Everytime I start my computer I get a blue screen with:
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.
If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching and shadowing.
If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to select advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000c1F5 {0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000}
I have had the computer for 2 months and never experienced any problems of any kind until today. Have not installed any new programs other than my favorite online game (World of Warcraft, yeah, I know, I'm a gamer geek) and anti-virus/spyware (Spyware Doctor) within those two months.
When it first occurred, the computer had been on, but idle (just desktop visible, no programs running except PC Tools Spyware Doctor, which is always on) I just noticed a blue screen with this message on it when I returned to the computer after about 1 -2 hours of idle. I attempted to restart by cutting power (ctrl-alt-del was not responding). I repeatedly only get the above blue screen.
I followed the directions above, but all it does is bring me back to the screen mentioned above.
I can't even get into safe mode. It starts up, flashes the Gateway logo, goes black with a message "windows is loading files" and pauses for a minute and then goes to the blue screen.
I tried to reinstall using the Windows Vista disc that came with my computer and no dice. Same blue screen. I've tried changing my BIOS and boot priority to boot the CD/DVD ROM first. No luck. Very frustrated.
I tried reseating my RAM several times, also no luck. Went to the microsoft site and tried to reformat my hard drive using their instructions. No luck, still blue screen with the above message. As the computer is fairly new still, I do not care about any of the data on it and didn't have anything important on it yet, so saving data is not a concern, I just need the *censored* thing to work again.
Only other thing I can think of was I may have turned off automatic updates a few weeks ago and forgot to turn it back on again, but I'm not entirely sure.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.