Blue Screen

Hi.

I have had this happen, randomly to me at least, several times. The system freezes and then shows the blue screen, stating the serious error (I don't have it all written down), but says: "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer"...and that if it's happened more than once, I should change the BIOS settings. Then it does a "dump" (cute) and then restarts itself and gives me the message about the error and the details. The error message from the System log is at the end of the message. I checked the site that Microsoft sends you to, but I get the impression that the error message is of the generic variety - e.g. it could be caused by a wide range of things.

I have not yet found a pattern, but these are some of the things I can give you to help figure out what this is related to:

It seems like it has happened at least twice when my computer ties to go into sleep mode (I don't have hibernation as an option). I can't remember if the error happens when the system tries to sleep the monitor or the hard drives, or when it tries to go to the screen saver.

One time I was downloading a big pdf file from the Internet.

When it happens, I usually have IE open to something, mostly Yahoo! (I upgraded to IE 7 last month, but the first time this happened was in like May 2006)

The last time it happened, (this morning), I had just disconnected the power supply and the keyboard and the mouse. I think one time, I had just disconnected a jump drive (or whatever they are calling those things these days - a portable storage device).

I feel like it may have something to do with the Power settings, the battery, the network settings or with some Yahoo toolbar that upgraded to sometime in May.

I have a laptop: Toshiba Satellite A40, Bios version: Toshiba bios version 1.50, running Microfoft XP Professional Service Pack 2. I have the McAfee package installed (virus, privacy, firewall), just installed Microsoft Defender, and I run CrapCleaner frequently.

I don't know what else there is that would provide you with more information.

While I was looking up the error in the Event Log, I found a number of other errors, about a myriad of topics: DHCP, Tcpic, DCOM and some warnings from dhcp and Remote Access. These also alarm me.

I've junked around with setting up networks (when I travelled to see my Mom, I set up a wireless network from her computer to be able to use my laptop, also I worked with my brother for a while and he set up another network for us to share files), but frankly, I have no business messing with it because I really don't know what I'm doing.

My internet connection is a broadband and I access the internet wirelessly via a router. I have a desktop computer that is a guest house about 35 feet away from the router, and I am able to get some connection to the Internet, but really low signal. I've never been able to connect the two computers.

OK. Sorry, this was suppossed to be about my blue screen, but I wanted to share as much info as you may need...

The blue screen doesn't seem to happen very often, but the last time, it ate a bit of the document I was working on, and it's obviously a source of anxiety.

Any help would be greatly welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Here's the details of the System Error Log:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: System Error
Event Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Date: 12/30/2006
Time: 10:57:14 AM
User: N/A
Computer: BLSLAP
Description:
Error code 0000007a, parameter1 c03e5fbc, parameter2 c000000e, parameter3 f97ef130, parameter4 051b7860.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 74737953 45206d65 726f7272 72452020
0010: 20726f72 65646f63 30303020 37303030
0020: 50202061 6d617261 72657465 30632073
0030: 66356533 202c6362 30303063 65303030
0040: 3966202c 31666537 202c3033 62313530
0050: 30363837

bytes:
0000: 53 79 73 74 65 6d 20 45 System E
0008: 72 72 6f 72 20 20 45 72 rror Er
0010: 72 6f 72 20 63 6f 64 65 ror code
0018: 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 37 0000007
0020: 61 20 20 50 61 72 61 6d a Param

 

i would run through these steps first to rule out the power settings
desktop - right click
properties - left click

screen saver tab
select 'power'

Adjust the following if needed...
turn off monitor 'never'
turn off hard disks 'never'
system standby 'never'
select 'apply'
select 'OK'

I dont know anything about laptops, but generally the only thing you should pull out while the computer is running is a usb device, and even if usb preferably not a keyboard and/or mouse due to some of them causing driver/detection issues

 

thanks. Didn't know that about unplugging the keyboard. Come to think of it, that is one of the things that I've done before most of the crashes. XP takes a long time to give me the 'beep' that hardware has been disconnected.

Thanks again!