blue screen of death on my laptop

[westcoaster]

just wondering if anyone can help me, this afternoon while browsing the web on my laptop all of a sudden i got a blue screen come up saying the laptop will shut it self down, now it took a few boots to get it back on again, and the system seems stable, this is until i try to log on to the internet using a dongle, as soon as i do this it crashes the laptop, blue screen appears for a few seconds then the laptop dies, rebooting works but an error message appears. tried booting in safe mode that works fine (did not try the dongle though).

hope this is not now a dud laptop as its less than a year old.

any suggestions?

 

[EM2]

No idea, but first suggestion is if it's under a year old, surely it's under warranty?

 

[eos]

The fact it does start and run before crashing, says you a virus, trojan, or some other software problem..
Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

 

[westcoaster]

got mcafee (spelt wrong) on the laptop but did not find anything, thanks for the help guys.

EOS one question i cant get on the net on the laptop to down load the spy/malware, could i download to my pc, then how would i get this onto the laptop?

 

[eos]

got mcafee (spelt wrong) on the laptop but did not find anything, thanks for the help guys.

EOS one question i cant get on the net on the laptop to down load the spy/malware, could i download to my pc, then how would i get this onto the laptop?

OK on McAfee, but don't assume it can either detect the virus/trojan or malicious software.. Often the virus will disable the AV software so it looks like it is working and goes thru all the motions of scanning etc, and then reports nothing found..

Yes download the two progs to your PC , and do you have a USB stick , or any sort of plug-in memory from say a camera, ( an SD or CF card for example) . If so copy them both to that , and then plug it in the Laptop. Run each program seperately, and then unistall is my reccomendation ( having deleted anything they find) Don't worry about cookies and things like that , they're fairly harmless and wouldn't stop your laptop working. Delete them , all the same, as they are pernicious.. You can also use a DVD-RW if you have a DVD player on the laptop ( or an external one). Don't try and network the two computers ( with RJ54 leads or these USB-USB file transfer devices) , as you could end up with a trojan on both!!

If you do find something displayed as TROJ or TROJ-DROP etc after you have cleaned the software , make sure you de-install the Antivirus - thru START-CONTROL PANEL-ADD or REMOVE SOFTWARE, and then re-install and update to the current AV tables, before you try surfing anything other than known safe sites. It will take about an hour to do all that..

 

[37401]

EOS one question i cant get on the net on the laptop to down load the spy/malware, could i download to my pc, then how would i get this onto the laptop?

download it onto our PC then put the ZIP file onto a USB stick/memory card/SD ect. and install it on your laptop

 

[GB]

Faulty RAM modules or bad video drivers are a common cause of the BSoD. When the blue screen comes up it should have a STOP code on like this..

(Example)

STOP: 0x0000009c (0x00000000, 0x8054DA70, 0xB2000000, 0x1040080F)

Copy it down and google it if you can get that far.

 

[rww100]

Is it a new dongle you're using? If so then the driver it uses might be dodgey.

Have you updated any other drivers recently? If so, then try rolling them back.

 

[westcoaster]

STOP: 0x0000008e is the code.

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

copied both of these to my laptop , but neither of these will run, click to run them but neither work, anymore suggestions.

 

[eos]

START - RUN _ msconfig - ENTER, Look under the startup tab, anything in there that doesn't have a name in the 'startup item' column, If so copy the location ( pencil and paper -not COPY) and post it here ... anything look suspicious in the same column, if so post it here.

Can you get into SAFE MODE by pressing F5 a few times during startup.. should be pressed directly after the BIOS data disappears ... If so try and run malwarebytes etc from Safe Mode..

Post back with your findings..

If you can't get into safe mode , then it all points to RAM memory failure as per GB's post below- I agree..

 

[GB]

Based on STOP: 0x0000008e, Google came up with most responses pointing at bad memory.

From MS windows...

This behavior may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

* One or more of the random access memory (RAM) modules that are installed on your computer are faulty.
* The RAM configuration is incompatible with Windows XP.

If I were you I would...

Make sure the RAM modules are connected correctly
Check for any damage on the actual boards
Make sure they are free from dust

If you have more than one module,

Check to make sure they are of the same type (they like to be in pairs)
Take out one, boot up and see if the problem remains then do the same with the other one.

 

[westcoaster]

sorry about the wait been busy, looked in start up nothing looks untoward, still cant get malware or spyware to work on the laptop( as an aside there is a windows shield over both icons of stated programs) , works fine on pc.

GB have no idea where to look sorry.

 

[Geezertronic]

You're probably better off taking it to someone who knows about computers, maybe you have a mate who works with computers?

I would suggest reseating the RAM to begin with, it's amazing how many issues are resolved by reseating components. Then maybe your mate or qualified person can get the virus scanning applications working properly to eliminate virus's

 

[westcoaster]

one off the malware programs i just downloaded found a prog called coolwebsearch, but would not delete it till i connected to interweb and payed for the full program, arghh
ill see if i can find some one, never thought of that.

 

[eos]

Remove coolwebsearch ( browser Hi jacker)

http://www.spywareremove.com/removeCoolWebSearch.html

Can you press alt-ctr-del just once and read the task manager screen.

Look down the column for memory usage and see what is using any memory at all- Make a not and report back here..

ps whilst CoolWebSearch is insidious, and needs removing, I'm not convinced thats 100% of the problem, so still keep trying the other things suggested . Do try and get into safe mode, and run these virus removal progs etc from there .

TRY THIS

START -ALL PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-SYSTEM TOOLS -SYSTEM RESTORE and restore the system to a date , lets say 1 month ago ( don't worry its reversible) or the last time you knew it worked well for you. There is an option for 'Last Known Good Configuration' but that is of no use because as long as windows starts then thats the point it is flagged.. In effect its starting OK at the moment according to windows ( probably)

Again post back with anything you find or do. At the moment its just trying to find some way into what is causing the problem- once identified, removal and reversal will be no problem, and don't expect there is just one thing wrong . Trojans always come in crowds.

Shield Icon removal

Have a read of this and see if this is relevant- You are logged in as administrator , are you not?

http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/remove-administrative-security-shield-icon-overlay

 

[asylumxl]

CoolWebSearch has some very malicious variations.

My sister managed to get it on her PC once and it took me ages to completely get rid of it.

I suggest pressing F8 at startup, and starting in Safe Mode. Then do a system restore back a few days.

If you do have a more malicious virus it may not work, but it usually does. If not, start in Safe Mode again, go to Start > Run and type "regedit". Then look in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUN

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUN

You should see the offending applications, write down their locations, and you can then delete the entries. Disable Active Desktops while you're at it, as some malicious software respawn through it.

Then boot in Normal Mode and navigate to the applications location and remove it.

 

[eos]

If you are confident enough.... and have a second computer , preferably with a different variation of Windows , you can remove the hard drive from the laptop , ( or just expose the connectors, by just taking the case off, remove the cabling for both power and data ( suspect its IDE driven) and plug in via a USB adaptor ( from Maplins or computer stores or inside the case of these external plug-in drives) provided the second computer has a full and working antivirus. Do the MalwareBytes etc from the second computer and let it remove anything it finds ( and the other progs as well). BUT you need to be confident taking covers off etc.
You may need to swop the link on the back of the drive from Master to Slave to get the second computer to recognise it, and swop back afterwards.

 

[westcoaster]

this is giong to be longwinded so ill try to answer the tips people have given me rgarding:

safe mode= this worked
safe mode malware and anti spyware = would not work
system restore= would not work (as soon as the laptop rebooted it self an error message came up saying unable to restore system)
safe mode system restore = same as above
system check = no problems found

= a lot of head scratching

anyway i had a look on the toshiba forums for my specific laptop, did a search for blue sceen, driver error codes, and this is what i found out?

another person had the same fault as mine, sysytem is stable until you try to go on the internet, while conecting laptop crashes and blue screen appears, stop code comes up as stated on previous page( making you believe there was a component fault), no spyware or malware programs would run.

answer given was to try all of the above, if this did not work then, run the toshiba recovery program instaled on the laptop.
guess what i tried this and the laptop said another program was using this and produced another error code,

only one option left to me and that was to use the hdd recovery program on the laptop in effect wipping everything, and starting over again as if the laptop had just been brought.
guess what this worked, i now have a fully functioning laptop so far with no faults found yet:roll:, only problem was that the computer was wiped and i have to reinstall games and programs/phot's no big thing really (not)

just like to say thanks to all those who have helped with tips, ideas, guidence, knowlege, and links to programs.

thanks again wc

 

[Reddog785]

Try the full version of avast! antivirus Professional Edition. hope this helps you out!

 

[poshbakerloo]

There are loads of reason why it could have happened...

It could have over heated, sometimes the air vents get blocked with dust so it can run very hot even if you aren't doing much! Just blow very hard into the fan area and see if dust come out...

The RAM usage could have been too high, it crashes when it runs out, you may need to upgrade...

Could be a virus that is messing things up...

Could have been a hardware issue with something plugged into it if its on Windows 2000 or something old...

 

[eos]

Westcoaster..... It was too late for last time, but I have traced ( probably ) the virus you had, "fake" XP Antivirus 2xxx system , which blocks all .EXE files from running . Hence the reason that the anti-Malware MalWareBytes would not run. The trick there is to rename the mbam-setup.exe to mbam-setup.com and it will then run . Whilst more work to repair the system afterwards would be neccessary, I hope you have the two files I mentioned in an earlier post with links to the desktop- just in case you visit the same site , or have the same file on a disc, or got it from something like MSN etc..
Personally I would run both again now after a couple of days, just in case, now.