so after having the computer on for 11 days with no problems i accidentally hit 'instal' to the new quicktimes + itunes update and had to restart the computer, and i've had 4 BSOD within the last 3 hours. this is from the latest error report:
ran it through the memory test that windows can do upon booting up, came back with no errors at all as i figured it was a memory issue since restoring it didnt work. not sure of where to go from here now.
ps. the error name was something about 'bad pool caller' or something along those lines.
i would restore it to an earlier date, but i dont think it would help since restoring it to sunday, (when it was working) didnt help at all. and i dont really want to reformat and reinstall xp if i dont have to. i did a lot more researching and found out that the 'bad pool caller' error is due to a conflicting driver or somtehing related to the graphics card, so i uninstalled it and reinstalled it hoping this would fix the problem. been 43 minutes and no BSOD yet. so hopefully that will fix the darn thing.
that seems to have been the problem, hasnt BSOD since then, i really dont know how it was 'corrupted' as nothing really has been done to affect the darn thing, but oh well i guess.