computer problems?

Question

i have windows XP and now a blue screen comes up and says that windows needs to shut down because of a serious error....it describes itself as a "stop error", so i have to restart the computer and once it finally reboots itself, and i finally get logged back on, it has probably a 70% chance of doing the same thing, it is very frustrating stuff, so does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this problem!?

Answer 1

I have three answers. First XP has a System Restore program built in, you can pick a date (like last week, last month) when the computer was fine, and it will turn it back to that time. How to do it, just read this article: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/systemrestore.mspx

Second, you can download a free program that might fix your problem called Advanced Window Care (http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare/3000-2086-10407614.html).

Answer three, worst case, you might have to use the Windows XP CD that came with your computer and totally wipe out your hard drive, and reinstall Windows (ouch). Please try the first two suggestions. Best of luck.

Answer 2

(NIchloas Fs suggestions are good) I think you should still immediately do a backup.

Doesn't sound good so you'll want to take immediate precautions in case things start to unravel with your Windows XP PC.

Ok a few things here:

1) Immediately (Close all programs) If your computer crashes again, upon reboot don not, do not, run any programs.

2) You need to back up everything that you care about not losing.

If you don't know how to burn data cds or if you only have a cd-rom there are other options.

a) Buy a usb jump drive 512 MB or 1 GB or 2 GB or
b) you could zip up all of your important files and then email the zip file as an attachment to a friend as long as it's not to big.

(Often we only care about a subset of our data.) Choose those things that you would be very angry about losing if your computer would have a complete crash.


OK, The backup prepares you for a worst case scenario. Once you have a good backup thing you can start figuring out wants wrong with your system.

2) You should find a geek to help you (Go to Comp USA's Geek Squad, or find a friend who's a geek, or some kid who's a geek)

My hunch here is that you may need to reformat your hard drive and then re-install the OS. This could take a long time. If you're starting with Windows KP SP1, for example, you'll want to install the original OS and then immediately apply SP2 and then after that do all the subsequent SP2 Security Patches.

I had to do this for my brother's Dell and it took quite a long time.

The good news is that his computer is working great now.

Once you get the OS stable you can re-install all of your software.

Then you can restore your important data from the backup.

The blue screen of death is very ugly.

The other thing is that it could be a hardware issue. (Your hard drive could be failing, problems with your motherboard, problems with RAM etc...) The likely hood of any of these hardware issues is far lower than this being a Windows XP OS issue.

It could also be an issue with a particular Software application that you are running. You'll want to make sure you have the latest releases of these.

I hope this gives you a direction to go in.

Answer 3

Without a lot more detail, it's hard to be sure. If it's being caused by your software having been corrupted, and it's not calling out a specific file, you may be stuck reinstalling your whole system.

It could possibly be caused by a hardware error, but that isn't much easier to find. The main thing I would try first, if you're comfortable working inside your computer, is reseating the memory, and if there are more than one 'stick', swapping the locations. Make sure all your drive cables are firmly seated ( that one's a real long shot, but it doesn't hurt...) Make sure any cards are firmly seated ; something being out of a slot usually causes problems just trying to boot up, but I tend to make sure everything is solid as a habit if there's any chance of it helping.

If you do try swapping the memory, and it seems to show up somewhat differently, you may have a bad spot in your memory. If you know how to go into the BIOS system setup and disable fast startup, the system should do a simple memory test that may help verify that. Then you'd have to get replacement memory.

Sorry for the bad news, but that's pretty much been my experience.

Answer 4

If you've recently installed a new program, either intentionally or unintentionally due to spyware, it's possible that's causing the issue. With Windows XP, you can use System Restore to roll your computer back to a point in time before the installation.

Click on Start - Help and Support, and look for the line called "Undo changes to your computer with System Restore". Click that line and follow the instructions to roll your computer back to a previous point in time.

If you're having a hardware problem, System Restore may not help, but you can run System Restore again to put it back to the way it was before you rolled back, so it shouldn't hurt to try.

System Restore has saved my computer several times. It's a very useful tool.

Answer 5

Bad news. You might be describing the "Blue Screen of Death." The only known remedy for this is to reformat your hard drive. You will lose everything you have on that computer when you do. That would be my guess. You might take it up to Best Buy, and have the "Geek Squad" confirm this.

Answer 6

All blue screens are not fatal!!!!!!!!
What were you doing at the time of blue screen?
There is a code that is generated on blue screen and in control panel...administrative tools ...event viewer.
You can type that code into yahoo search engine and you can find help that way.

Answer 7

You should try to boot in Safe mode, or Last Known Good to see if it will boot OK. If it does, run Chkdsk to find and fix the error on the next boot.

Answer 8

Is your PC capable of running XP? Perhaps you need to do some file maintenance, like spy ware removal, virus clearing, fragmenting ?

Answer 9

i didn't think Xp had the BSoD lol um you could try to reinstall windows you would need the original boot disks do a repair first so you might save your files if that dosen't work you could reinstall it totally.

Answer 10

Rinstall windows from original operating system disc. Oh wait it's microsoft and you can't do that.... hmmm better go Linux