The system has recovered from a serious error

I think it 'might' be related to my NVidia graphics card or driver, but I have the latest driver, and that might not be the problem anyway.

Quite likely.

Where did you get this latest driver from? If it was from Microsoft, all bets are off! Drivers from Microsoft quite often break systems!

Also keep in mind that you have a Dell (a Dimension 4600). Nvidia drivers for Dells often need to be downloaded from the Dell site. Therefore:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/dimension-4600?driverId=R75461&osCode=WW1&fileId=2731130541

Aw heck, I'll try and answer your questions but some of them are over my head!

What is your system make and model?

Intel Pentium 4CPU?

What is your XP Version and Service Pack?

XP ver 2002 SP III

What is your Internet browser and version?

Firefox 17.0.1

Does your system have IDE drives or SATA drives?

Sorry don't know.

I use Avast free and Comodo free

nope don't have the bootable CD

sorry not seeing anything I don't expect to see, everything works fine until I get the BSOD. Computer boots pretty fast I think.

msinfo32

OS Name    Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Version    5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

OS Manufacturer    Microsoft Corporation

System Name  

System Manufacturer    Dell Computer Corporation

System Model    Dimension 4600

System Type    X86-based PC

Processor    x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2393 Mhz

BIOS Version/Date    Dell Computer Corporation A07, 11/6/2003

SMBIOS Version    2.3

Windows Directory    C:\windows

System Directory    C:\windows\system32

Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Locale    United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer    Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"

User Name  

Time Zone    Pacific Standard Time

Total Physical Memory    1,536.00 MB

Available Physical Memory    412.93 MB

Total Virtual Memory    2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory    1.96 GB

Page File Space    3.35 GB

Page File    C:\pagefile.sys

Display

Name    NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

PNP Device ID    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_80DF1043&REV_A1\4&1246FE7B&0&0008

Adapter Type    GeForce FX 5200, NVIDIA compatible

Adapter Description    NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

Adapter RAM    128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)

Installed Drivers    nv4_disp.dll

Driver Version    6.14.11.7519

INF File    oem36.inf (nv4_NV3x section)

Color Planes    1

Color Table Entries    4294967296

Resolution    1024 x 768 x 60 hertz

Bits/Pixel    32

Memory Address    0xFD000000-0xFEAFFFFF

Memory Address    0xF0000000-0xF7FFFFFF

IRQ Channel    IRQ 16

I/O Port    0x000003B0-0x000003BB

I/O Port    0x000003C0-0x000003DF

Memory Address    0xA0000-0xBFFFF

Driver    c:\windows\system32\drivers\nv4_mini.sys (6.14.11.7519, 6.25 MB (6,557,408 bytes), 8/3/2004 10:29 PM)

Here's the txt file from Bluescreen view, from my last BSOD. I had another one last month also.

==================================================

Dump File         : Mini010613-01.dmp

Crash Time        : 1/6/2013 9:34:50 AM

Bug Check String  : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Bug Check Code    : 0x1000000a

Parameter 1       : 0x00000166

Parameter 2       : 0x00000002

Parameter 3       : 0x00000000

Parameter 4       : 0x804e5443

Caused By Driver  : afd.sys

Caused By Address : afd.sys+ff83

File Description  : Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock

Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

Company           : Microsoft Corporation

File Version      : 5.1.2600.6142 (xpsp_sp3_gdr.110817-1643)

Processor         : 32-bit

Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+e443

Stack Address 1   : afd.sys+ff95

Stack Address 2   : ntoskrnl.exe+cd48

Stack Address 3   : aswRdr.SYS+1e01

Computer Name     :

Full Path         : C:\windows\Minidump\Mini010613-01.dmp

Processors Count  : 1

Major Version     : 15

Minor Version     : 2600

Dump File Size    : 90,112

==================================================

I hope you can make some sense from all of this!

did you ask for this also?

http://s11.beta.photobucket.com/user/JoeWood\_/media/New-1\_zps9bddd265.jpg.html

someone else suggested my BSOD was caused by an Avast driver, so I removed and then reinstalled Avast.

Let me know what else you need, really appreciate the thorough reply Elder!

oh it's not woodshop, but woodsshop with 2 Ss :-)

How are things at the WoodShop?

The Event Viewer is not the best place to look for clues about a BSOD (sorry Microsoft engaged Support Engineer "experts").

There are some free tools that will give you some clues, but sometimes they are not 100% either so if they don't pan out, you can upload your crash dump files and somebody (it may not be me) can take a look at them.

Here's some ideas to get you started:

Sadly the MS Answers forums does not prompt for any system information when a new question is asked, so we know absolutely nothing about your system.

Not knowing fundamental information about a problem prolongs the frustration and agony of resolving these issues.

Thank you MS Answers, for continuing to make the resolution of simple problems as frustrating and time consuming as possible.

Please provide additional information about your system as best you can:

What is your system make and model?

What is your XP Version and Service Pack?

What is your Internet browser and version?

Does your system have IDE drives or SATA drives?

Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation:  McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.

Was the issue preceded by a power interruption, aborted restart, or improper shutdown?  (this includes plug pulling, power buttons, removing the battery, etc.)?

Does the afflicted system have a working CD/DVD drive (internal or external)?

Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD that is the same Service Pack as your installed Service Pack (this is not the same as any Recovery CDs that came with your system)?

What do you see that you don't think you should be seeing and when do you see it?

What do you not see that you think you should be seeing?

If the system used to work properly, what do you think might have changed since the last time it did work properly?

Does your system seem to boot okay and then crash or does it not boot at all?

Can you make the system crash any time you want?  For example, would you say that there is any particular system activity that coincides with the crashes (like watching videos, playing games, etc.).

The next time your system crashes, provide more information about what you see.

Here is a BSOD example showing information you need to provide:

http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg

Send the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines total).

Send the entire *** STOP message line since there are clues in the 4 parameters.

If there is a file name listed under the STOP message, be sure to include that information too.

Skip the boring text unless it looks important to you.  We know what a BSOD looks like, we need to know what your BSOD looks like.

Now provide more information about your system and information from the most recent crashes.

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

msinfo32

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

For video driver information, expand the Components, click Display, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.

This will minimize back and forth Q&A and eliminate guesswork.

Download BlueScreenView from here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Unzip and run it (BSV installs nothing) and let it finish scanning all your crash dump files.

If you double click on of the dumps, you will get some information about it (including the Caused By Driver field) and you may be able to spot the problem right away - especially if you see a pattern in the dumps where the Caused by Driver field is the same (start with that driver).

BlueScreenView tries to locate the right driver or module that caused the blue screen by looking inside the crash stack. However, be aware that the driver detection mechanism is not 100% accurate, and you should also look in the lower pane, that display all drivers/modules found in the stack.

Sometimes BlueScreenView will implicate XP files as the cause of the crash (ntoskrnl.exe, win32k.sys, hal.dll etc.) but they are probably not the real cause of the crash (BSV does the best it can) and you need to look at some other crash dumps or use the Windows debugging tools to dig a little deeper into the crash dump to find the real cause.

You would have to either gather up some more example crashes and look through them, or find some where XP files are not the "cause" or you could upload your crash dump files to your SkyDrive and somebody with the Windows debugging tools can help take a look at them in more detail.

Select (highlight) one or more of the most recent dump files by clicking them and holding down the Ctrl key to select multiples files.  Try to select just the most recent ones that relate to your issue (maybe five or so dump files to get started).

Click File, Save Selected Items and save the information from the dumps to a text file on your desktop called BSOD.txt.

Open BSOD.txt with a text editor Notepad, WordPad, etc.), select all the text (Ctrl-A), copy all the text to the Windows clipboard (Ctrl-C) and paste the text from the clipboard (Ctrl-V) back here in your next reply.

Here is an example of the BSV report from a single BSOD that I initiated on purpose that shows the cause of the crash as the i8042prt.sys driver belonging to Microsoft Corporation:

==================================================

Dump File         : Mini102911-02.dmp

Crash Time        : 10/29/2011 4:54:36 AM

Bug Check String  : MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH

Bug Check Code    : 0x000000e2

Parameter 1       : 0x00000000

Parameter 2       : 0x00000000

Parameter 3       : 0x00000000

Parameter 4       : 0x00000000

Caused By Driver  : i8042prt.sys

Caused By Address : i8042prt.sys+27fb

File Description  : i8042 Port Driver

Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

Company           : Microsoft Corporation

File Version      : 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2108)

Processor         : 32-bit

Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+22f43

Stack Address 1   : i8042prt.sys+27fb

Stack Address 2   : i8042prt.sys+2033

Stack Address 3   : ntoskrnl.exe+6e715

Computer Name     :

Full Path         : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini102911-02.dmp

Processors Count  : 4

Major Version     : 15

Minor Version     : 2600

Dump File Size    : 94,208

==================================================

Send the BlueScreenView information from the last 5 memory dumps (if you don't have 5 memory dumps yet, send the most recent ones you have).

While you are waiting, please do this:

Perform some scans for malicious software, then fix any remaining issues:

Download, install, update and do a quick scan with these free malware detection programs (not at the same time):

Malwarebytes (MBAM):  http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS):  http://www.superantispyware.com/

SAS will probably report a bunch of tracking cookies and you can just let it delete them.

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

Sometimes it is easiest to just upload the memory dump files from your most recent crashes to your SkyDrive (everybody has a SkyDrive for sharing file).   Then somebody that already has the Windows debugging tools can take a closer look at things and figure out what is going on.

The memory dump files from the recent crashes and BSODs are usually in this folder:

c:\windows\minidump

The files will be named something like this:

Mini120311-01.dmp

You need to upload the most recent ones...  maybe 5-10 of the most recent crash dump files ought to be enough if you have that many.  If you do not have that many, send what you do have.

Getting started with SkyDrive:

http://explore.live.com/skydrive-get-started

After you get your files uploaded and are looking at them on your SkyDrive, you need to "share" your folders/files so others can see them.

Here is a link that tells you how to do that:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive-change-access-permissions-faq

Then choose the "Get a link" button.  When you click that, a window will open that contains the link to your SkyDrive files.

Copy the contents of the box "Copy this link to share:" by selecting the link contents (it will all become highlighted), press Ctrl-C (copy) and then come back to the forum and in your next message press Ctrl-V to paste the contents of the link back here.

What you paste back will look something like this link to my SkyDrive:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=6a7e789cab1d6f39&resid=6A7E789CAB1D6F39!311