Blue Screen Error

[Margie54]

I opened an e-mail the other day and right away I got a blue screen error. Ever since my computer has been sluggish and seems to take a lot longer to bring up websites etc. I thought at first I got a virus but did a scan and nothing came up. I didn't open an attachment just the e-mail. I haven't gotten a blue screen error since and forgot to write down the error message. It said to press any key to return to windows and when I did I couldn't get into anything anyway until I rebooted. Everything seems ok now except a bit sluggish. Anyone else ever have this problem? Thanks.

Margie

please list what os you are using and the system specs

[rpertusio]

Margie is running Windows ME. I remember you from before, Margie!

Things to try:
(1) Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager... do you see any yellow or red symbols on any of the devices listed there?

(2) Maybe you've got infected with some spyware/adware. Try downloading and running Ad-Aware and get any nasty critters off your machine. (It might help to run the Web Update.. the icon of a globe on the program.)

(3) What program do you use to read your email?

- rp

[Margie54]

Thanks RP,

I did what you said and didn't see any red symbols on any of the devices only a yellow phone beside Modem. I did run Ad-Aware and Spybot. Could you please tell me what you mean by running the web update "the icon of a globe." I was using MSN Hotmail at the time it happened. Thanks RP. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Margie

he means in sysbot there is a button with a globe on it. press it to get the latest updates for the program

[Dax_Brandy]

how about your drive space? ME is eating more space for its restore feature. you might have a low disk space, that's why your pc is becoming sluggish. and i thought ME does that always.

[Gettinbye]

Just a thought...right click on your MY COMPUTER icon, left click properties...in the window that opens, click the "advanced" tab. By chance, does it say something about "running in MS-DOS compatibility mode" under the "performance" heading?

[Bovon]

I would run scandisk right away..if there is a problem scandisk will find it, and usually can also fix it if it is not hardware related. To run scandisk, click the Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > scandisk. When you click on scandisk, it will open a screen and should have the C: drive highlighted..if so, good..that is where you want to run scandisk..there will be two round holes there called "Standard" and "Thorough"...run scandisk in the thorough mode. It will take a little while, but will do a good job. If it finds a problem, it will stop and tell you what it has found and ask if you want to fix it (default settings) click yes. You can put a check in the box where it asks if you want ScanDisk to automatically fix the errors..you can check that if you want.. I don't myself because I want to see what errors it finds...like crosslinked files, wrong date stamps etc. little things that Windows cannot tolerate.

After running ScanDisk..go back to the same place ScanDisk is, and run the Defragmenter on the C: drive...all of this should be done at least once a month to keep Windows running smooth.

[Margie54]

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll try everything you say and see if I see a difference. By the way, I decided to run Ad-Aware and to my surprise this came up twice: Possible Browser Hijack Attempt." Do you think that might be the culprit? Thanks.

Margie

[rpertusio]

Originally posted by Margie54
I decided to run Ad-Aware and to my surprise this came up twice: Possible Browser Hijack Attempt." Do you think that might be the culprit?

You'll know it if the crashes stop

- rp