CRC & IRQL problems - XP

[tmcc]

This computer works well except for two problems. CRC doesn't seem to work on this computer - when extractive archives or installing it often fails because it doesn't pass the CRC test. However if you force WinRAR or uniextract to keep broken files they work perfectly.

The other problem is that the computer occassionally gets blue screens. IRQL Not less or equal with the 0x0A stop code. Doesn't point to any drivers, and I've reinstalled video drivers and have all other drivers installed. There's only one unkown device on the computer, don't know what it is but I know of a problem that can tell me... will have to do that later.

I've attached some minidumps, if anyone is willing to check over them in their spare time and help me narrow this down it'd be great. I'm following all the steps in the sticky now.

[edit:] Also ran memtest from UBCD and it passed alright. Didn't run any extensive 72 hour test or anything but it passed all the standard tests.

Thanks.

 

[Route44]

First, two errors are 0xA and these are caused by either hardware or drivers attempting to access an address of an IRQ Level that they have no business doing resulting in system crashes.

Both files specifically cited corrupted memory as your issue. Memtest needs to run a minimum of 7 Passes and the more after 7 so much the better because errors often will show up on later Passes. Many people believe that it just keeps throwing out the same patterns over and over and thus stop it. This isn't the case at all.

Go to www.memtest.org and burn their latest version to a CD.

 

[tmcc]

Thanks Burning that CD now. Is it almost definitely the sticks or could it be the DIMM slot or motherboard? Would faulty ram lead to CRC errors?

 

[Route44]

It could be those two things. It has happened before. Forgive me my ignorance but what is CRC?

 

[tmcc]

Cyclic Redundancy Check, MD5 Hash checking, couldn't tell you exactly how it works but any archives or images have codes that verify file integrity... it seems like any large archived files seem to be broken, according to CRC/MD5 but if I force Winrar or whatever program I'm using to keep the extracted "broken" files, they work perfectly fine.

Anyway, just opened up the tower there to get a good look at things and the amount of dust... Blew it all away, took out the DIMMs and placed them back in, did the same with the videocard, blew dust out of the front bay of the tower, the heatsinks and fans, and all the dust that had collected over the motherboard and it's sockets, connectors and jumpers.

Running Memtest v4.20 now.

Think the dust could be the culprit? Also thought it could be loose/improperly connected hardware but that should be fine now, if anything wasn't in place properly it is now.

 

[Route44]

Absolutely dust can be the main culprit here. Think of dust as nature's natural blanket preventing proper cooling. My mom's computer was shutting down, etc. Long story short her cpu was dust clogged and a can of compressed air fixed it right up.

And certainly loose hardware will cause issues especially improperly set cards/RAM and SATA cables.

 

[tmcc]

Alright, memtest passed 7 times, don't think it's the Ram. Also, after unplugging and re-plugging in the usb cables of the mouse and keyboard, they've stopped working... XP launches the found new hardware setup but I can't actually let it install because I have no input. Keyboard and mouse work fine in BIOS and Ubuntu.

What I'm thinking of doing is repairing the windows installation, then running XP and switching around the usb cables until one setup finally works, then upgrading to Windows 7... wish me luck.

Also I've downloaded a program that should be able to point me to any specific drivers that could be causing the problem. Assuming that I get the mouse and keyboard working, which I'll have to do anyway to upgrade to 7, I'll give that a shot.

 

[Route44]

Do you have the keyboard/mouse installation disks? Try loading them in Safe Mode.

 

[tmcc]

Can't get the mouse and keyboard working in safe mode, they didn't come with any drivers, and even if they did I wouldn't be able to install them because I have no input. I'm going to try to restore windows through a boot disc.

 

[tmcc]

Alright, got the mouse and keyboard working again, it was just a matter or putting the cables into the right ports and it finally recognised them. Just downloaded driver genius and installed chipset and lan card drivers that were outdated or uninstalled. Ran Bluescreenview on this computer and it gives the following drivers as the reason for bsods.

Kernel mode exception not handled - watchdog.sys
Irql not less or equal - ntoskrnl.exe & hal.dll
registry error - ntoskrnl.exe
driver irql not less or equal - USBPORT.SYS

Going to try googling to get fixes. ntoskrnl seems to be the largest problem.

 

[Route44]

ntoskrnl.exe & hal.dll are core Windows OS drivers. The fact that it said registry error is the concern here. It looks like you may need to do a Windows Repair.

 

[tmcc]

Just did SFC /scannow adn that should have repaired those files... if not I should be able to reinstall the individual problematic files... Problem is, this still doesn't fix the CRC errors or even put an end to the bsods.