Blue Screen Of Death!!! Help!!! Please!!!

Please somebody help me! I don't know what's wrong with my computer!

I am running Windows XP Professional on an IBM ThinkPad. Recently, I've been sporadically getting the "Blue Screen Of Death" when the computer comes out of sleep mode. And then I restart it, and it freezes with the screen that counts down and says that the disk needs checked for ??? something. I have virus software running continuosly and also have run a spybot, and nothing. I've deleted every program I have that I don't need and also done a disk clean-up and also a defrag, and I contact Microsoft help and support and I couldn't understand the guy and he kept emailing me like twice a day...

What else should I do? What is wrong? (I know you can't tell from this, if you need some specific info ask for it, I'm reasonably computer-literate but by no means am I any good at it)

If you can give me any specifics (word for word) of what the error messages say, that would be really helpful.

Also, what was going on before this happened? Did you upgrade any hardware, install new software, find a trojan, etc?

The only thing I installed new is iTunes. I haven't found any spyware/trojans/viruses, etc.

The one error message is the blue screen that gives you the option to start with the last known good configuration and says "if this is the first time you have seen this screen restart your computer" the other ones say things like "windows has encountered a fatal error and is unable to start".

It only happens when the computer comes back from sleep mode or restart, it never crashes once it's on, and the tech guy had me disable everything on the start menu and that made it worse.

I know exactly what screen you are talking about...
Thats why i always leave my computer on. Sorry, I am not computer technically educated. But I found the only thing that works for me, is if you can get in that safe mode...Its hard for me to remember because its been about 3wks, but I think that safe mode, and then dell always makes me put my XP disk in and push the button to download it again...

That XP disk and me have been hand in hand..Thats why I always leave mine on
Sorry I couldnt be much help, but no matter how many times you start it , it never goes away for me..
I tried to even leave days inbetween, and no matter what every time I turned it on it was there

p.s. everytime I download any of those music things, I automatically crash. Even iTunes.
And be prepared, if you do anything like that XP stuff, usually I loose everything!!

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

and the tech guy had me disable everything on the start menu and that made it worse.

Click to expand...

That worries me a lot. This leaves me to believe that maybe he told you to disable something that was critical. Who is this tech guy? Is he from some company, or just someone you know?

What happens if you totally shut down the computer, let it sit for a few minutes, then start it up again by pressing the power button?

The tech guy from Microsoft. Maybe he didn't say everything, I did exactly what he said to do, it was a little while ago. Can you tell me how to get back to the start-up options tool so I can see what's enabled/disabled? (I'm really good at using Apple computers, this Windows platform is killing me).

If I shut down the computer, it restarts in diagnostic mode (the IBM one, not the Windows one) because I wanted it to, says everything is fine so far, and then once windows starts EVERY single time it goes to that "One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency" screen, and counts down and then runs the disk check that takes forever, usually ends up everything is fine. Then it runs pretty smoothly, although a while ago it did this thing where a bunch of messages about programs I've never heard of were missing extensions or had invalid file paths or something, I think it was spyware because I ran the spybot and it stopped.

Okay, but I just ran Spybot again, and it didn't find anything, but it WILL NOT update and when I ran it the anti-virus software found two viruses in Spybot???? They were Dialers? I think it was Dialer-185 and Dialer-184, I looked them up but there wasn't much info. I deleted Spybot from my computer and the two viruses were successfully deleted.

It's like, just all these weird little problems that are going on but it still works pretty well once it's on!

Have you tried a system restore?

Will a system restore delete everything on my computer?

no you can do a system restore set it to a date and time b4 these problems started you will only lose the stuff you downloaded after that date

no it wont. never has on mine, which is why it never really solved my problems, it was always stuff i had on mine that caused it to crash

if your pc was ok b4 you downloaded that itunes set your restore to a point b4 the date you got itunes

It started before I got iTunes. Do you guys think it may have been the "Dialer" viruses that were deleted yesterday? It has not happened since?

Yes, it is very possible that it could have been the dialer viruses. Keep an eye on your system and let us know if this happens again.

Also, make sure your antivirus program is kept up to date.

It's set to update automatically daily through the university's system, so hopefully it does! Little warnings always pop up if I unplug the internet that say "your antivirus program may be out-of-date". So I deleted Spybot and reinstalled it, updated it, and ran it... and found 36 problem programs that were not there when I ran it yesterday! Also the antivirus found another virus in the spybot. My puter is running faster now!

Cross your fingers that Mikey (my computer's name, for some reason, does anyone else name theirs?) doesn't crash anymore!

Thank you all for all your help!

Along with spybot, I would also recomment Ad-Aware SE (free), and Spyware Blaster (also free). The second one (as long as all programs are kept up to date) should help to keep these spyware junkies off your computer.

What is the error message when it goes to BSOD? I have a Thinkpad T42 which crashes because of the Wireless Driver. (Though I think something got fixed in a Windows update because I haven't seen it recently). The types of things I've seen to cause the BSOD are bad drivers and corrupted registries.

The IBM Update Connector has been replaced by another program, ThinkVantage System Update. I would recommend installing this program and running it to find if there are any updates for drivers, etc.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

It started before I got iTunes. Do you guys think it may have been the "Dialer" viruses that were deleted yesterday? It has not happened since?

Click to expand...

You will always get problems if you use music downloaders,
they seem to spread through your system like a virus,you need to look in your registrys and make sure all these things are out of your program files.

Alos if you can afford it get a registry scanner you can use this trial one it will tell you what problemks you have,


http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/

I would check to make sure that all of your drivers are up to date. Typically the Blue Screen happens when you run an Windows Update and you have a driver that is incompatible with the update.
Just visit IBM Support for more information.

Otherwise, if your drivers are all up to date, download and install: www.ewido.com. It's a 14 day trial, BUT that's only for the real time protection. It often finds spyware where Spybot doesn't.

The issue with anything free (freeware) is that it often downloads/installs its own spyware without you knowing this. Ad-ware was famous for this. That is why its best to install 2-3 different Anti-spyware softwares to help cover tracks.

Also, do you have the exact #'s it displays on the blue screen? I.e.:
STOP 0x00000; 4x867032 blah blah has caused a fatel error? If so, LOOK THAT NUMBER UP on http://support.microsoft.com. This will tell you better details.

Itunes may have made changes to a some system driver,

the advice from lunasmom is about word for word what i would have said,
but she did it much better and with better spelling

Okay it just happened again. I don't know if this is what it said last time...

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

***STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000000, 0x00000010, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I tried looking it up and it says something about USB ports, of which I have one, and it's my laser printer, and never caused any problems for the previous years they've been together.

Everything on my computer is set up to update automatically. Do I still need to download things?

I have spybot and McAfee. Those were required when I lived on campus (and free!) I have McAfee set to catch spyware too. Should I get another one?

Thank you guys so much for the help. I will die if my computer dies.