Computer help forum: Blue screen o' death at startup: What to do?

LIke I mentioned in the OP, I've never had a blue screen issue, and once I discovered it is sarcastically called the blue screen of death, I assumed that may very well mean this could be a serious problem. So I made sure to list what seemed like pertinent info, as I'm not a computer whiz here. Thats why the post is long. I dont fully understand your answer. Are you saying this could very well be a simple, common problem? If so, why the ominous term for this type of error screen?

I looked at the stop screen again, and all I see is white letters on a blue screen. No red.

The computer is from 2005, and according to the people at various computer stores, its not a new model! But they are in the business of selling computers, so....

Now this blue screen didnt happen right after the computer was set up for the first time, and it did not happen right after XP was installed. The computer had been used for years, then stored, now its got a blue screen. I have not changed anything right before I last used it, or since.

At first you made a comment about the post being too long, too much info. Now you insinuate I didnt include enough info.

I mentioned the operating system, the make (Dell), the processor, the year it was made, the error number(s), the info from the blue screen, etc.

Anyway, thanks for trying

Here's what Microsoft has to say about this:
http://search.microsoft.com/en-us/results.aspx?form=MSHOME&setlang=en-us&q=0x0000000A

In general this is a storage protection error usually caused by a driver problem. The first thing I'd try would be to unplug any USB devices other than keyboard and mouse.

Good luck.

Every device connected to a computer requires a driver which is the little bit of software that tells Windows how to talk to the device and vice versa. When you plug a device into the computer that doesn't first have a driver installed, Windows will try its best to accommodate it, but if the device had never been used with it before, Windows may do something really stupid. That is why some devices come with instructions NOT to connect it before installing the software that comes with it. It sounds like this was your issue.

Good luck.

Just so you know some XP arcana, it may not work if you plug it in and turn on the PC.

Due to really arcane reasons what you want to try is to plug it in AFTER the PC is booted. As you recall XP will boot without such and then you let it boot then plug it in.

Also, some of these systems have BIOS settings to enable USB PS2 legacy modes but the model is eluding me so I can't check on that.

Let's hope the old arcana tech trick plays well for you.
Bob