Random BSOD's

T

ThePacster

New Member
I recently reinstalled windows on my computer, was reinstalling the usual programs and thought everything would be fine. Then I remembered one last thing to do: Asian Language support. So, I went into the control panel, etc. and when I tried to check off the box for Asian Languages, BSOD.

Even now, if I try to click that check box my computer will BSOD everytime. So I let it slide, and went about my usual business, but it keeps happening and I don't know the trigger.

That checkbox: BSOD
Accidentally Alt+Tabbing to interenet explorer: BSOD
Trying to go to www.ebay.com (what's this about?): BSOD

It just keeps happening for the stupidest reasons, and I have no clue where this is coming from.
 
When you reinstalled Windows did you leave the existing partition inplace or reformat the drive in the process? It sounds like a trojan was already on the drive and now has come back to do whatever! Usually when you go to open something that needs support for a language other then English you will be prompted for installing language support then.

That isn't a major problem by itself. I can readily advise a few things here like running a free online security and malware scan at two sites. The first is Symantec's own online scanner found at http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/...d=22&pkj=NCGSCKMRKRFPECDMEYI&setjsax=1&bhcp=1

Housecall also seen in one of the malware removal sticky in the security section will require download of the trial version of Trend Micro's PC-cillin. But that is far more thorough with antispyware-adware removers and a personal firewall included. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

The main problem seems to be something left on the drive that needs removal. When you reinstalled Windows it must have reused something to make this active. One of the programs installed may have also originally contained a link for purchasing other things which is now an EBay link?!
 
I don't think its ebay exclusive, I just came back from leaving the computer idle to find another BSOD. And to your original question, I formatted the drive when I reinstalled windows. I've also used Spybot, Ad-aware SE, and McAfee several times and haven't come up with anything, so I'm pretty stumped. :confused:
 
It sounds like something you backed up and now replaced on the drive may have been infected by something that would go right by Spybot S&D and AdAware alike undetected or the htm type links seen as additional offers when installing different softwares are being forced to open somehow. Shareware that you downloaded and is now expired will do this by constant prompting when the trial is over.

Speaking of trial periods Trend Micro's 30day tryout period for PC-cillin was worth it here when it found data miners that AdAware missed along with a few trojans that went undetected by AVG as well as Spybot S&D. It puts a personal firewall inplace as well. Norton and McAfee "bite the dust" in comparison. Surprisingly PC-cillin offered more without being as demanding on resources. I gave this one a good run after spotting it in one sticky found in the security section here.

Give that a run. It will automatically remove McAfee however as part iof the installation. But it also has a good uninstaller built into it. You deleted the original partition but "something" managed to get back on. It won't touch AdAware or Spybot S&D so you don't have to worry about reinstalling those.
 
Well, Symantec, McAfee, Spybot, Ad-Aware, and PC-Cillin have all found nothing wrong with my computer. Just a few typical cookies. Perhaps my computer is haunted by some BSOD ghost :confused:
 
Read the codes at the bottom of the screen, write them down, and search error codes (or one of the codes) on microsoft.com or windows.com .

Then you should be able to find out the problem.
 
There are no codes on the screen. It goes black and the light on my monitor goes from yellow to orange as if my system's been shut off but its still running. After that all I can do is reboot it. :confused: perhaps this isn't BSOD but something else? I just figured it fit in the category of 'black screen of death' but i'm not totally computer savy just yet.
 
With the run of the various cleaners you more or less ruled out viruses/malwares and the like there. The problem sounds more like Windows simply freezing up. If you used a full install and not upgrade disk to put XP on the repair install option would be one idea to save time reinstalling everything all over again. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

The black screen you are most likely seeing is the black background seen just before the Windows start screen appears with logo and text. When it freezes up there your monitor is then left to go into standby mode. I suspect that you would want to have a clean install again with the added language support. But you could try the repair install method seen in the article there to see if your current installation is worth keeping.
 
PC eye said:
With the run of the various cleaners you more or less ruled out viruses/malwares and the like there. The problem sounds more like Windows simply freezing up. If you used a full install and not upgrade disk to put XP on the repair install option would be one idea to save time reinstalling everything all over again. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

The black screen you are most likely seeing is the black background seen just before the Windows start screen appears with logo and text. When it freezes up there your monitor is then left to go into standby mode. I suspect that you would want to have a clean install again with the added language support. But you could try the repair install method seen in the article there to see if your current installation is worth keeping.
Click to expand...

Man, I've been super busy. Anywho, I'll be sure to try a repair when I get home tonight, but the part underlined confuses me a bit. Thinking back to when my computer would freeze, are you saying my computer is taking me from whatever applications I'm running to the Windows start screen, or simply these symptoms are happening as I boot up?

The lockups are occuringly randomly as I run my computer, whether I'm browsing the internet, or just opening an application. At some point when I'm using the computer, everything stops responding and then after perhaps 5 seconds I get the black screen. :confused: Anywho, when I get off work I'll try the repair, and hopefully things will be ok.
 
Without a hardware or temp problem being seen another thought to throw your way is the bios version or even the battery on the board. How old is the board itself? When a battery went a year ago on a board here there were some constant freezes seen but mainly while running a game. One day the system saw "nothing" from a dead battery on a year old board.

Something like the cpu or memory overheating will also cause freezeup while the system is in use. The uses of the programs earlier was to rule out any type of virus infection as the reason for seeing this. With this occuring on a clean system once you are certain nothing got back on you then have to start looking at temps or a potential hardware failure. Memory, video cards, some type of driver clash are things that can also see locks.
 
The problem seen often with memtest however is pointing out errors when something else is the actual problem. That was seen with the same 2gb of memory being used when on the old board. Memtest reported 573 errors there and none on the new board? :confused: The real problem was the cpu overheating situation due to a failed fan on the hsf! :mad: Grrrrrr...! Yet it's been a great tool under other circumstances! :D

Driver conflicts and crosslinks between 3rd party and MS system files are another possible culprit. If you don't see any indications of a hardware fault one thing you can try is disabling a number of startups with the msconfig utility. Something autoloading along with Windows could be causing this.
 
Well, I did a repair on my computer this morning and everything seems stable. I've browsed the internet, used various programs, pretty much the usual business, and no crashing. ;)

I'll see how it goes, but I'm afraid to put the microsoft updates back on my PC :P
 
When you say repair is that a repair install of XP? If so it sounds like you did have some sort of snag between 3rd party drivers and system files or perhaps some crap leftover in the registry trying to load something no longer installed seeing clashes there. That would be likely if there are no hardware concerns. Still you will want to keep an eye on temps and try a few cleaners to get back to normal.

RegCleaner is a good one for cleaning up useless entries in the system regustry found at http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegCleaner_d460.html Another one that cleans there as well as finding a ton of no longer used files and folders is CCleaner. You can grab that one at http://www.ccleaner.com/ Some nickname this one the "crap cleaner"! :P
 
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