I used another PC to get ComboFix on the desktop of the Vista, right clicked to run as Administrator, and was (eventually - almost 5 minutes) told that root-kit activity had been detected. A few more msgs later it informed me that Rootkit Zero Access had inserted itself into the TCP/IP stack, etc...
After another minute or so a msg came up that said the PC would now reboot to continue this removal process. I let it reboot and it booted normally, but I saw no indication of ComboFix continuing, and 70 seconds later got the IRQL BSOD mentioned above.
I rebooted into safe mode again, and since there were no ComboFix processes running I reran it, went through the same msgs and this time when it rebooted I pressed F8 and booted into safe mode with networking. Nothing. No CF processes.
I then changed msconfig to always boot into safe mode with networking, and went through the process yet again. It does all the right stuff up until the reboot. Now, even though it is automatically in safe mode, nothing further happens with ComboFix after it reboots. It's been sitting there for 7 hours after ComboFix's reboot, and believe me, nothing is happening.
How do I get around this?