Yasha I think you might have just saved my life. 

I did the Boot-Run with avast! and it says there were no viruses found.  I already had malwarebytes but it's not working, so I could re-download it.  On the good side, I already had a virus scanner (Spyware Doctor) and it's saying there's no viruses too.  So I really don't know?  Maybe it's gone, who knows.  I guess we'll have to see if it keeps freezing.

Edit:
Fuck, spoke too soon.  The second after I posted this, the dreaded blue screen came up again.  Wtffffff

Last edited by winksniper (06-03-2010 02:01:25 PM)

Paradox wrote:

wink,

1)  It's hard to give good advice without knowing your operating system.  I know what I'd suggest you do for Windows XP, but I don't know jack about Windows Vista or 7 and even less about Macintosh.

2)  It may not be a virus or malware.  In most circumstances something like this is, but not 100% of the time.  It could be a corruption of a file somewhere in your OS or a piece of hardware that's starting to fail.  Mylene's system started freezing up and throwing blue screens on startup this spring.  Turns out the hard drive was starting to go out and we had to replace it and reinstall everything.  Fortunately, we caught it in time to retrieve critical data first.

Sermon Mode Edit: Regardless, sight unseen my first piece of advice: Think about what's on that computer that you absolutely could not replace.  If you haven't already done so, back it up right now.  It may be totally unnecessary, but why risk it?

Ah, you make an excellent point.  My computer's a Compaq Mini CQ10 running on Windows XP.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Go Yasha!

Considering that your virus checks all came up negative, I am going to agree with Paradox and say that it could be a hardware problem. You got it pretty recently so I bet it's still under warranty. I'd try calling up Compaq, they can probably walk you through some checks to see what's going on. It'll be a long painful phone call but if they can't find the problem they'll probably let you send it in for repair or replacement.

I'm also going to agree with Paradox and tell you to back up your stuff NOW. If you do, it doesn't really matter what happens to your machine since you'll have all the good stuff safe. You really have nothing to fear from even something as scary-sounding as an OS reinstall as long as your stuff is backed up. You basically don't lose anything except for the time it takes to reinstall your programs.

I REALLY don't understand why they keep throwing XP on netbooks. You can't normally boot XP from a USB device because of XP's stupid tendencies. If you really want control over your computer, I'd recommend getting a copy of Windows 7 for it. 7 allows you to create a USB bootable image that you can throw on a thumb drive so if something goes wrong, you can actually do something about it!

(I think you can also do this with Vista but I can't stand Vista and I've heard it's not that great on netbooks and laptops).

OK, sorry for nerd rant, I had a netbook for awhile so I feel your pain.

Last edited by PrettyPeopleWithSwords (06-03-2010 05:51:18 PM)

Yasha wrote:

PrettyPeopleWithSwords wrote:

You really have nothing to fear from even something as boring and totally easy as an OS reinstall as long as your stuff is backed up.

Fixed.

Pictorial walkthrough for OSRI:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

I used to do these five times a day at Dell, over the phone. Hell, wink, if you're in the states, I have a free North America calling plan and can walk you through it if that's what this needs. BSOD can be software-related, usually when Windows has a compatibility issue. I've seen that happen most often with drivers.

PrettyPeopleWithSwords wrote:

(I think you can also do this with Vista but I can't stand Vista and I've heard it's not that great on netbooks and laptops).

Vista SUUUUUUUUUUCKS.

THAT WOULD BE AMAZING.

By the way, anyone know of any free way for me to back up my files?  I have Roxio installed on my computer but it requires a paid upgrade to back them up.  And while I was googling one, I got another blue screen.  Here's the codes:

(There was nothing in regards to the first arrow.)

STOP: 0x0000007E (0x0000005, 0xF30A5CC6, 0xF79D7C78, 0xF79D7974)

bcmwl5.sys - Address F30A5CC6 base at F308B000, DateStamp 4ad73ea7

Edit:  Got two more. 

STOP: 0x0000007C (0xC0000005, 0xF3088CC6, 0XF79C7C78, 0XF79C7974)

bcmwl5.sys - Address F3088CC6 base at F306E000, DateStamp 4ad73ea7

STOP: 0X0000007F (0X0000008, 0X80042000, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

Last edited by winksniper (06-03-2010 07:26:46 PM)

my company uses XP only. when we created our product and used it on networks with xp machines... it performs flawlessly... throw 1 or 2 vista machines in there and it just all seems to fall apart.

Vista's networking memory system bull crap is a pain in my right butt cheek.... however, i havent had the pleasure of meeting 7.... and after ME, Vista, and Windows Mobile experiences.... i can say i am not looking forward to it.

"simpler" my ass.

at any rate...

I am an avast user myself... I also like trend micro's house call... it can be pretty helpful... although the stupid java thing doesnt work properly all the time.

Avast is the bomb... highly recomend.

Yasha wrote:

PrettyPeopleWithSwords wrote:

You really have nothing to fear from even something as boring and totally easy as an OS reinstall as long as your stuff is backed up.

Fixed.

Well I know that but most people would seemingly rather waste hours upon hours trying to fight hordes of viruses or whatever rather than just do the simple thing. I don't mean wink of course,  more like people I witnessed at work who were too awesome to bring their install disks from home so we'd have to try to run antivirus on some virus-raped laptop that wouldn't even boot into Windows anymore. "Boo hoo my big report and all my photos are on there and I never back up anything!" Should've thought of that before you downloaded every filthy malware-infested game and toolbar on the Internet.

<--University tech support for like 4 years so far


So yeah, like we are saying, OS reinstall isn't that bad! . . . Gonna be hard on a netbook though. Have you tried using the manufacturer's recovery stuff? I think most netbooks and laptops have recovery partitions buried away. I looked it up, apparently if you hit F10 (or F6, I forget) on boot you can get into the recovery mode (assuming it's there).

PS SAVE YOUR STUFF FIRST. I think you can do a "non-destructive" recovery but that still might fuck things up so just back stuff up to be safe.

Last edited by PrettyPeopleWithSwords (06-03-2010 10:27:05 PM)

Bluesky wrote:

Just popping in to say that Windows Vista + low-end laptop makes me want to grow male genitalia for the sole purpose of smashing it with a pin hammer in impotent rage.

Ah yes, 2006, Vista's release and the year where everyone won a free top-of-the-line laptop with a battery the size of a pizza box . . .


What happened to wink? Did one of our suggestions trash her computer for good?

winksniper wrote:

codes and stuffs and I don't know what all

I just spent four hours cleaning my mother's freezer. I have no brain for this right now and will be busy all day Saturday but on Sunday I can try to get some serious work done on this. PM me your phone number, in case I do need to call you.

Also, backing up files is easy if you have a burner. I just burn everything to dvd if I can't offload it onto a drive that OSRI won't touch.

haelsyx wrote:

I bought my laptop about 10 months ago and it had vista on it . I upgraded to Windows 7 .

Recently, the screen has begun to flicker every so often, not as in black-then light again, but the current screen will have a transparent copy overlaying it and going a little flicker-y before returning to normal at about 5 second intervals(I'm sorry my description is so vague). I found out it eventually  returns to normal. It randomly does this.

Someone told me it was my battery and someone else said it might be the screen reacting differently to windows 7...I'm going to send in my Vaio soon anyways because of a manufacturer fault with the mouse pad but I'm trying to figure out how to report the flickering screen since it only just started happening and maybe I have a wrong setting on anyways.


Also, dedicated Avast user for 4 years now it's saved me from so many accidents.

I don't think that moving from Vista to 7 would do something like that. Are you doing something in particular every time it happens, like maybe opening up a certain program? You could try updating or reinstalling your video drivers I guess, but it kinda sounds like a loose connection or something. I'd call them and ask about it and see if they could work on it while it's in for the mouse problem.

Motherfucker, real life is a bitch. Sorry about the absence, I had stuff going on.

HP probably ran you through all the hardware steps I would have, but there's a way to repair your OS and keep most of your data. This pretty much just confirms to me that it's a driver issue.

Honestly, I'll have to call you to know what's going on.

Let me get my stuff in order, I'll call within the hour.

You need to make sure you have your windows disc handy. It should allow us to do a repair install. The STOP codes you listed indicate either RAM failure or driver/OS fuckup, and if HP tech support says it's not hardware I'll trust them, for now. But right now what you're going to need is:

a pen and paper
your windows disc - find out whether it's straight up windows or an OEM (something HP gave you)
Any driver/program discs that came with your computer
Any installation codes you might have needed to install this stuff in the first place

Also, I'm going to ask you a bunch of stupid questions-- this is because I don't know how much you know about computers. Don't be offended or anything, I'm just making absolutely sure we both know what we're talking about. It's self-defense, I learned it at Dell