Windows shutting down...

[Bluestone]

Every now and again, my screen will turn Blue, and I get a message that says something along the lines of Windows has encountered a problem and needs o shut down. There's a load of other writing, but I think it's just codes and numbers (can't remember)
It then has a little countdown thing, and shuts down.
This has happened at least five times this week.

Does anyone know what it is, or how I can stop it from happening?

Ta very muchly :-)

[MarkRae]

BSOD = blue screen of death. A piece of hardware has not responded in the way Windows was expecting, which has caused Windows to crash. Is the machine relatively old? Often a rebuild will fix it. Have you done a Windows update recently...?

[tamborine]

Reboot & press F8 continuously till you can click Safe Mode.

What have you recently downloaded that might have caused a trojan ?

[Bluestone]

Thanks, Mark :-)
Blue screen of death? Great! The machine is only a couple of years old, maybe three. I haven't done a windows update recently, no - although I do keep getting a message saying something about doing one. Should I?

Tambo - I usually just let it reboot and use it as normal... until it does it again.
I can't think of anything I've downloaded recently, but I did do a Malwarebytes scan on it, a few days ago, and it came back with two bad files, which I then deleted.

[MarkRae]

> Should I?

Yes.

A two-year-old machine is almost certainly perfectly serviceable. However, all machines running Windows accumulate an increasing amount of drek over time in the registry which can be fixed by doing a trash and rebuild.

Do not, under any circumstances, try to do a system restore or use one of the many so-called registry "cleaners" [sic] which are available...

[Bluestone]

Ok. I will do that straight away.

"which can be fixed by doing a trash and rebuild."

How do I do that?

[MarkRae]

That means reinstalling Windows and any applications from their original CDs / DVDs. It may sound drastic and a bit daunting but, if anything's going to return a slightly old machine to tip-top performance, this is it!

For the vast amount of home users, this involves little more than Windows, Microsoft Office (or free alternative) and Google Chrome (or another browser).

Obviously, make sure you have all your documents backed up first onto an external drive! If all your email is on web-based systems such as Hotmail, Google or similar, then you don't have to worry about that. It should be possible to back up your browser's settings and favourites too.

[Bluestone]

Oh god. That was like reading another language! I have absolutely no idea how I would go about doing any of that. I don't have any CD's?

[MarkRae]

Where did the machine come from? Did it have everything already pre-installed on it?

[Bluestone]

PC World. It came with Windows 7 already on it.

[tamborine]

OR do system restore to an earlier date than recommended - lol.

I've just done mine after downloading the latest useless AVG13.

[DTCwordfan]

I would take it into a local PC shop - we have a great one down here, so ask around and they can do the back up etc and rebuild......two years is nothing.

[Bluestone]

Tambo, how do I do that? Is it simple?

DT, yeah, that's probably the best option for me, as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing and wouldn't know where to start. I don't really like the thought of a stranger nosing through all my photos, etc, but something needs doing. It's literally just happened again. I suppose I could take it to PC World, they'd obviously know what they were doing!

[tamborine]

Go to Start>help & support and click on System Restore on down right of page. It will recommend a date but click back to October and choose your date. All done in 5mins.

[ummmm]

From Mark..

//Do not, under any circumstances, try to do a system restore or use one of the many so-called registry "cleaners" [sic] which are available... //

[ummmm]

Bluestone - I would listen to Mark.

[Bluestone]

Oh yeah, sorry. Doh!

Thanks Tambo, but I think I'll give that one a miss. I don't want anything to screw it up any further.

[ChuckFickens]

It's OK, bluestone probably won't be able to find "Start>help & support" seeing as it's not a standard part of windows, it will only be on certain manufacturers computers.

[Bluestone]

I wouldn't be able to find it because I can't even find the "start" button!

[ummmm]

Click on the windows symbol in the bottom left hand corner.

[MarkRae]

System restore is useful in certain circumstances - this isn't one of them. You haven't just installed a piece of software which has buggered up your system. If you had, restoring it to how it was just before you did that would possibly be a good solution.

What you're experiencing here is the inevitable reduction in performance of Windows-based machines over time due to a variety of reasons but, mainly, due to the registry getting filled up with unnecessary junk.

There are registry cleaners out there which will try to fix this for you. They never work properly and, more often than you might imagine, just make things worse!

There's every chance that your machine will be right as ninepence again after it's been trashed and rebuilt. The suggestion of a specialist is a good one - I know how to drive my car but wouldn't have a clue how to do its annual service, so I take it to people who do.

Is it a desktop or a laptop? Does it have a sticker on it with the Windows activation code? It should be a combination of numbers and letters in groups of five, e.g. XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.

What else do you have on there? E.g. what do you use to work with spreadsheets? Is it Microsoft Excel? If so, where did it come from...?