I have an Acer Travelmate 8215WLMi which has today developed a problem!

Previously it was running alright using Vista Professional but when I try to start the laptop, it lets me log-in using my password but then gives me the blue screen of death.

The only specific information on the blue screen screen is as follows:

"STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x821570E6, 0x8D06694C, 0x00000000)"

I have searched google and the microsoft help site but don't seem to be able to come up with any solution.

I am able to access safe mode and have been led to believe this may point to it being a problem with software rather than hardware?

As an aside, I also want to restore my laptop to factory settings but am not sure how to do it. The laptop came preinstalled with Windows XP (no disk was provided), which I upgraded using the Acer Vista upgrade disk. I am unhappy with vista and would prefer to go back to using XP but do not have an XP disk. I believe there is a keystoke sequence that can be used to factory restore an Acer machine but I am unsure what it is - can anyone help?

Hi Katiesam

Turn off auto run, auto play by following these instructions:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/889747

You may have inadvertently downloaded some malware from an email or a flash drive....

Once you've done the above, restart your machine and see if you still get the error. If not, you should run a scan with your antivirus program and
an online antivirus such as Eset online scanner

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

ESET Online Scanner: System Requirements
http://www.eset.com/threat-center/cac4.php?page=requirements

ESET Online Scanner: FAQ
http://www.eset.com/threat-center/cac4.php?page=faq

ESET Online Scanner: Help
http://www.eset.com/threat-center/cac4.php?page=help

If you can zip & post the contents of c:\windows\minidump and reply with it I'll look.

All I can tell you is something is having an access violation, probably a third party driver.