Blue Screen - please help!

[cinema guy]

I’ve been getting the blue screen of doom quite a lot in the last few days. (I’m using XP Media Edition).

It began with problems getting online with broadband via my ADSL modem. Then it became the blue screen with the message BAD_POOL_HEADER. The blue screen became more frequent with other messages DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and BAD_POOL_CALLER

Later instances result in a corrupted error report being sent to Microsoft.

The problems seem related to my modem, since broadband is the only thing that is affected and simply unplugging the USB cable to the modem immediately triggers the blue screen.

Solutions I’ve looked at online suggest it is a problem with new hardware, but I’ve not changed anything.

I’ve tried Dell’s driver reset tool, uninstalling the modem software and reinstalling it and restoring the system to an earlier date, but nothing has helped.

The solution on Dell’s support page for fixing blue screen error messages says it may involve reloading Windows.

Is there a simple solution that will not involve me backing everything up, reloading windows and starting afresh?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[cinema guy]

After 2 and half frustrating days, of trying to figure out what was wrong, getting blue screens, using a very slow dial-up connection, realising my on-line back-up had been closed down, buying an external had-drive to back-up, google searching, registering with new forums to ask technical questions, learning new troubleshooting procedures like event viewer and memory testing, and generally being very, very frustrated and stressed, I've got it sorted.

I went through the Dell troubleshooting, which threatened to require reloading Winows, and the first step was reboot, press F8 and start with last know good configuration. And it worked!

I can't believe it was so simple and that I didn't think of it.

[Seshat]

I can't believe it was so simple and that I didn't think of it.

Believe me, that's a very, very frequent complaint of computer techie-people.

[Cyphr]

exactly when strange things happan and plans A & B failw e start going hmm maybe this file exploded corrupting this one and that.... instead of well lets system restore or last known good

[sld72382]

You might want to hook your broadband modem to your PC's ethernet port, no drivers to worry about and it's faster....

[Broomjockey]

You might want to hook your broadband modem to your PC's ethernet port, no drivers to worry about and it's faster....

And that probably isn't possible. That would be the first choice, when available, but there are legitimate reasons that it isn't.