BIG BLUE SCREEN?? wut's up

last couple of weeks, i've gotten a blue screen come up that tells me that i have a 'serious' error. it asks for me to shut down the computer. at first the instructions were different from this last screen that came up. anyway, need major help in knowing what that blue screen is all about. a friend tells me that is the screen of death! wow, can it be that bad?????

 

What is the stop error? What were you doing when the BSOD appeared? What are your specs?

read this:

http://forum.majorgeeks.com/announcement.php?f=22

 

yeah "the screen of death" means there is a bad problem (the last times i got it i had to reformat and clean install windows)

 

mamma, here. here's my specs and other info - hopefully needed to understand 'error'.....not your high end type of system, but it works for me.....
winxp home ed. sp2
celeron 4 1700 mhz 1.7 Ghz
memory 256mb

Error message:
STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000166, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x84E5433)
then it said; beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.....i have none of these resources!

it did say if this is the first time seeing this message, shut down your computer, if not then follow these instructions. then it talks about new hardware and or software and is it properly installed. if problems continue disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software and to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. if i need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart comp press F8 to select advaced startup options and then select safe mode......i have no idea how to do this by myself.

ok that's it in a nut shell. let me know if there's anything else needed.

thanks to anyone and everyone in helping me.


signed- mamma

ps-i got rid of my newly (within a few months) Earthlink's Security program for virus protection and other stuff. updated when it asked me, and for some reason things weren't working right. i restored computer to very early date. uninstalled earthlink's program and newly installed AnitVir program instead. haven't had blue screen YET, but still waiting to see what happens. also, i have updated MS updates as recommeded.

 

go to start > control pannel > admin tools > Even viewer, high light System and see why it has hanged, sometimes a specific culprit is reported there.

 

when i go to adm. tools and get the event info....i'm not sure how to understand it. i see some 'attention' icons for 'Warnings' and some red signs white X's for 'Error'. anyway, if you can give me some advice on what exactly i am supposed to view here, it would be helpful, also, i did discover that i can highlight and click on any one of these events in system to read further on what happened, but i see nothing about the 'stop error' i received with that scary BLUE screen. guess that's it....as always thanks for your help.

mamma

 

wow. lots to understand here. i just don't think i can go through it by myself and probably need someone to help me. guess i have to pay someone to walk me through it. i could print out all the instructions and their side notes, but what if something happens and then what do i do???


noteably have you updated any hardware drivers of late ( graphic card etc )?[/QUOTE]

no. i don't think i have done this. how do you get updates to drivers -hardware or graphic?

thanks halo for your help also.