Blue screen of death on laptop - explanation anyone?

[AlexB]

While on this forum, my laptop just went to a blue screen reading 'bugcode_usb_...' something else - not the most precise information I know, but it reset itself when I was getting a pen to write it down.

It automatically went to safe mode, without restarting, and appeared to allow me to keep typing the reply, but wouldn't refresh the internet page.

Had to force a shutdown, reboot in safe mode, shut down and when it restarted the Windows error message notification (i.e. send/don;t send) said the computer had recovered from a serious problem, etc.

Over the last few days a couple of programs have been picked up by my firewall as trying to gain access to the internet (MS Links golf, Word, Excel, etc) which don't normally try to do so - I blocked them as there is no need for them to do so.

Should I be reassured by the Windows message saying that the laptop has recovered from the serious problem, or does anybody have any further advice on anything I should do?

Thanks in advance.

[dixieflatline]

I would not be reassured by windows saying it recovered from a serious problem. I would take the following steps.

1. backup everything you need on this computer
2. run a good virus checking software(why is word or excel trying to get on the internet?)
3. run something like norton windoctor to check to see if it finds a serious problem
4. if all else fails reinstall windows

[DaddyTorgo]

gotta agree with dixieflatline. i wouldn't be reassured by anything WinBlowz says about itself. A good serious virus-check is needed, along with some serious system-checking tools.

[AlexB]

Thanks for the advice guys - I've got Norton AntiVirus and SystemWorks - they were all fully up to date but I hadn;t run a full scan for a while - nothing came up fortunately.

WinDoctor found a couple of medium problems, invalid shortcuts, Active X discrepancies, etc.

Spychecker did however find one threat (surveillance ware) which I blocked, and this is the only thing that came up: must have been this causing problems? There were however three versions of my internet connection listed as exceptions on my firewall, so I've deleted two of these and hopefully no more will come of it...

Given these measures, do you agree I should be OK, as long as I check my bank and credit cards closely in case the surveillance spyware has compromised my details?

[dixieflatline]

Keeping an eye on your accounts is a good idea. Be careful though, some spyware has made it through whatever defenses you have put up and I would beef up your security. If one has gotten through it's only time before more do unless you do something about that. Also, were you able to remove the spyware or just block the ports they were using? I wouldn't feel really safe until all the spyware had been removed. Again, backing up important documents would not be a bad idea either.

[AlexB]

Dixie - cheers for the additional advice: you guessed right that the spychecker just diSabled the port. So I have downloaded Webroot Spy Sweeper (the only one that had both a good review and a link from a site I know and trust) which has real time protection instead of just finding and disabling on scheduled sweeps. It found 94 tracking cookies and 291 traces (of which some are like those from gamespy, which aren't a problem, but the majority of which I didn't recognise) and an adware (gain-supported software).

I think the surveillance things were these tracking cookies by the looks of it, none of which are attached to any sites where my financial details have been entered, but after deleting the lot I feel better now.

Hopefully with a firewall, anti-virus and spyware protection should be good to go again. Thanks for the advice. (I remember the good old days when all you needed was Norton Anti-Virus!)

Edit: and the adverts from this board seem to have disappeared as well - gues that may have been the adware?