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BSOD upon restart after attempting to install firewall
This is my first post on this forum. I have been researching trying to figure out why I am having problems with a new desktop that I just bought a few days ago. It is a dell with windows 7 64bit loaded on it. I bought and set it up on Saturday (10/31/09) and on Sunday I began installing my software. I installed my regular software first and last I tried to install pc tools free firewall. Everything seemed to be going fine until I did the restart to complete installation. It appeared to be shutting down but all of a sudden I got a flash of the lovely blue screen of death. After that It came to the screen where you could start in safe mode or normally. I tried normally and it proceeded to flash to bsod and back to the startup options. I chose safe mode and did a system restore and then everything was back up and running. So, after that I tried to install comodo firewall and the SAME thing happened!!! Both of these products say they are compatible with windows 7. And I have read on some security forums that many people are running these with out a hitch.
I tried this again the next day in case it was a fluke but have the same bsod error cycle. I also tried to start in safe mode with networking and had the same problem as trying to start normally (bsod flash and back to startup options) Yesterday, I was looking through the event logs and found the report for critical errors all 3 times I tried to install one of the firewall software. I don't have any idea if it means anything or not. The error report is the same for each instance (except of course for the date/time)
Description: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 11/3/2009 10:27:58 AM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Melissa-PC
Also I tried to do a zipped copy of the minidump folder per the instructions in the forum but when I tried to zip the copy it said it was empty!
Like I said I have had NO other problems with the computer at all so if I had never tried installing a firewall I wouldn't even know that there was an issue somewhere.....But I am wondering is this a software/driver issue? Or could there be a hardware problem. I feel like I need to look into this since it is a NEW desktop. Also, if I was to call for some technical support should I start with Dell or with Microsoft? I don't know enough about the technical aspects of computers to feel comfortable doing too much troubleshooting on my own.
Any information or advice is greatly appreciated!
Last edited by nikonmama; 04 Nov 2009 at 15:57.
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