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Is My PC Jealous of My Laptop?

by Bon508
6 replies
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Any computer experts out there? I need your opinions...

Because my PC is 5 years old, slow, etc., I bought myself a shiny new laptop for Christmas.

I have a ton of stuff on my PC, and still use it... but not as often as I use my shiny new laptop.

I set my laptop up near my PC on the same desk.

Now my PC keeps crashing when I leave it on overnight.

In the morning, it would have the start-up screen showing, like it rebooted itself.

The last 2 times, though (including this morning), it has shown a different screen -- blue background with ominous white text that says:

"Windows has encountered an error and shut down to protect your computer... DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL... Remove or disable any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing... Technical information: STOP 0X0000000D1 (0X82C23F62, 0X00000002, 0X00000002, 0XF7807EC2)... Beginning dump of physical memory. Dump complete. Contact System Administrator for further assistance."
The first time I saw that I just rebooted and everything appeared to work just fine. It included something about "If this is the first time you've seen this message..." that made me feel like doing that would be fine. It also has "If you've seen this message more than once, do the following..." which scares me cuz it has shown more than once and I don't understand its instructions. I didn't reboot... just shut it down.

I leave the PC on overnight because I've got Carbonite Backup and McAfee Security Suite set to do their updating stuff while I'm tucked snug as a bug in my bed.

I've had those set that way for a long time, and never experienced problems before I bought the laptop.

I have NOT installed any new hardware or software on the PC.

I've run Disk Cleanup and virus scan already (before that ominous message began appearing; I haven't downloaded anything since then).

I have no idea what "Disable BIOS..." means or what else I should do.

Is it just a coincidence that this started happening after I bought the laptop?

OR... Does my PC consider my laptop to be "new hardware"? Does it sense its presence? Is it jealous and getting even with me for bringing that tramp home?

Should I hire the Geek Squad? (I am NOT a techy person.)

Any ideas, opinions or suggestions?

This is driving me bonkers! Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    It's not asking you to disable BIOS, but BIOS MEMORY options!

    "Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing"

    BIOS simply refers to a little set of routines called the

    Basic
    Input
    Output
    System

    They tell the system how to use a lot of peripherals, etc...

    Caching could refer to several features used to speed up basic processing by your system.
    Shadowing is a method of copying the BIOS, etc.. from ROM(or flash memory)(where it is kept) into faster RAM.

    Still, if you are not comfortable with it, have someone that is comfortable look at it.

    M/S simply detected an abnormality regarding interrupts(The IRQ in IRQL stands for Interrupt Request), and figured it was better to simply STOP and warn you.

    BTW by default, late at night or early in the morning, M/S windows computers try to update according to M/S standards. 9 times out of ten, if a new update exists, they will reboot.

    And that COULD have exposed the problem you now have.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Baker
    I presume you are running Windows XP and have Windows Updates to update automatically. Is that correct?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bon508
    Yes, Mike -- Windows XP, automatic updates.

    I guess that may explain the reboots. Thanks, Steve.

    I haven't turned the PC back on since shutting it down after that last error notice.

    Is there some sort of diagnostic thing I could try?
    Signature
    Bonnie
    ProfitBasedMarketing.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Baker
      Bonnie I did find a program that will apparently help with this issue, but it's a paid app. So if you want to fork out some cash I can give you the link.

      To get out of it for free, this is what I recommend to you. Turn of Windows Updates and if you have System Restore turned on go back to a point when you weren't having this issue. Once the computer has rebooted turn Windows Updates back on and do an update, but only do one file at a time. Reboot and keep an eye on your computer. If your computer doesn't replicate the problem, install the next update and so on until you find the update that is causing the issue. When you have found the update that is causing the issue, use system restore again to back to before that update. Then open Windows Update and do not allow that file to be installed.

      If you have anything you are unsure of in the instructions, let me know and I will try to explain it in more depth for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bon508
    Thank you very much!

    I will try that this weekend.

    Could you also share the link to the paid app... just in case my head starts to throb a little too much as I attempt to fix this myself?
    Signature
    Bonnie
    ProfitBasedMarketing.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Baker
    Here's the link to the paid app.

    Problems with 0x00000002?
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