and I look forward to helping bring an end to this problem! **Edit** Continued to try out the process, and there is one place in particular that seems to provoke the BSOD, which I am unsure whether or not this would have any impact on the issue any whatsoever, but I seem to have it go into its shutdown phase about 30 seconds into the beginning of logging into my World of Warcraft (WoW) account. This time when I was prompted with the BSOD, this is what information I recieved: Technical Information: *** STOP 0x00000024 (0x001904AA, 0x9770D924, 0x9770D620, 0x87A89213) *** Ntfs.sys - Address 87A89213 base at 87A02000, Datestamp 49e0192a Before the BSOD, World of Warcraft issued their own error message. This is what that entailed, just in case any of this is at all related. This application has encountered a critical error: ERROR #132 (0x85100084) Fatal Exception Program: C:\Users\Public\Games\WorldofWarcraft\WoW.exe Exception: 0xC000000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 001B:00665346 The instruction at "0x0065346" referenced memory at "0x00000000". This memory could not be "written". Press OK to terminate the application. Second BSOD: *** STOP 0x0000008E (0xC000001D, 0x822EA0D4, 0x9AC77784, 0x00000000) With the msconfig, I seem to have only encountered an issue with the Microsoft Windows Operating System (sidebar). When I had this one in particular enabled, everything seemed to be going smoothly. About 15 minutes into it I decided to test out WoW. Once again had the same problem. It shut it down on me and I received a third BSOD. Results are listed below: *** STOP 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x94DA0D13, 0x9CA2CC14, 0x00000000) *** win32k.sys - Address 94DA0D13 base at 94CF0000, Datestamp 4a856629

Since WoW causes/aggravates the problem, I'm leaning toward a video driver as the cause. Do you have a ATI video card? If so, read here:

Stop: 0x0000008E & win32k.sys Error and SOLUTION (mabey)

Another possibility is a NTFS file system problem (the ntfs BSOD you noted). The best way to fix file system problems is to run chkdsk.

Open My Computer.
Right click on drive: and select Properties (drive: is any drive)
Click on the Tools tab then the Check now button.
Check the "Automatically fix File System errors" box.

or click on Start then Run, type chkdsk /r and press Enter.

For C: you will get a window that says the check could not be performed ….
Do you want to schedule this disk check to run the next time you restart the computer?
Click on Yes.

Shutdown and reboot. Chkdsk will start. It can take an hour or more to run depending on the size of your hard drive. Be patient and let it complete undisturbed.