"recovered from a serious error", computer rebooting randomly.. HELP!!

[Kirei Blossom]

My Windows XP computer keeps getting a "System has recovered from a serious error" message on every restart. At first, nothing else seemed wrong so I just ignored the problem, but when I turned it on today, it kept restarting and restarting over and over again, and would also randomly start rebooting while in use. I opened the case, and replaced the RAM cards, dusted the case thoroughly (dust had been a big problem once), and plugged it back in, but the problem is still there.

(When I send the error report to microsoft, it says that the data in the error report is corrupted, so that's no help.)

Could someone please have a look at my minidump files and tell me whats wrong? I'm completely lost, and don't know where to begin to start identifying the problem. HELP!

 

[howard_hopkinso]

3 of your minidumps are corrupt, and unreadable.

2 minidumps crash at atapi.sys. This is your Windows IDE/Atapi port driver. Both minidumps have a bugcheck of D1.

0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

It could be that this driver has become corrupt, or it may be a sign of a failing hard drive.

Go HERE and follow the instructions for testing your ram, and running the hard drive diagnostics.

Also. If you scroll down the page. You will see instructions for creating a new page file. See reply #11.

If that doesn`t help. Maybe doing a Windows repair as per this thread HERE might help.

Regards Howard