blue screen

I'm setting up a wireless network for a friend. There are two desktops (one XP Home, and one Vista Premium), and a laptop (Vista Premium). The router is a Netgear DG834PN, and the USB adapters in the desktops are Netgear WPN111.
I can link to the internet, and see each PC.

I tried a number of tests at the same time ..
desktop 1 (XP Home) downloading AVG from the internet while running scans with Adaware, and AVG.
Desktop 2 (Vista) just browsing the internet.
Laptop (Vista) running Acronis backup which is creating the backup on an external HDD attached to desktop 1.

All going along happily (if slowly) when the blue screen came up on desktop 1 (XP Home).
Switched off pc, and restarted. Booted up without any problems.

The other two machines were working without a problem - apart from the acronis backup failing when the receiving pc went down.

Blue screens have not happened on this pc before.

If this happens again is there anything which will at least point to the possible cause.

First off, anything possibly malware related needs to be taken to the appropriate thread. You've been here a while so you should know that only approved members can help with something malware related & I don't want to get into trouble so I'm not saying anything else about that aspect of your issue. Second, using one computer how are you (with one computer) doing an image of an external drive for another computer while connected to the other computer? If I were to guess without knowing anything else having 2 machines connected to & using the same drive could cause problems (or am I misreading that?). If the vista machine is using the external drive for the imaging while the other computer is scanning itself, it therefore could have been accessing the external drive. I can see something going wrong with that so that might be your problem. Third, computers can start blue screening at any time. NONE of them are exempt from doing this for any number of reasons. You need to think more about what was going on at the time with that computer or with something it was using (such as the external drive) & what it was doing before you can rule anything out. Really you only truly have a problem with the blue screen if it happens frequently.

__________________
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1) State your OS(s), any software involved in your problem, & any major updates (i.e. service pack, version, edition, service release, roll up, beta release, distribution [Linux], etc.) to your OS/software as applicable to your problem.
2) For hardware issues also provide your system information: RAM, processor, etc. in addition to your OS.
3) If you have more than one OS on your computer, how does your problem relate to your other OS(s)? This is especially important for hardware issues.
4) Provide as much detail as possible, being specific as even the most minute detail could help others help you solve the problem. Please tell us what you have tried. Please tell us the make/model of your computer.
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If you don't know your system information please consider running our hardware scan and post or PM me your link.

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Thank you for your reply.

Let me re-write the last sentence ...

If this happens again on the XP machine (that's why it's in the XP forum) is there anything displayed on the blue screen which will at least point to the possible cause.

Rannoch

Look for an error code and/or an error name. Try to look & see what hardware is involved, if possible. You might take a picture of it if one is immediately on hand & it doesn't automatically reboot (don't take too long to do that though). Windows usually creates logs or dump files but I don't know where or what to do with them.

__________________
For best results please:
1) State your OS(s), any software involved in your problem, & any major updates (i.e. service pack, version, edition, service release, roll up, beta release, distribution [Linux], etc.) to your OS/software as applicable to your problem.
2) For hardware issues also provide your system information: RAM, processor, etc. in addition to your OS.
3) If you have more than one OS on your computer, how does your problem relate to your other OS(s)? This is especially important for hardware issues.
4) Provide as much detail as possible, being specific as even the most minute detail could help others help you solve the problem. Please tell us what you have tried. Please tell us the make/model of your computer.
5) Respond with the result(s) of the suggestion(s) from the other users to provide feedback, even if this only means saying "this worked!"
If you don't know your system information please consider running our hardware scan and post or PM me your link.