Bsod stop: 0x000000f4

Eureka, I've found it!

Working with HP Tech Support I was asked to reinstall Windows 7 32-bit and then reinstall Win 7 x64, testing for the various issues throughout. For my cooperation they upgraded my system to Win 7 x64, gratis. (I'd been using a license provided by my company up to this point.)

I put the Windows 7 Pro 32-bit application DVD into the CD/DVD drive of my HP 8540w notebook. I selected Custom Installation and deleted all partitions and then created new partitions. I wanted a clean install. However, Windows could not complete the installation and put up an error message that "required files" were missing. What required files? I was booted into the installation disk!
This issue persisted when I attempted the installation again.

The next day I contacted HP Tech Support and they could not resolve the issue and told me to contact the Compaq Order Center to obtain a new Recovery Disk.
Certain that the disk was not the problem I decided to try one last action: use a low-level disk program to wipe the hard drive and then reinstall Windows.

I used Active@ KillDisk by LSoft Technologies, Inc. (Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format.) to overwrite and destroy all data on the physical drive. I then loaded Windows 7 Pro 32-bit and used Custom to recreate the partitions. The installation then ran to completion!

I began the process of loading drivers and programs while testing USB mounting, hibernation, creation of restore points, and system shutdowns. Everything worked correctly. I successfully installed drivers and programs which before would cause problems. I was able to connect via any wireless technology I wanted, including tethered to my smartphone, with ease.

So far, so good. Next I obliterated the drive again using KillDisk and installed Win 7 Pro x64. The installation was as smooth as silk! I loaded drivers, system updates, and programs without any problem. Testing all along the way and again, all tests were successful. I've been running the system for 6 days and all is well.

I can only surmise that Windows Installer was not completely wiping the hard drive when it deleted the old partitions. I believe portions of the previous system partition may have been present even after re-partitioning and the new OS was seeing multiple core system files. This might explain how NTOSKRNL.EXE and NETIO.SYS could become unstable and crash. Whatever the explanation the low-level operation has corrected the problem and the system is stable.

Lesson learned: Perform a low-level overwrite of the hard drive before reinstalling Windows.

Thank you Windows 7 Forums and LSoft (for KillDisk), and especially, thank you Carl for helping me along the way. Victory is sweet!

Glad you got the problem fixed. :)

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