I have a laptop that's only about 2 years old. I recently had some problems with heating and random shut downs. Just a few days ago I got the BSOD with stop error: 0x0000007E - which is associated with registry errors (according to some research I've done). I can't boot in safe mode or anything. No matter what I do I get the BSOD.

I've looked around on some forums and see that many other people have had this problem. I have also read that the best solution is to just reinstall windows. My question is simple, will the BSOD prevent me from reinstalling windows? I don't think I have disk for windows handy, but I'm sure I could just buy one if I need too. But I'm not sure if it would work. Is it possible to just insert the disk and reinstall windows without being blocked by the BSOD?

Thanks in advance

Going by help I have seen from Route44, whom I trust, and from other experts on the site...

Your two most likely culprits would be... Memory corruption or Hard Drive Failure (or possibly too full).

Maybe start by ruling our memory issues...
If you boot from a windows install disk... This would rule out Memory...

Another approach would be to get Memtest... (You can boot from a Memtest disk... )
Solid Advice given to me (and to others) by Route44...
afterthought...
I guess I shouldn't just assume that you are certain that the overheating has been resolved?