Ok - heres the scoop. decided to blow out the HD and start fresh. I have done this on a few occasions without issue, but now got the "Begin Physincal Memory Dump" blue screen. I have checked the forum and it appears most if not all were playing a game or something. I actally was finalizing all Windows Updates via the web (SP2, windows Media 11, etc) and got the error. this was AFTER I had updated my McAfee Virus Scan with the updates. The system seemed to slow, then stop requiring a reboot. When it rebooted, I got the blue screen AFTER it stated it was missing a certain windows file - windows\system32\config\system

Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

R

So you installed McAfee prior to applying SP2 & the postSP2 updates?

Below is a fix if you are usinga full version of WinXP. Do not use if you are using an OEM restore version of XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

so you had no problems untill you up-dated McAfee?

You can try a repair install:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...
Then I would suggest unloading Mcafee using their website uninstaller.
Then do your ctitical updates and why not give Avast free a try and let it do a bootscan on reboot and remove all it finds.

McAfee is bloatware IMO and that's why things slowed to a crawl on your new installation.

I would also suggest Comodo Pro Free firewall, avast and comodo work well together.

Avast and comodo can be found in the link of my signature.

Some HELP in posting on Cnet plus free progs and instructions Glad to Help!

ok - so the question is should I update mcafee PRIOR to installing SP2 and the updates, or before? I'm obviously concerned about downloading a virus while updating windows.

Thoughts? I just reinstalled windows, but have done nothing about additional programs, etc - it is the recovery Windows program that came with my Dell - not the upgrade.

Thanks again ~

RR

You can download SP2 form the technet site and install offline. The post SP2 updates can be done afterward. Below is the link. Download using a different mahine and burn to disk or transfer over LAN.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/do...