Well, this is has been going on for longer than I can remember, but I'd say about a year now. I figured I could solve it myself, but I've surrendered to the computer. I'll be doing anything, or nothing, doesn't really matter, and the computer will crash out. I made it show me the BSODs, but I never got anything useful from them, I just assumed it was hardware. Did some research, nothing I tried already worked.

Well, after changing literally every piece of hardware inside the computer (well, not every, I still have a Yahama CD burner and a Linksys Wireless-G card from the first rendition,) and reformatting a few times, and running between XP Pro and XP Home, finally got it to give me one STOP code consistantly.

0x8E, yada yada win32k.sys.

Tell me what you want and I'll try to provide it.

In order to help you we need your minidumps.

How to find your minidumps:

My Computer > C Drive > Windows Folder > Minidump Folder > Minidump Files. It is these files that we need you to attach to your next posting, NOT the whole folder.

Alright. Here's the 3 most recent.

Did you replace your RAM as well?

You have an 0x50 error, an 0x7F error and a win32k.sys error and all three are commonly caused by corrupted memory (though they can be caused by other issues).

Run MemTest to see if your RAM might be corrupted.

Ran Memtest86 back in December for a full 24 hours, had no errors. I've also changed the RAM several times with known good modules, and in multiple configurations. Right now, I'm running 4 X 512MB Crucial modules, but I've also run just 1 pair of these, 1 pair of a Crucial set I borrowed from another computer which was working fine, and a 4 X 512MB set of GEIL modules, all DDR 400.

I've changed the processor twice, Intel 478 P4s, all Prescott. I've used a 2.6GHz, a 3.2GHz, and I'm currently using a 3.0GHz.

I've changed the Sony DVD burner, but that actually had a problem, it wouldn't burn anything and wouldn't read DVDs.

I've changed the video card twice, between an ATi Rage 128 PRO which I know works, an ATi AIW 9600 which I know works, and the current Sapphire ATi x1950PRO which I'm fairly sure works, all AGP.

I've swapped motherboards, from an ASUS P4PE-X to an ASUS P4S800D-X, unsure on BIOS status on both, but the error was still occurring before I switched to the P4S800D-X, so I'm pretty sure both are okay. BIOS revision 1005 is what's on the P4S800D-X.

I've swapped sound cards, from a Creative Labs Audigy 2 Platinum to a Creative Labs x-Fi Fatal1ty Champion, both have checked out okay in other computers.

I've switched power supplies as well, from an Allied 350W (cheap generic piece of @#$%) to a PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W. Doubt that has any effect on anything else.

I don't think heat is an issue, but I could be horribly wrong there. CPU under load is around 50-55C, idle 40C. Mobo is usually around 30C. Video card runs around 70C under load, 60C idle.

I also have an ATi TV Wonder 650 which I know works on other computers, a Linksys Wireless G + Speedbooster card, revision 1.0, a Yahama CD burner that I'm unsure of the status on, but it seems to be working fine, 2 hard drives, both WD and PATA, 1 200GB, 1 20GB. The 200GB was a replacement for an 80GB I thought was bad but later turned out to be fine. I have a floppy drive that works, but if that's the problem, I'd probably have to cry.

What I don't know is if something really strange like a peripheral is causing this.

when you go to control panel -> administrative tools -> Event Viewer

post event ID's and sources for ERRORs not warnings.



Faulty hardware. Stop 0x50 usually occurs after the installation of faulty hardware or in the event of failure of installed hardware (usually related to defective RAM, be it main memory, L2 RAM cache, or video RAM). If hardware has been added to the system recently, remove it to see if the error recurs. If existing hardware has failed, remove or replace the faulty component. You need to run hardware diagnostics supplied by the system manufacturer. For details on these procedures, see the owners manual for your computer.

Buggy system service. Often, the installation of a buggy system service is a culprit. Disable the service and confirm that this resolves the error. If so, contact the manufacturer of the system service about a possible update.

Antivirus software. Antivirus software can also trigger this error. Disable the program and confirm that this resolves the error. If it does, contact the manufacturer of the program about a possible update.

Corrupted NTFS volume. A corrupted NTFS volume can also generate this error. Run Chkdsk /f /r to detect and repair disk errors. You must restart the system before the disk scan begins on a system partition. If you cannot start the system due to the error, use the Recovery Console and run Chkdsk /r . For more information about the Recovery Console, see Troubleshooting Tools and Strategies in this book. If the hard disk is a SCSI disk, check for problems between the SCSI controller and the disk.

"post event ID's and sources for ERRORs not warnings."

Since I'm not entirely sure what you are looking for, here's the actual log. Probably more useful to you than it is to me.

Oh, and a new minidump, because the computer crashed as I tried to make this post the first time.

Those are the two pages that had entries, sorry about the application one being in a .zip, it was just a little too large for the forum limit (107.9KB).

I guess now would also be a good time to mention that it's not just the system crashing, random applications have also been crashing.

Event ID: 7001
Source Service Control Manager
Type Error
Fix: Need more details on this one, its a big one. Did you ever have norton anti virus installed, It indicates the failure of a service startup due to the fact that one of the dependency did not start. This event can occur for potentially any service or application -> right click the event in the event viewer and select event properties or details.

Almost all the informational warnings associate with networking or symantic software, looks like every time you generated an unknown error ID involving Srtsp.sys, which is a driver related to Symantec antiviral software, you crash 5 minutes later. Could be unrelated or malware related but should still fix it to be sure

Please let me know

Oh and the 3rd reference I saw a lot was pointing at a high CPU load or a high network load



the minidump has started off with an error due to ATI driver fault -> doesn't mean a whole lot other than what we already knew problem with your video memory.

Just curious because of the amount of stuff you have changed out, it's going to be next to impossible to troubleshoot defective hardware, have you ever formatted and reinstalled your Operating system, a lot of this could be caused by software that was not completely uninstalled, which in turn now causes registry problems, application errors, etc.

I can't find a common link between errors though, other than symantic and networking errors like I said, but nothing that pins it down definitely

And I didn't open the event log app, only the text file, just because it doesn't seem good practice to open an application posted from a problematic computer.

It's not an application, it's a text file. I guess I failed to imply that the .zip file contained the text file and I couldn't upload it as a text file because it was 7kb too large.

I have reinstalled the operating system multiple times, between XP Home and Pro, as stated in my original post, however I've used drive zeroing utilities before installing the operating system.

And Norton apps... Norton 360 is on here.

High network load... would that have anything to do with this computer staying on all the time? I use it as an internal network server like device.

High CPU load... it IS a gaming box, so I guess Source can do that to a computer, even though I've only had it crash once during a Source game.

There were 7 entries, all at the exact same time for that Event ID 7001, so I'll list the contents of properties for each:

The IPSEC Services service depends on the IPSEC driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The ##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762## service depends on the TCP/IP Protocol Driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The Apple Mobile Device service depends on the TCP/IP Protocol Driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service depends on the AFD service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The DNS Client service depends on the TCP/IP Protocol Driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The DHCP Client service depends on the NetBios over Tcpip service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
Aavmker4
AFD
aswTdi
eeCtrl
Fips
intelppm
IPSec
MRxSmb
NetBIOS
NetBT
RasAcd
Rdbss
SRTSPX
SYMTDI
Tcpip

Out of that, I see network issues, a wacked service, and some random Apple service. But I've apparently been wrong about everything else so far, so I have no reason to think I'm not wrong about this too.

I would say that was a very good guess judging by the source on those errors.
"A device attached to the system is not functioning. "


I was going to write out some very long winded instructions to narrow this down more, but I am really so tired that I can't read anymore. I am probably not much help being this tired. Here's what I got so far from all this:

Actually, before typing out any instructions -> are you also running under Virtual PC / Virtual Server ?

I run VNC viewer occasionally, but I'll get rid of it if I need to.

Devices connected to the system:

USB keyboard (Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard)
USB mouse (Kensington Expert Mouse 7)
USB printer (Epson Stylus Photo 825)
5.1 surround sound headset, connected via analog and one USB port (for power only)
Motherboard based LAN, connected. (The wireless card is currently disabled, but I use it when other places)
Twin monitors, one DVI, one D-SUB.

Okay, well considering the number of critical drivers failing to load

First run System File Checker -> you may need your XP CD

go to the Run box on the Start Menu and type in:
sfc /scannow

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html - guide

Hopefully that will fix some of the windows related drivers.


Then try Start, Run, type msconfig, Click the General tab.
->Select the "Selective Startup" option.
->Deselect the "Load Startup Items" checkbox.
->Click the Startup tab.
->Select the "iTunesHelper" and "qttask" checkboxes in the list.
->Click the Services tab.
->Make sure to tick "Hide All Microsoft Services". Then select 'disable all'
->click OK, click Restart
After restarting (and logging in to Windows), a window appears confirming that "You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts." Click OK. The System Configuration Utility appears. Do not click OK here as this will prompt you to restart again. First try to reproduce the issue you were having. If no crashes occur you can enable 3rd party service one at a time and restart after each service to see if the problem comes back.

You can turn all of them back on by selecting the Normal Startup option under the General tab of the System Configuration Utility window, but please note that this may cause the issue to recur.

hopefully the problem will be eliminated with everything disabled, then as you enable stuff you will see what exactly is causing the error -> There is always the chance that it is hardware related but I see no way to troubleshoot that

Progress?

I did sfc /scannow, it wanted my disk to fix at least one thing.

I disabled all non-Microsoft services. I get to the reboot.

Then I crash, but this was a new BSOD. Mentioned something about IRQL and then disappeared too fast. I think it said 0x0A, but it went away pretty fast.

The latest error under the system page of Event Viewer was Event ID 1003, Source System Error:

Error code 0000000a, parameter1 0a050009, parameter2 0000001c, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 804d9cb5.

Minidump attached.

k, go back to event viewer and get the source for this error

the minidump points to Npfs.SYS which is another system file that should have been fixed with sfc

Nevermind I am pretty sure I saw this the other day on somebody else that I helped on here, it was just a lot more obvious on their machine.

This may occur if the computer is infected with a variant of the Sdbot virus.

The Sdbot virus creates a hidden process. This process closes programs that system administrators use for diagnostic and configuration purposes. The process may also prevent these programs from running.

The file name of the Sdbot virus varies. Many variants of this virus put a driver that is named Msdirectx.sys or Haxdrv.sys on the computer. This driver is used to hide the virus process. The file names that the virus frequently uses include Msdrv.exe and Sdkcore.exe. These virus variants can restore the virus if you delete the files.


Try using this online scanner -> it will pick up some variations of it http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Here's everything that happened after the latest event in the first text file (sorry, I'm not that great with event viewer.)

well what's weird about this is that everything lately has pointed to faulty hardware, and a lot of your errors look like windows 2003 server errors, that point to a bug in your processor


If house call doesn't pick it up, i would go HERE and follow the instructions exactly, then post the requested logs in the security section of the forums

I changed processors 3 days ago with a 3.0GHz that I know was working because it came out of a working computer. I had already thought that there might have been an issue with the processor, but nothing changed except the speed.

Running the scanner, I'll check back in 30 minutes.

Alright, so the scanner finished and removed some trivial adware.

Should I do everything on the linked list now?

Alright, well, it's been running problem free for a couple of days, so I'm gonna see if it was either a service or something that scanner removed.

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it.