Pretty much exactly what the title says.

In completely random instances (happened three times today, happened yesterday and the day before once, other than that it was like a week before it happened last).

It seems to be either:
A) Completely random
B) Becoming more frequent

It just flashes the dreaded blue screen and restarts - then when it boots back up it displays the "windows has recovered from a critical error and here at Microsoft we will do absolutely nothing about it, etc. etc. etc. - send error report?"

I traced it back to some folder....but unfortunately the .xml page made no sense, and I couldn't figure out to open up the .dmp file - I assume you need a reader for that, but I couldn't find one.

I took some screen shots...maybe somebody can recognize an error code or something:







I know that doesn't help worth of ****, but I figured I'd post it anyways. Usually in my experience these problems are related to heat but it's in a ~70-74 degree room on a flat, wooden desk (nothing obstructing the vents underneath). I haven't checked the bios yet for the CPU temp, but I'll do it soon I suppose. My warranty is expired even though I haven't even had the computer for a year.

It's an HP Pavilion 9000 Series - everything's stock, no changes.

My next comp is gonna be a Macbook .

I'd greatly appreciate any help. I'm really no expert nor claim to be - I just build desktops. So if you're gonna try to explain something, try to do it in as simple of a manner as possible :-P.

Hi Syndacate,
Welcome to the forum - good to have you here. I hope you will be on the board for a long time, and if there is anything I can do to make your experience better please let me know. Be sure that you have read the rules [ http://www.compuforums.org/announcem...post_message_1 ]. And please note - if you only ever intend on coming here when you need computer help, then we will not help you. Please post in other threads as well as your own, whether or not they are computer questions. And lastly, if you do care about whether CompuForums stays online, please consider a premium membership.

It would be good to let us know what you have done in order to fix the problem so far.
-Have you tried system restore?
-How long have you been having the problem?
-What security/antivirus software are you running?

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it happend to me when I was running Zone alarm and Avast at the same time. Check if there aren't 2 AntiVi's on your computer

Well, what programs were you running?
And what version of Windows are you running? The BSOD occurs most with Windows NT, 95, and 98.
Also, your computer could have problems such as virus infections. I think what happened to you happened to me once. See, I have a laptop with a battery that doesn't work. I unplugged it instead of shutting it down the other way, and when I restarted it I just got the blue screen of death.
And if it says Windows failed to start up properly, select "Run Windows from the last time it was working properly" or something like that. I don't remember, it's been over a year since that happened to me.

~Sean

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Don't forget ME.

I'm using zonealarm and AVG (7.5 I think) along with tea timer for anti-virus.

I'm running windows XP MCE (media center edition).

I have not tried system restore nor know how to. I assume that means the thing where you "set to last known good configuration" - but I've never had anything good with that.

The problem isn't on startup as this problem seems to be when I've researched it. It seems as though many people have the problem upon boot - this is just random WHILE running. So I'll put the lid down and go to sleep and wake up and it'll be restarted or watching a movie and it'll just bluescreen and restart. Nothing seems to trigger it.

Since somebody mentioned zone alarm compatability, I will start by shutting that down..though it's kinda hard to tell if it's fixed when the problem is completely random.

Isn't there a log someplace where this "critical error" data is stored?

You'll have to forgive me, I'm not too big on computers, I don't know a whole lot about them. Usually this problem is related to heat (from my experience anyway) - or a hardware problem - but this is all stock from HP - all the hardware should be workable with each other.

Usually I'm running:
zone alarm
aureus
pidgin
avg
teatimer
no-ip
apache
quicktime
synaptics pointing device (touch pad)

I think that's it.

I'm really surprised there's no log anywhere of this ??

You can initate a System Restore with the following [it will launch a wizard which is very easy to follow]
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

Let us know how it went, and be sure to make a few posts that are not in this thread. Or you could become a premium member. Up to you, really, but I can't really afford to keep spending to keep the site up.

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Yeah I'll try to make posts in other threads, but I'm not very comp literate so I'm not sure how much accurate info I can spew around.

It happened again today, I was viewing a youtube video - maybe it has something to do with the browser (firefox) as as weird as it was - it cleared all the temporary information out (like stuff i was always logged into didn't stay there, and such). Also, ZA has been off, so I think I can rule that out as a conflict problem.

I will try to post and I will also try to the system restore. Thanks.

Hmm... if you think Firefox is the issue, then you might want to give an alternative to FF like Opera a try [just stay away from IE!]

Also, there's no need to know much about computers at all - we have plenty of off topic forums:
http://www.compuforums.org/general/

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It's ZoneAlarm! Start your computer up in safe mode and uninstall ZomeAlarm.

Nah, I don't think firefox is the issue, but I'll keep that in mind.

I've turned zonealarm off and haven't had any problems. My computer rebooted last night but I think it was some windows update thing b/c A) It didn't give me the "windows has recovered from a critical error" thing and B) It gave me a little pop up that told me updates were installed that required my computer to be rebooted....so I don't think it bluescreened on that one.

I have zone alarm off now, I'll run it like this for a few days, if it crashes, we'll see that's not the problem.

Question:
If I stop using ZA completely, what should I use...are there any other good, free, firewalls out there? Or do I have to rip something? The windows firewall is a joke.

Since I have a router and run Linux, I haven't used a Windows firewall in a while but when I did, I ran Comodo Personal Firewall without any trouble:
SSL Certificate Free Firewall Anti Virus Internet Attacks Online Banking File Backup Network Security Solutions

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I'll take a look at it.

It's been like 3 days I've been running my computer with zonealarm shut off (I just kill it upon booting up) and it hasn't bluescreened. I'm pretty sure that was the problem, which ****es me off, b/c zonealarm was a good program from my experiences with it.

Though the problem with any intermittent problem is that you never know if it's really fixed unless it happens again.

Yeah, when I'm using my desktop which has kubuntu on it I don't use any virus protection . I don't know much about linux distros so my friend helps me remotely, but he hasn't been able to get my ATI Radeon Rage 9250 (I think) to work correctly (running feisty) so it can't even process the gears program correctly - ****es me off. x 10.

I suppose I'll bump the thread if it bluescreens again. Though there's no error log where this is recorded? That's what's bothering me, you'd think there'd be one...or at least I thought there'd be one.

EDIT:
Now that I think of it, is that the best FREE one to run with a router too? Because I do have a router.

I personally stick with the Windows firewall on my Windows machines [rarley used, don't have anything important saved on them], as my router has one built in. You can continue to use Comodo though, and having a router or not will not affect it. However, if your router does have a built in firewall, you'll have to consider whether it'd be good enough to protect your computer, and if you have any private data.

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My windows machine is my main computer. I would be using kubuntu as my main computer, but nobody can figure out how to get the graphics card to work .

Like all main computers my main computer has personal info, but not like bank information or anything some might label as "sensitive." I'm not as concerned about pple stealing my data (as I don't keep any "private" data there) as I am about trojans, viruses, etc. coming in. That's why I like teatimer, it stops all registry entries (or supposedly does, but it doesn't) and asks if you want to allow them or not - this allows more control over the system.

I have a built-in firewall in my router and have my ports forwarded for different stuff 'n all. Though I'd like to keep a firewall locally too, especially if I'm connecting to somebody else's network.

I'll look into this comodo thing later and see what's up with it. I'm more concerned with the file reporting. Windows is a pretty damn built OS, say what you must about it, as it has glitches up the ass, but it's a pretty okay OS, and I refuse to believe it doesn't have an area where it dumps the data from that blue screen. There HAS TO BE an error reporting area where I can get either A) What the error was, or B) What file caused the error.

As of now I haven't had a bluescreen in a couple of days and I haven't been running zone alarm, so I'm 90% sure that's what the problem is, but like I said before, the problem with intermittent problems, is you never know if they're going to come back or not.

I need to find the place where it logged the "critical error" data.