Laptop Woes

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About a month ago, my laptop's power adapter failed. I had problems with Dell and only yesterday got a replacement unit. I had been using the laptop only sporatically when I needed to pull data off of it so the battery ran down to slightly less than 50%. I charged it up last night and have been using it normally last night and most of today.

It blue screened on me a few hours ago. I restarted it and checked the event log. It gave me an error message I didn't understand. Something like: Error code <hex value> parameter1 <hex value> parameter2 <hex value> parameter3 <hex value> parameter4 <hex value>. I clicked the link to MS and basically all it said was that I had blue screened and that no user action was required. I restarted the unit and it seemed to be working fine...then it blue screened again...same error, and I shut it down.

The message on the blue screen said: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. It suggested going into the BIOS and disabling caching and shadowing. Seems to be related to a problem with drivers but I haven't added any new hardware to it at all unless you call the new power adapter "hardware" but the OS wouldn't be aware of it.

The only thing I did today was update the Norton AntiVirus defs and upgrade my SpySweeper software to a newer version. I'm thinking that the SpySweeper software is the culprit but wanted to get opinions before I just go in and uninstall it. It seems like a pretty good program and hasn't been a problem before. In fact, it has prevented some nasty spyware from being installed on my laptop.

Anyone had this problem before?

BTW...the laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8200 running Windows XP. I have not installed SP 2 yet.

 

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Hey Trip (great having you around again )


Why don't you disconnect the laptop from the network and uninstall SpySweeper anyway, then see if the problem persists ? You've nothing to lose, as you wont be on the internet, and therefore not at risk of spyware. You can always put it back on at a later date anyway.

As always, sorry if I'm stating the obvious (jeez, the guy's a technical author, after all )




EDIT: Congratulations to Tripwire45 for starting CertForums' 3,000th Thread !!!

 

Thanks, Gav. I was leaning in that direction anyway but appreciate any and all comments. Being a tech writer isn't as big a deal as you might think. I wouldn't have asked the question if I didn't need the help.

 

Ok...I took it off the network and uninstalled SpySweeper. Now I'll just leave it up and running and we'll see.

 

Laptop ran for the rest of the afternoon just fine at work. I set it up again when I got home and it's been up and running for about 2 1/2 hours now. The latest version of SpySweeper just didn't want to get along with XP. I'll have to email Webroot tomorrow and let them know. Thanks.

 

the AC adapter for my Evo N800c just went too
its a few years old now (3 ish) but the end point of the cable has started to deteriorate to the point that its worn down most the plastic coating, saw some smoke coming from it and got a bit worried, hasnt worked since, think it short circuited itself or somethuing, laptop worked fine until the battery died, should still be under warranty though so gonna see if HP will send me a new one