Blue Screen multiple times - Dead PC??

So they have to have the 8 letters AND the date...?

But I don't know what you mean by a hidden attribute that is set.

 

I went and checked everything I found there and nothing with 8 letters had that date...I did not check the size or the attribute -- I'm assuming they have to have all of the list

 

Am I right to not worry if the .sys just has 14 KB and that's all the criteria it fits on your list (because I found a few of them)

 

I did a search for all of them on the local hard drive (C and didn't find any of them. I appreciate all your hard work and I think we're in the same time zone so you probably need to go to sleep too.

 

asyncmac = MS Remote Access Serial Driver
atinpdxx = ATI Specialized PCD VBI Codec RT2

 

No - none have any hidden attribute.

Once I put the drivers files in the "folder view" I found a few more .sys files that they rounded up or down to say they were 14 KB. They all sound and look like they are good to me - except for the first one - but I'll list them anyway:

recagent: Smart Link (?)

wacompen:Wacom Serial Pen Tablet HID Driver
atinmdxx: ATI specialized MVD VDI Codec RT2
diskdump: Crash Dump Disk Driver
atinttxx: ATI WDM Teletext Decoder

 

I still need to do the Dell Diagnostics -- I'll do that next.

I read those pages -- doesn't look like anything new to me.

When I run "find new hardware" or any of the "troubleshooters" or try to "install drivers" it can't find any on the "Drivers and Utilities" CD from Dell (but when I open that CD all it says is "Modem Helper" ??)

I'll probably be stuck calling Dell sometime (ugh!)

 

I ran Dell Diagnostics (Express Test and several tests on the "Symptom tree" - Hard Drive errors and Windows blue screen). Everything passed and showed no errors.

I ran the scan on the Dell site you directed me to. It came up with 2 items to correct: the virtual memory page file was too small and it needed an upgrade of Microsoft System Configuration Utility -- so I downloaded and ran those.

It does still seem that something is missing from back on Sept. 23 when I did the reinstall because the directions said it would reboot 3 times and my computer only rebooted once with the reinstallation CD and then it returned to the "normal" state...so I wonder if in the other reboots that normally take place it would have fixed some other issues

I don't understand this CD. It is labelled Drivers and Utilities but when I look at it it doesn't seem to have anything important on it. The "utility" folder is all about the Modem. I don't see anything else and I don't have any other CDs. See attached.

 

IGNORE that comment -- I'm a twit. I found the "resource CD". However when I had it in the D: drive and was in Device Manager...it still wouldn't find the drivers needed to update drivers for DellBios and secdrv that have the "?".

I opened the D:\ and went to the "install" folder for drivers and utilities and ran it...I chose "repair" instead of modify or uninstall and as soon as it started to run I got a BSOD. I tried this in normal mode and safe mode and the same thing happened. So that's not very helpful.

 

Cool - here are the results so I'm not sure what to do next. I'll try to find the sites and the drivers -- Zone Labs is for Zone Alarm which I have for my firewall...the other one I'm clueless about.

Thanks Tim - you're a genius (well, so far anyway)

 

Oh man. What a mess. I checked out your last 3 messages but my computer wasn't cooperating. I've been getting blue screens in Safe Mode too...now with different STOP error messages.

Then on a boot up it told me that my Windows software is NOT genuine! (it certainly is). Then in safe mode my mouse would stop working (this kept happening many times).

I decided to go back and do the Langa reinstall that keeps all my files and programs intact...this time it advanced to the next boot up and continued to set up (which it didn't do on Sept 23 so maybe that was what was missing ?)

However...it got 70% through "installing devices" and I got a blue screen. I tried this 8 times with 2 different Windows XP reinstallation CD. It always went to Blue Screen at the exact same point of the reinstallation. Error was ?AD_POOL_CALLER (couldn't read first letter or 2), STOP: 0x000000c2.

So I bit the bullet and did a complete reformat. I had 5 Dell Software Restoration CDs that reformatted the HD and brought me back to the original config...Win XP Home SP 1, no MS updates, all that jazz. So I'll just start over from here and see what happens.

Thank you again for all you did with this.

 

Oh yeah, I also tried 4 different restore points before all of this and it always said "could not restore computer to earlier time"...blah