Hello All,

I'll try to be pretty brief, mainly because I'm a bit clueless when it comes to this stuff.
I recently got cable broadband (through Virgin Media), it seemed fine to start with but after about 2 weeks I was on the net and the laptop fritzed out and came up with a blue screen telling me it'd closed windows to protect it and if this was the first time this had happened I should restart. I did that and when I got in, my desktop wallpaper had disappeared and been replaced with a warning about spyware (which has never gone away since).
I went on the net and downloaded a free spyware doctor immediately (along with some other free antivirus stuff called MProtector that has been nothing but a nuisance and I've now finally managed to uninstall). I ran a scan and got rid of everything, checked my windows firewall and other security stuff was working and the blue screen came back again.
Every time it comes up (which is pretty frequently) it seems to have a new set of 0X0000 numbers as the reason and nothing seems to work - deleted all the rubbish I don't use anymore off the system, run scans every time I go on etc. etc.
Finally I rang Virgin's helpline and they say my driver's been corrupted and I need to go to a shop and get it fixed?? Is that all it is do you think? Can I do this myself?
I'm not the most computer literate person in the world but I'm not totally supid and I can follow instructions. Can anyone advise me what I should do next please?

Thanks in advance - TJ

can you get in safe mode?
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm
if yes, check the event viewer for errors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427


Cudni

Yep, did that last night and defragged too. There were 2 errors on there, one from about a week after the cable broadband had been installed and one from a couple of days after all the blue screen stuff started happening. Don't know what either of them was. And I think one of them was down as having happened on a day when the laptop was off all day and the ethernet cable disconnected.

I don''t know if this is relevant but prior to the cable broadband, the laptop had never actually been hooked up to any other internet connection and I hadn't done any Windows updates as a result. I went to windows' site and did the updates yesterday.

Also, I don't think the registry has ever been cleaned, which I guess is important, so I'll def be downloading one of those tonight too.

Anything else I can try before parting with untold reams of cash in order to feel like an idiot at PC World?

OK, when Cudni asked you to check the event viewer he meant we would like to know *exactly* what is there.

remember, we';re not able to come over ans sit in front of your computer to read what it says - so we need you to be our eyes for us.

Hi,

Yeah, sorry. I do get that but I can't stay on the laptop to e-mail - 'cos it keeps throwing me off, so I was just passing on what I knew at the time, until I'd had a chance to get home and have another go. - sorry for confusion.

There were 3 Application errors in the log (within the period that the broadband has been connected):

23/06/08 - EI= 1000
18/06/08 - EI= 1000
10/06/08 - EI= 1000
All described "iexplore.exe" as the faulty application.

System Errors:
18/06/08 - EI = 7023 - this one must have recurred over 100 times over 2 minutes in the log.

18/06/08 - EI= 7000
18/06/08 - EI= 7009 - both recurred over a minute or so on the log.

14/06/08 - EI= 16 - This one said it hadn't been able to connect to automatic updates.

I really didn't have time to do much at all on the normal system before getting kicked off last night, so it's definately getting worse. I can still do everything I should be able to do on the laptop (as far as I can tell) it just wont stay on for very long at all.

Again - thanks for any suggestions.

TJ

Right - so I've now looked up these System Error Event IDs on Windows' site;

EI= 7023
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327649

EI= 7000 & 7009
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217339

Both pages give a breakdown of how to resolve these errors, which I think I can probably follow. Do they look right to you for the type of problems I've been describing? Or is it a deeper problem do you reckon?

I don't want to do anything that might hurt the laptop even more, until I've run it past the experts.

Thanks in advance for any advice - TJ

could you post the source, it will be under event id, for those errors please


Cudni

I've abreviated it in my notes but I believe all the System Errors were from the "Service Content Manager", except the first one on the 14th, which was the "Windows update agent".

I hope that makes sense.