Blue Screen of Terror

[Arkroyal]

Thanks Sprogget,

I've printed off the info at that link,and will go through it carefully.

Let you know how I get on.

[Sprogget]

Before my keyboard died on me last night, I was going to say the linked MS article does suggest strongly that the blue screen is related to spyware. The other possibilities, given that you have reinstalled Windows and seem to have taken the same bullet twice, would be a bad device driver and possibly a bad bank of ram.

If you don't get anywhere with the first route, there are other troubleshooting paths you can take - maybe save that up for another day depending on how you get on with the first attempt to fix things.

[Arkroyal]

I have also taken the various cards and memory out of the motherboard and re-installed them but that doesn't rule out a fault.

I went through the advice in the link you kindly proferred, but found none of the suspect files in the drivers folder.

After another crash, windows alerted me to a Spyware virus, Spyware.apropos.C, and directed me to Windows Live OneCare, which I have just finished running.

It found a problem, and rather unhelpfully finished saying that one problem had not been fixed.

But for now all seems ok, fingers crossed.

Thanks again for all your help, hope your keyboard's ok now

[Sprogget]

From googling spware.apropos.c, I found this post & link from another site:

wilders no loger does hijackthis logs, but i can still give you instructions on how to remove this infection

a spyware expert, Swandog46, has developed a removal tool for it

use it like this:

You may want to print out these instructions for reference, since you will have to restart your computer during the fix.

Please download AproposFix from here:
http://swandog46.geekstogo.com/aproposfix.exe

Save it to your desktop but do NOT run it yet.

Then please reboot your computer in Safe Mode by doing the following:
1) Restart your computer
2) After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, press F8.
3) Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear
4) Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode.


Once in Safe Mode, please double-click aproposfix.exe and unzip it to the desktop. Open the aproposfix folder on your desktop and run RunThis.bat. Follow the prompts.

When the tool is finished, please reboot back into normal mode

I can't vouch for it, but it may be a route you wish to try.

[Arkroyal]

Hi again, Sprogget

Having carried out all the methods so far, including the Apropos fix, we seem to be getting somewhere!

I did have a failure to boot , which went through several cycles, getting to the XP welcome page before restart, but generally things seem to be working.

Using Mozilla instead of that awful IE8 seems to have sped things up too.

Thanks for all your help, I'll keep you informed how it goes after a good soak time.

Cheers

[Sprogget]

Fingers crossed AR, let's hope that was the fix.

[PowerDragTrim]

By using Open office and Firefox, you are already into open source software - but it is still mixed in with Windows.
Can I recommend you request a Ubuntu 10.04 CD from CDs and DVDs | Ubuntu
If you install it, I also recommend that you ditch Firefox in favour of the Chrome browser. You will also get Open Office as well.
I have it installed with no problems and it boots up in 47 secs with a 9.7 sec shutdown! it does all that Windows can do and is free!
You have nothing to lose but Windows!!

Also meant to say, one does not need any anti-spyware, etc programmes as linux is 'immune' from these problems.

[Sprogget]

One point - on the basis that you seem to have acquired the same problem across two builds of windows, my first thought was that you had either a bad driver or a bad stick of ram.

If as seems probable, you have picked up the same bit of spyware twice, it seems reasonable to suppose you have been to a dodgy website twice or have holes in your anti virus.

Not finger pointing, but perhaps a little food for thought - maybe stay away from Ukraninan-mp3downloads.com!

[Arkroyal]

Sorry for the delay, but I'm now back. Problem computer in the skip, and now on brand new machine, with important guff saved from old one before ditching it.

It wasn't anything to do with dodgy downloads or websites, as I don't go much beyond Pprune, and Itunes.

Anyway, this little beauty sings.

Trouble is Windows 7!

No Outlook Express, windows live email instead, which having set up my email accounts, receives messages fine, but when I try to send, I get this error message:

The server does not support a SSL connection.

Subject 'test'
Server Error: 250
Server Response: 250 8BITMIME
Server: 'mail.btinternet.com'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC7D
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 25
Secure(SSL): Yes

The email account is with btyahoo, and when I went into 'properties' discovered that the 'My server requires authentication' box under 'Outgoing Mail Server', in the 'Servers' tab was unchecked (in XP it was checked).

'Aha' I thought, and checked the box.

Still no joy.

Any ideas anyone?

[raydux]

go linux

I have to agree with the person who posted that you should switch to Ubuntu. However, before you jump into Linux totally, maybe partition the original hard drive into 2 sections and install Ubuntu on the free area (dual boot) or install second hard drive and install it there. That way you can get "used" to Ubuntu, I did this and now everyday I enjoy it more and more. My laptop came with xp but its now totally Ubuntu, getting there as I got more comfortable with it. And it can do everything that I did in xp or vista. Except for ms fsim, but there are ways around that too. But you could go to x-plane instead. Or flight gear.
Try Ubuntu, It's sweet!! Plus the more people that use it, the better it will get!!!
I haven't had a crash in a long time now!!
Ubuntu homepage | Ubuntu