Expert: Bobbert - 11/16/2011

Question
Bobbert
my dell died immediately after i tried to download anti virus software. It was working fine up till that moment. Then it flashed the BSOD: fatal system error - STOP 000021a
i turned it off and on again but this BSOD is all I get

Its a 4 year old comp. Can i give it a 2nd life ?
I don't have discs to reinstall

Is it worth paying BEst BUy $200?

Thanks

Answer
Without install discs, you likely cannot do any sort of troubleshooting. My initial suggestion in this situation would be to try a repair installation of the operating system, and if that fails, reformat and re-install the operating system entirely. Without the install media for Windows, you will likely be the at the mercy of a repair shop (and will likely end up spending more than the machine is worth, and potentially more than it cost new). Depending on the system's hardware, you may consider buying a new operating system for it, as that would provide you with install media. Alternately, you may contact Dell - depending on your warranty and service arrangement you may be able to get install media sent out, or may be able to purchase install/recovery media for a minimal fee.

This would be the conventional troubleshooting route, if the system were stable enough to boot, however I doubt it will be of any use to you presently:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156669/en-us

I'm guessing that whatever software you downloaded and installed was likely malware, and is likely the culprit here.

-bob