Hi,
I have been getting this error message that says: A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. It then states something about MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION (which I have no idea what that means) and asks me about any new hardware I might have recently installed. It also suggests rebooting in safe mode and disabling / removing any new software or hardware. I have reinstalled / changed drivers on my EVGA 8600 256 MB, AMD Athlon 64 2.4 4000+, 3com network card, and diamond sound card. My mobo is an MSI-K8N Neo4 and I have 2 GB of OCZ ddr 400. The other recent addition was a service pack 3 update for xp and after that was installed this problem occured, but not immediately. Another thing about the error message is it states that physical memory has been dumped and I am unsure of what that would mean. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

0x0000009C: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

This is a hardware issue: an unrecoverable hardware error has occurred. The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

1. Go to www.memtest.org and download their ISO latest version (it's free) and burn to a CD.

> Go to your BIOS and place your CD/DVD drive as First Bootable.

> Reboot your system with the CD containing memtest already in the drive. The test will take over.

>. Run the test for a minimum of 7 Passes. This takes considerable time. There are 8 individual tests per Pass.

> Any errors and you have to replace your memory; it cannot be fixed. If you have more than one stick of memory run this test on each one individually to determine which one(s) need to be replaced.


2. Check all your case fans and CPU and Video fans to see if they are running. Check your system temps.


3. After running memtest and you find no errors, and after you check fans and temps, and it still isn't resolved, see if you can roll back to SP2.

Outstanding I just found my mobo fan has stopped running... This needs to be fixed gad. I will also run the memtest and thx.