Stop: 0x40000080 Blue Screen of Death

[gebeau31]

Hi,

I've been getting this crash message a lot lately. It started maybe a month ago, and has been getting much worse. I thought it might be Firefox related, as there was a recent automatic update, and I haven't installed anything new that I can recall. I have been using IE instead, but did not uninstall Firefox...and I still have the same problems. I tried to read some of the other similar threads on this problem, and it sounds like it is usually driver-related...? If so, I have no idea how to locate the faulty driver, and how to replace it. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I have attached 5 of the 6 minidumps I have. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help...and thanks for any insight you may be able to offer!

Court

 

[Route44]

All five minidumps report the error 0x00000080: NMI_HARDWARE_FAILURE
This general indication of a hardware failure is often quite difficult to pin down. Follow usual hardware troubleshooting protocols, in particular: Roll-back any recent hardware or driver changes; ensure that RAM sticks are matched and undamaged; check for viruses or hard drive damage; run ChkDsk to identify file system problems; ensure that all connections are sound inside the computer and all cards well-seated.


All five report Rtenicxp.sys which is a Realtek 10/100/1000 NIC Family all in one NDIS Driver as the cause of your issues. Many people are having issues with this driver.

If your system is pre-built then go to their website and update the latest NIC drivers from there for your exact model. if you or someone else built it you will find updates at your motherboard manufacture's website. Make sure they are for your particular model.

It could be the NIC itself is bad but this is only conjecture in light of the error code.

 

[gebeau31]

Thank you so much for your help. I will give it a try and see what I can come up with.

Again, much appreciated.

Happy Holidays!

 

[gebeau31]

still no luck...

OK, so...I am still having this problem. I checked the memory, and that came back clean. I ran a Windows XP repair installation. I used a program called "Driver Robot" to get updated drivers (though I'm not sure if it gave me the right driver for my network card, even though I got suckered into buying this program on Realtek's website when looking there for the driver). I tried Dell first, but they won't help me since my computer is 14 months old (so two months past warranty). I reinstalled Adobe Flash Player (which is the only thing I can think of that has been added/updated recently). I bought and installed a brand new network card. Still the same problem persists. Is there anything else I should be trying? What is my best course of action at this point?

Thanks so much once again for any input you might have.

 

[Route44]

Even if your system is past warrenty you should still be able to find your system model at their site and install their latest updates for your system. You don't need their tech support to do this.

It is always best to go through the manufacturer of your system than the third party vendors for drivers.

 

[gebeau31]

I did find the driver on the Dell site, but the driver was last updated before the date my computer was built, so I assumed it was not an updated driver. And since I have also disabled the onboard LAN, and installed a new network card with new driver, I thought this meant that the original network card and driver were NOT the problem.

Can you please tell me what I should check next? I'm getting to the point where I'm leaning towards just taking it somewhere to get it fixed. I don't know what else to try, and this is getting very frustrating.

Is this a problem with my computer that could get progressively worse, and eventually do severe damage? Is this something I should be concerned about? Right now, it's annoying, but that's pretty much it. I can live with it (though I'd obviously prefer not to).

Thanks, Court

 

[Kevork]

If I may suggest to verify if you accidenlty used windows update to update your driver. Occasionally we dont realize but we authorize windows update to update drivers for us.

But it only opens a can of worms.

 

[gebeau31]

I don't think I used Windows update...but I'm not sure. But then, I'm having the same problem regardless of which network card I am using...so doesn't that rule them out as the source of the problem?

 

[Route44]

What Kevork wrote can certainly be true. Also, the issue mjay be that your NIC card itself is bad.

 

[gebeau31]

Is the NIC card different from the Network card...? I just disabled the onboard LAN and installed a new network card and driver...and the problem persists.

 

[Route44]

No; NIC = Network Card. Try uninstalling and then reinstalling your NIC card drivers.

 

[gebeau31]

OK, thanks. Mind telling me how to find and uninstall the driver? Can I just install the driver again, or do I need to remove the original one first?

Thanks!

 

[Route44]

Uninstall all drivers for your NIC card and then install only the most recent ones.

 

[gebeau31]

OK, thanks. Sorry to be a pain, but...can you tell me how to find them?

 

[Route44]

First, you are far from being a pain. PC issues can take time to resolve.

Remove the network card from the PCI slot, boot your pc and uninstall all software/drivers that came with your network card. You should be able to find it in the Add/Remove of the Control Panel.

Reinstall the card, then reboot and install drivers.