Member Avatar for craigmont

I am having a new problem with an older laptop and need some advice.
When running a virus scan (Avira free edition and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware) I get the BSOD. Now I'm not sure that it is because of a sneeky virus that's causeing the computer to shut-down and restart, because it also happen when I did a search for a file it caused it to happen again. Then a second time. As a test, I ran a search for a file that I just made up and nothing happened. Then I did it again for another non-existing file and no blue screen. So I up-dated to a new version of Avira, from ver. to and reran the virus check and after about 20 mins. of the scan, I got the blue screen.
What I would like to know is: how do I read the blue screen to try and understand what it's reporting as to the cause or the error message, when it only lasts a fraction of a second before it goes black and reboots?
May there be a hardware problem with the motherboard or another malfunctioning part that can cause the BSOD?
Any help would be appreciated!

Craig.

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A kernel crash during an antivirus scan or a file search most often points to one of three things: a kernel‑mode driver fault (antivirus filter or storage driver), corrupt system files, or failing hardware (RAM or disk). Capturing the full STOP code and any driver name shown on the blue screen is the immediate priority — disabling automatic reboot (as suggested) and photographing the screen will preserve that info. Windows will also write crash dumps (typically under C:\Windows\Minidump or C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP) if dump writing is enabled; confirm small memory dumps are being produced so analysis is possible.

Checking the minidump is the next step. pointed toward quick viewers; for a definitive look use Microsoft’s debugger and run !analyze -v against the .dmp. Key things to note from the output are the bugcheck code, any driver filename mentioned, and the debugger’s short conclusion. Symbol resolution matters for accurate driver names, so the raw stack trace may need proper symbol setup to be fully useful.

Work through software vs hardware systematically. Booting to Safe Mode or performing a clean boot can show whether a third‑party driver (AV included) is involved — the OP’s crashes during Avira scans make the AV driver a strong suspect, so try updating/rolling back or temporarily removing the AV and scan from rescue media. Simultaneously run memory tests (MemTest86 or Windows Memory Diagnostic) and check disk health (SMART plus chkdsk /r); bad RAM or a failing disk often cause intermittent crashes during file access.

Practical order: stop auto‑reboot and capture the screen, reproduce to generate a dump, analyze the dump (!analyze -v), run memory and disk checks, then isolate by removing/updating suspected drivers (AV, storage/chipset) and testing in Safe Mode. Maintain a current backup before running disk repairs or extended stress tests, and treat any driver named by the dump as the primary lead (update/revert it or consult the vendor if it repeatedly appears).

Member Avatar for mechbas

apparently you're getting in to the system and there's a switch that prevents a auto reboot.
For XP and possibly other OS's: Control Panel > System properties > Startup and recovery

clear the box under "Automaticaly Restart".

Member Avatar for LayDude

If you can access your dmp files by pulling/Mounting the HD on another PC or WinPE, XPE boot... try reading them with BlueScreenView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html)

BlueScreenView scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table. For each crash, BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the basic crash information displayed in the blue screen (Bug Check Code and 4 parameters), and the details of the driver or module that possibly caused the crash (filename, product name, file description, and file version).

In the upper pane, you can view the details of the device drivers loaded during the crash in the lower pane. BlueScreenView also mark the drivers that their addresses found in the crash stack, so you can easily locate the suspected drivers that possibly caused the crash.

DL> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bluescreenview.zip

Good Luck!
LayDude

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