BSoD Headache

I opened my mouth on the Welcome thread and fate must have been listening my XP is working well... so my laptop has gone bang now!

It is running Vista basic (32 bit) and includes all the stuff I don't want such as 3 months of NAV etc. I don't activate it, I choose another AV, AntiVir... which goes ok, then I install AVG free AS, then decide to install AVG free av instead of AntiAir (I don't know why, it was only a temp solution/protection until my paid for ISS version arrived), I removed AntiVir completely and then installed AVG, installed Firefox, installed CCleaner... then had to wait for windows updates, all well, it started to reboot and it wouldn't shut down... it blue screened on me:cry I have hardly used it (4 sessions) then it wouldn't turn on at all.

Went into recovery mode, it crashed then dumped it's load! Went into safe mode and managed 5 mins before it shut down... I have managed to system restore to the AntiVir install point and it seems to be working ok now, just that and Win Defender - even with the MS updates, is something up with AVG free? I checked it worked on Vista first etc.

If it all fails I made a Recovery disk as soon as I got it (learnt lesson after my PB incident) so I can restore factory settings... but why the BSoD (or is it BSOD? - can never remember which one is the black screen and which one is the blue screen?). Sorry if i'm rambling, you should have seen the state of me last night, hysterical would be an understatement. I have not seen the dreaded screen since my mothers 98 went bang (now reanimated with Ubuntu).

Any help on Vista programs would be excellent. I have just bought Kaspersky v 7 Internet Security for it, shall I just restore it and then put Kaspersky on or do it now?

 

Thankyou for your reply, sorry about the long delay! Our ISP is throttling our router (Nationwide thing) so we cannot connect, it is becoming stressful and we haven't downloaded huge amounts / caused any traffic jams.

Managed to download the tool from here, not run it yet just turned it on to get the AV updates and download NAV removal tool, but I will look for an error code.

Vista is new to me, so I am still swotting up on it (and Linux).

 

Vista has a (slightly) improved version of system restore which can also be useful.

 

It saved my bacon! I restored back and it booted ok.

Got the error codes (eventually took me an age to find them) and problems:

One was an windows live messenger conflicting with the eAcer, workaround available but I don't use messenger so I removed it.

The rest are all a confliction with the eAcer technology, but the biggy was AntiVir (at that time) had a small problem with CCleaner and also (and still does) have a confliction the eAcer so it crashed/BSoD'. I will post from it next time so I have the error logs handy.

It is going much better after the NAV removal tool.

 

Glad you got it fixed OK.
We are all feeling our way with Vista.
It does include Windows Defender which is a jolly good antispyware and general security service.
I have found Avast to be trouble free on Vista (Dell flavour at least).