Rebooting XP Laptop!

[Noel S Pamfree]

A friend's laptop (XP Home) constantly re-boots. Eventually you either get a
faint Windows welcome screen that remains there until you turn the machine
off or the blue screen of death appears!

I have tried starting it in safe mode but after a while it just reboots
again.

It has Kaspersky on it and he only ran spybot and Ad-ware (Lavasoft) a day
ago.

Any help will be appreciated.

Noel

 

[Malke]

A friend's laptop (XP Home) constantly re-boots. Eventually you either get a
faint Windows welcome screen that remains there until you turn the machine
off or the blue screen of death appears!

I have tried starting it in safe mode but after a while it just reboots
again.

It has Kaspersky on it and he only ran spybot and Ad-ware (Lavasoft) a day
ago.

When you get the BSOD, write down the Stop Error and research it here:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

Offhand, it sounds like hardware failure and not software (Windows) but
there's no way to tell with the information provided.


Malke

 

[Noel S Pamfree]

Thanks Malke,

The BSOD STOP Error is:

STOP 0x00000044 0x0858AE4B8 0x00000D62 0x00000000 0x00000000
MULTIPLE_IRP_COMPLETE_REQUESTS

Now I have looked this up and it although I don't really understand the
technical stuff the problem is being caused by an IRP being made more than
once, possibly by more than one driver.

Now the machine won't stay stable for very long even in safe mode so I am
not sure what I can now do.

I am not helped by the fact that this has been going on for months but
suddenly got worse this week after we installed spybot and Ad-ware by
Lavasoft because we suspected we had a worm.

Can you give me any advice as to what I should do next?

Noel

 

[Malke]

Thanks Malke,

The BSOD STOP Error is:

STOP 0x00000044 0x0858AE4B8 0x00000D62 0x00000000 0x00000000
MULTIPLE_IRP_COMPLETE_REQUESTS

Now I have looked this up and it although I don't really understand the
technical stuff the problem is being caused by an IRP being made more than
once, possibly by more than one driver.

Now the machine won't stay stable for very long even in safe mode so I am
not sure what I can now do.

I am not helped by the fact that this has been going on for months but
suddenly got worse this week after we installed spybot and Ad-ware by
Lavasoft because we suspected we had a worm.

Can you give me any advice as to what I should do next?

The fact that this has been going on for months makes things much harder
for pinpointing the root cause. Since the Stop Error refers to a
driver issue, I would go to the laptop mftr.'s website and download all
current drivers with the idea of reinstalling them later. However, since
you can't get the laptop to stay stable I would:

1. Back up all your friend's data. Since the laptop won't stay stable, I
would do this by pulling the hard drive and putting it in an external
drive enclosure (or use a drive adapter) and attaching it to a working
XP box. Once the data is safe, proceed to the next item.

2. I'd do a quick check to see if the problem is hardware or software
(Windows) by booting the laptop with Knoppix. Knoppix is a Linux distro
that runs from cd. If the problems occur with Knoppix running, then you
know there are physical hardware problems and I'd do hardware diagnosis.
Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

3. If the machine runs perfectly under Knoppix for an extended time, I'd
clean-install Windows. Refer to the laptop manual or the tech support
information on the mftr.'s website for how to do this on that specific
model machine. You will have the drivers saved from your first step but
may not need them if there is a Restore Disk or factory restore process
for the machine.

Since I don't know your skill level, you can make the determination
whether this is something you can do or whether your friend should take
the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
version of BigStoreUSA).


Malke