First off, I have a Windows Premium Home Vista One, 32bit.

My computer was acting up and had frequent random shutdowns, so I decided to do the system recovery and restore it to factory settings. Everything was going great, I was putting all my files back into the computer when the frequent crahses started coming up. They would either come up after I tried rebooting the computer or about 5 minutes after I'm logged in and everything. It's where the blue screen comes up and usually either of these messages comes up with of course other text:

IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal

or

Bad_Pool_Caller

I heard it somehing to do with my drive or something, I'd appreciate any insight and help on this recurring issue. I'm really not that great with computers.

Thanks!




- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ?
- the original installed OS on the system? YES
- an OEM or full retail version? - OEM = came pre-installed on system - Full Retail = you purchased it from retailer
- What is the age of system (hardware)? 4 years old
- What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) 5 years old

Welcome
You had the Blue Screen of Death, not a good thing. But we can help
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

You gave me 3 reports
One said memory
The second indicated hardware which includes memory
The third indicated a driver or memory
Lets start with the memory test
If you get a BSOD after the test, post it

Guide to using Memtest86+ - Geeks to Go Forums
Run for at least 8 hours. Test each slot with a good stick for 6-8 hours

Quoted from ehow.com

Once one pass has completed without error, the "Pass complete, no errors, press Esc to exit" message will appear. At this point you can press Esc to stop Memtest86 and reboot your PC. Memtest86 does not stop on its own but will continue to make passes until you stop it.