gen_prot running memtest86+

[saibot]

I'd be really grateful if anyone out there could offer some help.

About a month ago I started getting BSOD's on my home PC. It'd been a while since the machine was rebuilt and I was still running dual boot with Win 98 and XP home. I thought a rebuild might fix it so brought a DVD burner, took the apporpriate backups and took the plunge. I re-formatted the primary drive with 2 partitions (25Gb C: for the OS and apps and 55Gb D: for data).

Re-build eventually completed, but I continued to get BSODs - these had various messages IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA AND others. I installed and ran windbg but there seemed little consistency in the output. Having looked around a few forums I guessed it might be a RAM issue.

I ran memtest86+ v1.70 and got repeated errors on test 7. I had 1 stick of 512MB DDR pc2100. So I took the stick out of the slot (we'll call it slot 1 as I don't know if they're labelled and haven't looked). There was a bit of dust so I blew this off and re-seated the stick in slot 1. This time I just ran test 7 and this was the only test where I found failures before.
At the end of the 3rd pass it just hung. This happened twice so I took the RAM out and put in slot 2. After 4 clean passes of test 7 on memtest86+, it was looking good. ;0)

The machine hung on first reboot, but was ok after that for 10 mins or so, and as it was getting late I shut down and left it. Next day - more BSOD's!!.

So I brought a new RAM stick (512 DDR PC3200 - compatible - local dealer told me it would work with my board). Took out the old RAM and put the new one in slot 1. Booted up PC - fine for about 30 mins then I shut down. Next day - PC starts freezing and this is interspersed with more BSODs - now all PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA. Ran memtest again and got loads of errors on pass 2 of test 7. Switched RAM to slot 2 and ran memtest again. Failed with unexpected interrupt gen_prot and a handful of hex error numbers.

I also am still getting random BSOD's - last 2 were PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA with the following info:

FOLLOWUP_IP:
win32k+1aff98
bf9aff98 a0fa99bf89 mov al,byte ptr ds:[89BF99FAh]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

IMAGE_NAME: hardware

SYMBOL_NAME: win32k+1aff98

MODULE_NAME: hardware

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: IP_MISALIGNED

BUCKET_ID: IP_MISALIGNED

Followup: MachineOwner
---------


I'm stuck now - is this a mobo error - could it be a heat problem? Please help cos I don't want to shell for a new mobo if it's not the problem.

mobo is ASUS A7N266M

I can attach minidump files if it will help

Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance.

 

[saibot]

problem resolved

brought a replacement base bundle off a friend who had upgraded. Switched the hard drive and the new RAM in and re-installed XP - all fine now.
Unbeleivably XP activation worked automatically even though nearly all the hardware (except the HDD and DVD RW Drive) had changed. I did have to activate office over the phone though - inconsistent MS!
Just so I know in future, can anyone tell me why I didn't get any responses - perhaps I've used the wrong board?
Cheers.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

No, you definitely used the correct forum.

Sometimes a thread gets overlooked, because there`s no one around at the time that can help to answer your questions.

In future, if you get no replies to a thread after 24hours, you can simply make a new post in your thread and say something like "Thread bumped" This will send the thread back to the top of the forums.

I`m glad you managed to solve your problem and thanks for letting us know.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave: