Blue screen....

[mrcaptainbob]

Running W98. THings have been deteriorating for about two weeks. Getting Mozilla through People Pc. Long story short: am ending up with a blue screen with: An exception has occored at 0028:c0031CAB in VxD---.
This was called from 0028:C00301F9 in VxD---.
It may be possible to continue normally.
*Press any key to continue.
*Press C/A/D to restart.
Pressing any key or using the C/A/D has no affect.
Ran scan disc. Ran Mozilla virus scan.
It has now progressed to where the connection speed is in the low thousands. Mozilla is no longer recognized by the server.
Do I need to reinstall it all ..... Again?

[Troy]

Honestly, an upgrade to at least windows 2000 would do you wonders.

What processor and how much ram do you have?

[mrcaptainbob]

Blue screen issue.

The processor, Troy, is Pentium 800MHz. The hard drive is 40GB Ultra DMA. THe memory is 256MB SDRAM (exp.to 768MB). Don't know if this is enough to hold a a Window's upgrade. Although an older unit and older software, it's pretty much given me good service. It's only been the last few weeks when issues started cropping up.

[mrcaptainbob]

Free space..

The system claims 9 GB used and 28 GB free space. Would this be enough to upgrade to XP? THere are two unused slots. Would I be able to add some memory stuff in one of these?

[Troy]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

Yes, you should be able to add some memory in those slots.

Windows XP is expensive though. If your computer is more than three years old, consider replacing it instead. You are going to spend over $200 for XP + RAM. Computers are so cheap now, you can probably get something better than that for $350+

[mrcaptainbob]

New computer.....

Hmm....that could go on Santa's list....
May have to give up on some Home depot stuff though....

[tuffun]

try newegg.com -- great site for all computer stuff.
they also have refurbs and such for rather cheap.

the s/h is fast and service is excellent.

[mrcaptainbob]

Newegg.com....

Thanks, Tuffun.

[mrcaptainbob]

Blue screen update......

Well, I'll be dipped! The blue screen issu has disappeared! My wife wsa complaining about the HP scanner not working. I tried everything and finall;y went for the last key on the cahin-I uninstalled it. After reinstalling, it seems to work a bit better, still has some issues, but the most strange thing is that the blue screen no longer appears at shutdown! Now, if only I can get those horizontal lines out of the scan and also get rid of the hissing in the speakers when the scanner is used....Wonder what I need to reinstall to get THAT to work!

[Troy]

Well, I'll be dipped! The blue screen issu has disappeared! My wife wsa complaining about the HP scanner not working. I tried everything and finall;y went for the last key on the cahin-I uninstalled it. After reinstalling, it seems to work a bit better, still has some issues, but the most strange thing is that the blue screen no longer appears at shutdown! Now, if only I can get those horizontal lines out of the scan and also get rid of the hissing in the speakers when the scanner is used....Wonder what I need to reinstall to get THAT to work!

I've had HP printers that caused that. A driver update from their website might do the trick. Post the model # and I can help you try to find it...

[mrcaptainbob]

HP scanner info.....

Thanks, Troy. It's an HP Scanjet 5470c.

[Troy]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&dlc=en&product=61930&os=20

Take a look at this link. Maybe the driver will work, or the diagnostics can give you more information.

[HayZee518]

I've got a Dell 4600 with over a gig of RAM. My HD is 74 gig. I replaced the power supply (remember?) with a 350 watt unit -
I found a site for dependable delivery of stuff and pretty cheep - [www.geeks.com]
I was under the impression that a blue screen was a parity error.
oh well..

[mrcaptainbob]

Power supply...

Per your suggestion I did order the power supply from them and installed it. What a diff! Thanks a lot for that! But then we got a different issue. The dang scanner fritzed out on us! A call to HP seemed to solve some of the problems, but it's all back. Am continuing talking with them on a fix for that setup.