Need help. Clueless.

[Evravon]

I have been having this same problem with my computer for about a week or so, and nobody can seem to help me diagnose what the problem is. I have been told things from "your logitech mouse drivers are out of date" to "your cpu is overheating". Please advise.

I run Windows XP Home edition, an AMD Athlon XP processor and 1GB of RAM.

Recently, I uninstalled Norton Systemworks 2005. Afterwards, I was prompted to restart my computer for the changes to take effect. Upon restart, *just as my desktop loads*, my computer gives me the BSOD and restarts itself. I am only able to access my computer through Safe Mode (which I am currently on). I went to My Computer, disabled "auto-restart on system failure" (so that I could get time to read the BSOD), and tried rebooting. This is the message it gives me.

IRQL_LESS_NOT_EQUAL

A few odd things about this:

One of the Symantec technical support guys had me go into my system and delete all folders, files and registry keys that had anything to do with Symantec. After doing this and rebooting, I *was* able to access my computer in Normal mode. I was then advised to download and run a certain program from Symantec that would automatically find and remove any remaining Symantec software from my computer. After running this program I was prompted to restart once again, thus leading me back here. Same BSOD, but no more Symantec products to delete.

PLEASE HELP ME! If you need any other information to help diagnose the problem, feel free to ask and I will answer anything I can.

[Evravon]

Bump.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Or maybe you're all just as stumped as I am...

[GX1_Man]

Several things come to mind.

1)First run free RAM test at www.memtest86.com

2)Do you by chance have a VIA IDE controller? (No info about your system so we are forced to guess?)

3)Do you have a legal Windows CD to reload if ncessary?

4) Seems to be a problem with certain configurations and Symantec products. Never use that crappola!

[Evravon]

Several things come to mind.

1)First run free RAM test at www.memtest86.com

2)Do you by chance have a VIA IDE controller? (No info about your system so we are forced to guess?)

3)Do you have a legal Windows CD to reload if ncessary?

4) Seems to be a problem with certain configurations and Symantec products. Never use that crappola!

1) I have to run this test from a floppy disk or CD? I don't have any blanks to do this. Or maybe I read it wrong.

2) I have no idea what a VIA IDE controller is, sorry!

3) I might have one somewhere, if it came with my computer when I bought it.

[GX1_Man]

1) I have to run this test from a floppy disk or CD? I don't have any blanks to do this. Or maybe I read it wrong.

You can burn an ISO to a CD and boot with that or use this one to run within Windows:

Download - Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.1a installable from Windows and DOS

2) I have no idea what a VIA IDE controller is, sorry!

Download and run Everest (free) to find out the components in your system:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

3) I might have one somewhere, if it came with my computer when I bought it.

Look for it. You will need it eventually.  

[Evravon]

Keep in mind that I am running in safe mode and cannot start in normal mode.

When I try to run the memtest program, I get an error message saying:
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Symantec\S32EVNT1.DLL. An installable Virtual Device Driver failed Dll initialization.
Choose 'Close' to terminate the application."

EDIT: Also, I downloaded EVEREST. Which steps should I follow now?

[GX1_Man]

Run it and see what type of IDE controller is listed. You can also check your temps and lots of other handy stuff.  

I would boot with the memtest CD and see if anything turns up as well. Windows doesn't fix misbehaving hardware, but if we can rule that out, then we know where to go.

[Evravon]

Run it and see what type of IDE controller is listed.

IDE Controller                                    VIA Bus Master IDE Controller

I hope that helps.

[GX1_Man]

Run memtest and see what you find. Plan on not using Norton with that hardware. There are known issues. Plan on reinstalling Windows in the near future if the RAM is fine.

[Evravon]

1) I have to run this test from a floppy disk or CD? I don't have any blanks to do this. Or maybe I read it wrong.

You can burn an ISO to a CD and boot with that or use this one to run within Windows:

Download - Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.1a installable from Windows and DOS

2) I have no idea what a VIA IDE controller is, sorry!

Download and run Everest (free) to find out the components in your system:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

3) I might have one somewhere, if it came with my computer when I bought it.

Look for it. You will need it eventually.  

When I attempt to install the memtest version you advised, I get a command prompt that says "Memtest is a standalone memory test and must be booted from a floppy disk."

Then it says "enter target diskette drive".

As previously stated, I have no blank floppy disks. What steps do I need to take to run this program?

[GX1_Man]

Do you have a blank CD you can burn the ISO to? Floppies are really cheap, also.  

[Evravon]

I am pretty sure I could get ahold of a blank CD. Once obtained, what do I do?

[Fed]

Where do you live, I will mail you a floppy.
Is that you Flame?

[Evravon]

I can't even boot in Normal mode. How would I install anti-viral programs?