Blue screen/freeze and reinstall problems

I'm hoping that someone has an idea of what might help, because I'm out of ideas!

I have a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v running XP SP3. It's about 6 months old and I've never had any problems until now. Windows and driver updates are current, I regularly run malware checks, etc. It's a second computer used primarily for word processing and web browsing, so not a heavy software load.

About a week ago, my system started to freeze. Sometimes I get a blue screen, sometimes I don't. The blue screen error message is:

"A kernel thread terminated while holding a mutex.

STOP: 0x4000008A (0x86425B30, 0x84EF3880, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) "

I've searched around and think it might be a video or graphics problem. According to Dell support, it has to do with a bug the was fixed in SP1 (which doesn't make a ton of sense to me...). But I haven't found any fixes.

I've done system restores to a point where the system was okay, and it hasn't helped. (Also, system restores only work in safe mode.)

I've tried to run Dell's PC Restore, and that just doesn't work.

I've tried to reinstall Windows. It boots off the CD and seems to be okay, then freezes at the 'accept user agreement' screen.

I'd greatly appreciate any ideas or help!

 

If you installed a display driver from Windows Update, I would try the driver Roll Back option for the display adapter, in Device Manager.

Open Device Manager:
Click Start> Run, type the following and click OK:
devmgmt.msc

Expand the Display Adapter category, then double-click the listed display adapter to open its properties.
Click the Driver tab, and click Roll Back Driver, then follow the prompts.

If that does not help, or if you did not update the driver from Windows Update, uninstall the display driver (from Add or Remove Programs if it's listed there, otherwise from Device Manager), and then install the driver from the Dell support site.

This is the driver they list for the Inspiron Mini 10V:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=296227

That's about all I have to offer....good luck.

...glen

 

I would check the basics.

Do Error Checking (CHKDSK) on the HDD. Run it to check the disk surface (/r switch in CHKDSK). Set it up to run overnight, don't crash out if it seems to have stalled, it could be making repairs.

Have you cleaned the PC's case out (I'm not familiar with a Mini)? It seems to be a possible overheating problem to me. The graphics might overheat first.

Get the other driver updates (and significant software updates) from Dell.

See if you can find a situation that will make it happen.

Matt