Dell Dimension 8400 - had it since 2005

Son bought me a western digital passport, when i tried to install it in usb port in back, it said found new hardware, READY, then got a bsod. rebooted, tried using the usb port in front of tower, found hardware, ready, then when it said to install, got a bsod. rebooted and came here.

Before this i was trying to burn a cd from my photo album software and got a bsod as WELL.

Anything or any ideas you can give me would be appreciated, or is it simply my computer is on it's last
legs?

thanksYou post does not have ENOUGH detail to know exactly what happened. The symptoms sound like a power supply problem. But that is not certain.

Well, we are sure it is not global warming!

Anther possibility is that a component such as then DVD drive, the floppy drive nor every the memory sticks may be failing and cause your Dell Desktop to power down.

Have you recently cleaned dust out of the computer? Do all the fans run at normal speed? Believe it or not, a friend took her PC to a repair shop and they could not find what was wrong with it. A fan was stuck and some how they had not found it!

The external drive, even if it is bad, should not force the PC to shut down. Well, it could if it has a rwally bad problem.
Download BlueScreenView:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
unzip downloaded file and double click on BlueScreenView.exe to run the program.
when scanning is done, go to EDIT - Select All
Go to FILE - SAVE Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt
Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all of the content, and paste it into your next replyIs this the right one? Thanks.

==================================================
Dump File : Mini010511-04.dmp
Crash Time : 1/5/2011 6:31:39 PM
Bug Check String : BAD_POOL_HEADER
Bug Check Code : 0x00000019
Parameter 1 : 0x00000020
Parameter 2 : 0x82b7dbd8
Parameter 3 : 0x82b7dbf0
Parameter 4 : 0x1a030010
Caused By Driver : tfsnifs.sys
Caused By Address : tfsnifs.sys+11606
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini010511-04.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
Dump File Size : 94,208
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : Mini010511-03.dmp
Crash Time : 1/5/2011 6:19:14 PM
Bug Check String : BAD_POOL_HEADER
Bug Check Code : 0x00000019
Parameter 1 : 0x00000020
Parameter 2 : 0xff5a31f0
Parameter 3 : 0xff5a3208
Parameter 4 : 0x1a030001
Caused By Driver : tfsnifs.sys
Caused By Address : tfsnifs.sys+11606
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini010511-03.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
Dump File Size : 94,208
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : Mini010511-02.dmp
Crash Time : 1/5/2011 6:02:23 PM
Bug Check String : BAD_POOL_HEADER
Bug Check Code : 0x00000019
Parameter 1 : 0x00000020
Parameter 2 : 0xfea33490
Parameter 3 : 0xfea334a8
Parameter 4 : 0x1a030001
Caused By Driver : tfsnifs.sys
Caused By Address : tfsnifs.sys+11606
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini010511-02.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
Dump File Size : 94,208
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : Mini010511-01.dmp
Crash Time : 1/5/2011 5:54:08 PM
Bug Check String : BAD_POOL_HEADER
Bug Check Code : 0x00000019
Parameter 1 : 0x00000020
Parameter 2 : 0xf9862e70
Parameter 3 : 0xf9862e88
Parameter 4 : 0x1a030001
Caused By Driver : tfsnifs.sys
Caused By Address : tfsnifs.sys+11606
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini010511-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
Dump File Size : 94,208
==================================================

Do you have any Sonic software installed? If so, do you need it? If not, uninstall and see what happens.I have a Sonic folder which has DLA, RecordNow and MyDVD as folders. I'm pretty sure they are what I use when i use my E Drive to write to CD/DVD's. I think they came with the computer when i bought it, so as soon as i can find the discs they are on i'll work on uninstalling and trying again. I want to be able to reinstall them i guess in case i need them. I never had this problem before. Thanks.Sonic is pure garbage....you'll be BETTER off without it.

And there are excellent Free alternatives....post back if you need any.Agree with patio. Sonic DLA is causing the problem. Uninstall it - plenty of good free software alternatives.Thanks - yeah i guess i'll need some alternatives. I don't really know much about Sonic other than it opens when i want to write to a cd or dvd, and i have no idea what DLA is or that kind of stuff. So whatever you got, i'm willing to listen. thanks again.I use CDBurnerXPro....Free and easy to use.Thanks, as soon as i manage some time off, I'll work on your suggestions and let you know how it turns out. Wanted to let you know, i uninstalled the Sonic stuff, and was able to install the external passport. It's backing things up as i go to work so i think all is well. Thanks again for all your help, you guys are super.Excellent news !

Thanx for taking the time to STOP back and update things...

Stop by anytime.