I got home today, checked my email, visited the board, and in the meantime installed whatever Windows Update told me to then left while the computer restarted. Now I'm posting from my dad's machine

I cannot boot up all the way no matter what I try. I get to the screen with the Win2K logo, and when the blue progress bar gets about 70-75% across, I get a BSOD with some error like "DEVICE IRQL NOT LESS THAN OR EQUAL" or something like that. I'll copy down the exact message if needed. It was one of those that say "If this is the first time you've seen this screen, restart your computer. Otherwise, uninstall any recent hardware or software and reboot"

Great, how do they expect me to uninstall anything when I can't boot up using any of the F8 options. I think I've gotten this message in the past or something like it, and chosing "boot with last known working configuration" or something, and it worked. I've also rebooted several times since then, and haven't had any problems. I think that time might have also been after an update.

So what's up with my crazy machine again??

DEVICE IRQL NOT LESS THAN OR EQUAL

I have a Dell laptop, and when I would undock my laptop from the docking station while running, the change would kick the BSOD with that error up on my screen. It was the audio drivers for me, and it would also do it when I would plug in the 1/8th inch jack with my speakers. Try disconnecting everything except for the power, keyboard, mouse and video and try that.

(I'm really stabbing in the dark, though)

whatever Windows Update told me to

Did you at any time skip the prompt to reboot and keep on installing updates? AFAIK, you can dig a very deep hole for yourself if you do that.
Alternatively, more details on the BSOD might be useful for checking on the MS Knowledgebase.

Windows: Reboot often

I had an issue where my cordless mouse drivers were not compatible with an update, and it went BSOD on me. If I had known, simply installing the newest version of the software (along with its updated drivers) would have prevented that.

In my case, I had to login into the Win2K install using an emergency disk, and simply delete the offending driver. Then the computer booted, and I downloaded and installed the newest software for the mouse. No trouble after that.

Basically, since you didn't install any new hardware right after you upgraded, I would check to see if any software you had installed should have been updated first (mouse, printer, scanner, video, sound, etc.). If I came up with another suggestion, I'd also be taking a stab in the dark.

I'd be interested in seeing the exact error, if you can take it down the next time you see it. It's clearly a device driver issues (hence the BSOD). If you can't boot into "safe mode" then your options are really limited, but perhaps there's something you can do in CMOS (like disabeling an interrupt). However, I'm shooting in the dark here so don't do anything like that unless you get some good advice from a hardware guy.

Thanks, guys.

I tried to fit all the info I had into that post, but I forgot one thing. I made sure to take a peek at the details of the update, and it appeared that only one thing was being changed, and I thought it only had something to do with IE. I have no idea what that could have to do with anything to make this happen, but I agree with all your theories.

Oh, and to answer one person's question: no, Update only asked to be rebooted once, and I said no because I wanted to close down the programs I had running. Immediately after that, however, I shut off my computer.

You know what I love? Randomness.

Immediately after submitting my previous post, I ran upstairs and turned my machine on so I could write down the error message for a little search on the MS Knowledge Base.

Naturally, my machine booted normally.

I did not do a single thing other than boot my computer upwards of eight times