Hey rik,Thing is there have been mulitple BSOD's but all of them relate to some specific program called "Steering program" i have also seen a reference to this when avast starts up saying "The steering program needs to restart" with the option of yes or no to restart it.First time we encountered it we choose "yes" second time we choose "no" both seemed to have no type of effect.

on the hardware possibility i havent seen anything that would make me suspect hardware.The PC has had numerous infections from worms and virus's at one time.I have a feeling these may have somehow damaged some of XP's system files causing the issue which is why a repair came to mind.

Just that whole thing with the internet ceasing to function has me concerned about trying it.