Stop Error Screen - Blue Screen and unable to boot into windows

Just started early last week, I got a blue screen after booting into windows which called itself a Stop Error Screen. It suggests my recently installed hardware is incompatible with the OS. Nothing (hardware or software) has been installed on the pc for at least 1/2 year, no hardware for 5+ years. I had to hard boot and go back into windows which worked but it was slow. I restarted and then all was normal until this morning. I tried to boot into windows again to no avail and am stuck in Safe Mode.
 
My pc is an old (10 years or so?), reliable HP upgraded from Vista to Win 7. It has served me well with Cakewalk 8.53 for my needs which are primarily singer / songwriter, etc. It's sole function has been gmail, cakewalk forums and DAW, nothing else. It DAW function has been on hiatus for a number of months while I work on the property. So gmail and forums every day, nothing else.
 
So now in Safe Mode, I see in Device Mngr I have a yellow triangle alert with "Consumer IR Devices". Not working properly because windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).
 
I assume this is the issue. After googling the code, I have tried these steps unsuccessfully: Update the driver. Disable the driver.
 
So I figured my best choice is to do a system restore to 9/13, my last windows update and this would be just before my issue began. I tried to do this in Safe Mode but I get to a screen which tells me to boot into windows by inserting a CD. I'm not sure what this means. I made recover CDs, but I don't know if that is what they are asking.
 
I then tried to perform a "clean boot" into windows from safe mode which entails msconfig.exe, etc, but the last step here cautions all restore points will be deleted.
 
I still think if I could restore, I'd be in good shape, possibly.
 
Anyhow, my only other option as I see it is to reinstall windows which I am not looking forward to all the hassle. I might just try to get a HP on sale at tiger Direct and at least be up to date enough to run things like Sonar platinum?
 
I still have 2-3 weeks to work left to work on the property so I'm not in a great rush, but downhearted , yes. This pc has been a good friend dating back to pre cancer, radiation and slow recovery, and now living with cancer with 20+ new songs to record this winter in the downtime.

Fireberd, abacab, sounds very helpful, this gives me a very good direction and in about a month when the snow flies, I'll start with this project.
 
Super helpful, thanks when I really need it, I'm actually looking forward to it!

I would go +1 for SSD Drive - my main Computer which is about 4 or 5 years old now from Jim at Studio Cat Computers , an  i7 - 2600k @ 3.40 Ghz with 16Mb ram was just starting to struggle a bit on some larger projects. I had the opportunity to buy two Crucial MX300 SSD 1Tb Drives for a very reasonable price - I used one for system and one for projects - honestly its like I've got a new and better Computer!! 
Nigel
 

slartabartfast
This seems to have morphed into a new build thread. If the OP has any interest other than a new PC the following may be helpful.
 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17074/windows-7-resolving-stop-blue-screen-errors
 
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-7-stop-errors-or-blue-screens-guide
 
https://www.lifewire.com/blue-screen-error-codes-4065576
 

Thanks slartabartfast, I will look at these in detail later this evening. My DAW pc booted into windows this morning but only for three minutes! So I couldn't restore to the last windows update. It was so close!

Using F9 at startup, I ran the hardware diagnostics:
CPU
Memory
HD
DVD
Boot Path
 
All passed.
 
I checked C/windows/minidump and there are no current DMP files there. I think there is a way to force reporting and I will try that if I can figure that out.
 
As this morning, the pc boots into windows for about 2 minutes, then black screen, then blue screen.

abacab
At this point, your PC hardware may be suspect. 
 
If you can try booting from a live cd/dvd/usb stick, you can maybe verify that the motherboard, BIOS, memory, and CPU are OK.
 
That would help narrow things down a bit to the hardware, or the hard drive and OS.
 
If you can get to another computer and download and create one of these tools, you might get a better idea of your hardware stability.  You can boot your PC from a CD or USB stick, with your hard drive completely disconnected if you wish.  If you cannot get booted and running with one of these, it's probably not a Windows or hard drive issue.
 
Hiren’s BootCD – The Best Computer Bootable Repair Disc
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/latest-hirens-bootcd-v83-the-king-of-all-boot-cds/
 
The PC Repair Toolkit in Your Pocket: Boot CD on a USB Stick
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ultimate-pc-repair-toolkit-in-your-pocket-ultimate-boot-cd-on-a-usb-stick/

Thanks, I did not know this was possible! This is definitely something I will try. I'm out of the loop now with another week to two of physical work and too tired to move at night, and then I will begin this journey again.
 
I still think it is a driver issue with quite possibly a change to my system by windows update, especially since both of my computers went to prolonged black screens a day apart from each other within two days of the last windows update. But I am a nut job.
 
Anyhow, this will really help me in diagnostics, thanks again!
 
Thank God nothing like this ever happens to my best friend, my Gibson acoustic. I couldn't stand to be a day without her!

abacab
Does your other computer run now?

Perfectly!

robbyk

abacab
Does your other computer run now?

Perfectly!

You said you had not changed any hardware or software recently, but it is an older computer.
 
Since both computers acted up after an update, and one is still crashing, you may want to test the hardware on the bad one.  Maybe rolling back the updates or reinstalling Windows would help, but I wouldn't spend the time on that option until I knew the hardware was still solid first. 
 
In my experience blue screen stop errors are usually related to hardware or driver problems.

Cactus Music
You never know,  my blue screens on a brand new build turned out to be a faulty power supply. 

I think you are wise in this, I want to check my power supply as well! That is not a huge expense?

DarinBad
If you haven't done so already (didn't see it mentioned in the thread), you could try re-seating the memory, video card, cables, etc.. Even though the computer may boot up initially, connections may move around due to heat expansion after things warm up. A friend of mine had exactly the problem you describe a few years ago. I re-seated everything, and the problem was gone.
 
A failing power supply could certainly cause this also.

Yes I agree this is wise to do, I am going to disconnect all devices, and open the case for cleaning and check all the connections and generally see if I can see anything. Then see if I can boot with all audio components disconnected. Next I'll try a new power supply. But before either, I am going to run a driver utility in safe mode and perform chkdisk as mentioned above.
 
I really appreciate all the help on this and advice you all have given, I, myself, would not have been able to go to these lengths with my own knowledge.
 
I should note, the blue screen came on the hottest day of the year (rare for fall, but we had a three months with no sun and only rain for our summer, on the average 3 days / month without rain, now in the fall our summer has arrived!). Although my room is closed up and rather steady in heat, humidity, it does cause me to think of overheating.

abacab
Another easy way to test without getting bogged down with test utilities and tearing the computer apart,  would be to swap in a spare hard drive, and install a test copy of Windows on that and see if it runs OK.
 
Make sure to disconnect the real hard drive if you do this to prevent accidentally writing to it.

Sounds like that would be a plan. Where would I get a test copy of windows?

filtersweep
Seems the Consumer IR Device is a clue. Do you have an IR mouse, keyboard or other device installed?

I would think so to, but no, nothing IR related, nor had I ever seen that in device mngr. Could windows update have installed it? It's not on any of my other pcs.

abacab

robbyk
 
Sounds like that would be a plan. Where would I get a test copy of windows?

Do you have a Windows installation disk, either OEM or retail?  If so just use that and don't bother activating it.
 
If your copy of Windows came pre-installed, you have an OEM Windows 7 license, so that may not be an option, unless you could borrow an installer disk from a friend.
 
Microsoft has a Windows 7 ISO file download page, but it apparently works only if you have a retail license key (meaning you purchased the Windows 7 retail license separately from your PC, not an OEM license key.  Microsoft took down their Digital River ISO file downloads a couple of years ago.  Of course you could always download a copy of Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and play with the Windows 10 ISO as a test.  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
 
There are still alternative ways to get the Win 7 ISO file, and the details are listed here:
https://www.pcsteps.com/45-download-windows-7-iso-legally-free-digital-river/
 
Referenced from the PC Steps article above> Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool:
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

I do not have a Windows installation disc, windows was pre-installed on my HP.
 
I'll check out pcsteps.com heidoc.net soon.
 
Again, thanks so much for the help, I'll get there!