Blue Screen of Death - XP Pro

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HurricaneFloyd

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Hello all and thanks in advance for any help!

Windows XP Pro, 768Mb PC2100 DDR, 80 GB WD HDD, 400w power supply

Windows is crashing randomly, sometimes just after boot up, sometimes when I'm in the middle of something such as a virus scan, sometimes while idle, occasionly during the boot.

Some BSOD's point to Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal, I also sometimes get Page_fault_in_Nonpaged_Area. Some of the BSOD's refer to a certain file, here are the file names that I have seen listed on different occassions; naiavf5x.sys (McAfee file), i8042prt.sys (keyboard driver I think), win32k.sys, ntfs.sys.

I ran Memtest 6 times and found 0 errors. I have 2 sticks of RAM, I tried taking each one out and leaving the other and booted with no improvement.

I ran chkdsk and I think it found 0 errors, the results were on the screen for about 2 seconds and then the PC rebooted. It also said the NTFS volume was clean. The verifying file data (Step 4 of 5) took about 1 hour. The hardrive has 28.7 GB of free space left.

About 5 weeks ago, I hooked up a new scanner and printer. I unistalled the scanner. The old printer is still installed.

I installed a Hauppage Video Capture card about 2 weeks ago along with PVR software, the card and software have been uninstalled.

BSOD's really picked up in frequency a few days ago and Windows has gotten a lot slower over that period as well. I really can't work in regular windows now so I boot to Safe mode w/ networking.

I tried using the XP cd to run a Repair, BSOD. I tried entering setup using the XP CD to try to reinstall windows, BSOD.

I know I forgot something..... minidumps are attached.....I need a beer!

Thanks!
 

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I knew I forgot a few things,

I unistalled Mcafee virus scan and security center. I downloaded a trial on Zone Alarm Internet Security which is still installed. Both could not finish a few scan without a BSOD.

Also, I downloaded a few registry scanner/fixer/editors, Registry Mechanic, Reg Clean, WinASO (?). All 3 found between 700-1000 possible hits/errors. Of course, these programs will only repair 10-15 of the hits/errors per scan unless I registered which I didn't want to do at this time.

I also ran Winternals crash analyzer wizard and it could not diagnose any problems.

As of now, my PC has been running in safe mode for the past 4 hours with no BSOD's. I've been looking at web sites or it has been idle.
 
Peddant said:
This will help your registry problems,if nothing else http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048 700-1000 errors does seem a lot.You seem to have tried most other things.I feel your pain.


Thank you for the link. I installed the program, 1st scan it found 205 problems, 2nd scan found 7 problems. It fixed all of them, I think all of them were previously unistalled programs. Unfortunately, it didn't fix my problem.

Another thing I forgot was that I installed a new Envision monitor a few days before the new video capture card.

Thanks again for the link.
 
Clean re-install?

Did you try clean re-install of Windows XP?
Back-up everything you need to back-up. Remove all the partitions from your hard drive when you're installing (just delete them) then re-partition. Don't do recovery and don't install over the old operating system. See if it works.
Re-sit your CPU, memory sticks, cards and all connectors in your motherboard.

Good luck!

P.S.
After install, secure your machine - run all the latest updates and service packs; user firewall, virus and spybot scanners.
 
I was hoping to save the format and reinstall until last but I may not have a choice.

I have also just removed the soundcard and swapped out the video card, nothing has changed. I booted it up normally, all I got was my desktop background and a pointer, no icons, no New Hardware wizard although I only waited 3 minutes.... The Windows XP splash screen takes alot longer than normal, the status/loading bar even gets stuck every so often and then starts again. (not really a loading bar, just the 3 blue rectangles going from left to right)

I will try the format and reinstall tomorrow evening after work if no one else has any other suggestions.
 
Looks like you have a bad driver(s) messing up your system:
KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000008e)
This is a very common bugcheck. Usually the exception address pinpoints
the driver/function that caused the problem. Always note this address
as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.
Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003. This means a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted
/NODEBUG. This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have
hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...
If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the
system is booted /DEBUG. This will let us see why this breakpoint is
happening.

Edit your boot.ini file and boot your system with /debug - then post minidumps.
 
All your minidumps seem to point to ntoskrnl.exe. This isn't to good, and usually leads to a reload, unless you have hardware problems.

Bugchecks of:
100000D1
100000BE
1000008E

Normally, assuming your hardware is fine, if everything works in Safe Mode, then the culprit is very likely a driver. Possibly sound or video. If the system can stay alive long enough to get a driver loaded, that is a possibly solution. Reload ALL your drivers, go find the latest ones off the manufacturers web site. Especially your chipset, audio, and video.

Otherwise, with ntoskrnl.exe being blamed, a reload is a good next step in the process.
 
lewekleonek said:
Looks like you have a bad driver(s) messing up your system:


Edit your boot.ini file and boot your system with /debug - then post minidumps.


Ok, I Googled how to edit the boot.ini file but how/where do I add the /debug?

Also, if I have to format and reinstall, what about my XP product key? Won't Microsoft already have that on file and not accept it as valid? I have made a few hardware changes recently but I don't know if that is enough.
 
Look for the line in boot.ini similar to this:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


See at the end of the line they have the options starting with /? Just add the /debug where these go. Or append it to the end after any other options.

As for your keycode, don't worry about that. If you format and reload, it WILL accept your keycode. It's activation that might get you. If your hardware has changed a lot, activation may not go through automatically, in which case you'll end up calling their automated computer activation center, and if they can't activate, you'll talk to a person. Nothing to be worried about.
 
ok, i edited the boot.ini file to add /debug to the end and I rebooted. I didn't see anything different happen when I booted up, tried it again, with the same result. Was I suppose to see something different happen?

I let it boot into Windows and did not chose to go into safe mode. Windows was really slow but I was able to run an virus/spyware scan without getting a BSOD. Like I said, it is still way too slow. I looked in Windows Task Manager and the CPU usage was a constant 100%, mostly from vsmon.exe and dumprep.exe.
 
Well having a process chew 100% cpu is a good reason why Windows is "slow". haha.

I suppose you WERE able to close those processes? Or no?
The vsmon is part of zonealarm, try removing it. And end prosess on dumprep. See if you can't track down and close any processes that use to much CPU. Except NOT "System Idle Process". That one is supposed to have all the cpu time.

Here is a boot.ini reference for options:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Information/bootini.html

You'll have to further research the /debug option and how that can help you. I've never used it.

Note that you should be able to use all cleaning programs and online virus scanners from Safe Mode with Networking. If you think it is still a software problem, then you might cruze through and follow the instructions in the Security forum for removing malware of sorts.
And try to load those new drivers once you get CPU usage to normal.
 
Hi,

I'm very sure the culprit is hardware.

Suggestion
1. overheat -> make sure the fan works properly
2. Faulty PSU or inadequate PSU
3. Your motherboard is incompatible with the ram. Try downclock the ram
4. Faulty CPU
5. Upgrade BIOS

Debug report
Mini010906-06.dmp BugCheck 1000000A, {0, 2, 1, 804da700}
Owning Process 82c54a20 Image: vsmon.exe
Probably caused by : hardware ( atapi!IdePortAllocateAccessToken+1b ) <- hardware error

Mini010906-07.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {80000003, 806f0b81, f7a4dde4, 0}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Owning Process 8318c8c8 Image: realevent.exe
Probably caused by : memory_corruption <- 4 bytes memory overlay

Mini010906-08.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Owning Process 826f2378 Image: vsmon.exe
Probably caused by : VET-FILT.SYS ( VET_FILT+19a5 )

Mini011006-01.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 804e88d3, b4168c34, 0}
Owning Process 83a55020 Image: vsmon.exe
Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!IopUpdateReadTransferCount+21 )

Mini011006-02.dmp BugCheck 100000D1, {d88c23b, 1c, 0, d88c23b}
Owning Process 826c9da0 Image: vsmon.exe
Probably caused by : Unknown_Image <- hardware error

Mini011006-03.dmp BugCheck 100000C5, {ffff0005, 2, 1, 8054ae34}
Owning Process 83bc87f8 Image: System
Probably caused by : ctsfm2k.sys ( ctsfm2k+c47 )

Mini011106-01.dmp BugCheck 100000D1, {7c934e06, 2, 0, 7c934e06}
Owning Process 823c3020 Image: BackItUp.exe
Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!KiTimerExpiration+af ) <- hardware error

Mini011106-02.dmp BugCheck 100000BE, {510003, 2693f025, f6932c24, a}
Owning Process 83557170 Image: firefox.exe
Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!KeSetTimerEx+1f ) <-- hardware error

Mini011106-03.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 804e96b8, f6b2fa40, 0}
Owning Process 836864f0 Image: RegMech.exe
Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!RtlClearBits+41 ) <-- Registry corruption and the registry corruption may be caused by hardware error
 
Today it happened to me pretty much the same thing, 3 BSOD, if I recall it well. Errors were Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal, Page_fault_in_Nonpaged_Area and one referring to NTFS.sys.

I also got a strange error in emule about hardware error when trying to write a file.

No hardware problems, the hard drive where I got the emule error is less than 5 months old, Windows was installed this week, no new drivers, but...

1. I have an NTFS partition with 512bytes cluster size. Could this be a problem?

2. I installed recently a codecs pack(K-Lite) and I think that this may be the bug - I have always hated codecs :|

3. No other ideas.

It would be great if someone could give us a clear shot :) Now I work with fear, expecting for the next BSOD...let's hope I won't see another one for the next few months :>
 
If you are POSITIVE you hardware is good, and only a hard core hardware diag app could find that out. Then Windows and/or driver(s) must be corrupt.
Because it is blaming ntfs.sys and ntoskrnl and so on, these are CORE files of Windows, which is why it points to hardware more then software.

Unless you can take your pc to a good repair shop for some serious hardware checking. You may want to attempt a backup and format/reload. It may be the only way to rule out software and drivers.

Otherwise, you want to go through your system and update all drivers from the manufacturers web site.
 
Needless to say, I use the latest drivers and no hardware problems, as I previously said.

Right now my system uptime is almost 14hrs...I hope what happened today was a strange and isolated event and it won't happen again before I have the money for a little hardware upgrade and the time&mood for a Windows reinstall(this is out of question now, it's not even 2 weeks old!).
 
I was able to resolve my problem, thanks to everyone for their input! I kept uninstalling software such as Mcafee and Zone Alarm, and my PVR software as well as removing hardware such as sound card, video card, video capture card. I was able to boot fine without any of this and I reinstalled the video capture card and things seem to be running ok, a little slow but I think that has to do with not having my video card installed yet. hopefully when I reinstall the sound card and video card I will not have any problems with those new drivers.

Thanks again.
 
Footnote :It`s amazing how often the words,"uninstall Mcafee" appears in solutions to problems.
 
kodrutz said:
Needless to say, I use the latest drivers and no hardware problems, as I previously said.

You are 100% sure you have no hardware problems? And what did you use to test with? Just because a part is new, doesn't mean it is without problems. Or incompatibilities.

Regardless, I hope it keeps working.
 
Well, after all it seems that the problems - at least a part of all the problems that I have now - came from the secondary HDD which gives signs of approaching death.

Today I got a crash again - no response from my system while trying to access a file on that drive, and then after the restart it didn't recognize any HDD on the system. I turned it off for some minutes then it started ok.

It seems the time to send that drive to eternal sleep is coming close, I just hope it will work for two-three months more until I'll be able to have some money for hardware changes, since I hope to buy a new nForce2 mainboard to put into this system and overclock a little more;).
 
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