System Crashes

you can always....

You can always bring it to the shop, but it will make you a better computer genie when you try to resolve it yourself c it as a learning bug.

So far as i can tell, 99% of all crashes and bsod's are related to drivers.
In rare cases the bsod's are caused by spyware (better: malware)
And in even fewer cases related to hardware (in special, memory)

Disabling/removing devices will automatically shut down device drivers (in most cases they wont be loaded). Try swapping in an other video card, like an old s3 virge (o what were they stable back then *lol*). When the problem isnt resolved you should disable audio... next you disable or swap out the network card etc etc etc

This way you are minimizing to the possible cause.

If the problem does not occur anymore than the drivers of the last removed/disabled peripheral are faulty, search for upgrades.

I am sure you will find it.

ps

try a bios update!!!!!!!!!!

Xero, I appreciate your position and I am always willing to learn. I am not trying to take the easy way out, if I was I would not have come to this site. However, I don't have 50 old computers laying around to swap different components in and out until the problem is corrected and I am certainly not going to go and buy a bunch of different components hoping to fix it. If our car mechanic took this approach, we would all be forced to ride bicycles, because it would be impossible to afford to have your car fixed. Luckily, technology and smart people exist, making diagnosing and fixing these problems, fairly easy, quick and less expensive than replacing parts one at a time until the problem has resolved itself. Now having said that, is there a way to accurately diagnose my problem based on the minidumps I have attached or this kind of a hit and miss approach as well? I have seen some very informative posts regarding various minidump "inspections", but since I am not able to test my memory, I'm not sure where to go from here. Why were these crashes so minimal, before I installed all of the updates to the original XP SP1 installation and now after SP2, they are so prevelant? I have never owned or used a computer that crashed with any degree of regularity...Once or twice a year was all. This computer has been crashing 4 to 7 times daily, which is obviously very frustrating.

Also, I have the most recent BIOS update as provided by the HP website....

Allright, i did some investigation on your minidump files.

What i can c is that the driver REGSPY.SYS! is causing you BSOD.

Typing this regspy.sys filename in google along with bsod comes to the following solution:

uninstall bitdefender or bullguard antivirus.

Thats it i think.

Good luck.

a (software) driver issue

Please find you a better virusscanner, i would recommend Norton 11.0 in combination with ms antispyware.

xero, thanks for looking into the minidumps. I'm not disagreeing with you, because I don't have a clue how to open or read the minidump files at all. However, after doing the complete destructive restore, I continued having this problem. This problem intensified after installing XP's Service Pack 2, not BitDefender. Also, BitDefender consistently gets better reviews than most anti-virus software, including Norton, which is consistently rated toward the lower end of the scale. Very few experts feel very strongly (except negatively) about Norton. Based on this, I purchased BitDefender, but I'm certainly not an expert and wouldn't know if one was better than the other. Also, I have MS Anti-Spyware installed already.

Hi pcpd425,

With response to your private message and I've investigated your minidumps. My finding is same as Howard. This is hardware problem and it is very hard to trouble-shoot which hardware component is faulty. Most of BSODs at this site are hardware problem unlike other forums. Most of your minidumps are crashed with bugcheck code 7F and the failing instruction is 'ret'. The crashes are not related to stack overflow and they are crashed due to hardware error. Probably it crashed due to bad ram. Two minidumps are crashed at IRQL x'1C' and this is the timer IRQL. Timer IRQL is stable routine and it crashed only if hardware errors. The culprit may be faulty ram, CPU, PSU, m/b or overheat.

Download prime95 to stress test your hardware and it executes under windows environment. http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Suggestion
1. Check the temperature of the CPU and make sure that it is not overheat (ie temperature < 60C)
Make sure that the CPU fan works properly
2. Reseat the memory stick to another memory slot. Reseat video card as well.
3. Downclock the ram. Check to default setting if you video card is overclocked.
4. Clean the dust inside the computer case
5. Make sure that the ram is compatible to the motherboard
6. Check the bios setting about memory timing and make sure that it is on
For example : DIMM1 and DIMM2 do not have the same timing.
DIMM1: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
7. Make sure that your PSU have adequate power to drive all the hardware including USB devices
8. Run chkdsk /r at command prompt
9. Run 3DMark 2005 to test your video card
10. Upgrade BIOS and make sure that the motherboard has no leaking capacitor.
11. Your nVidia Display Card driver is out of date and outdated nVidia Display card always causes bugcheck code 8E. You had better upgrade it to latest level.

If it still crashes, diagnostic which memory stick is faulty
Take out one memory stick. If windows does not crash, the removed memory stick is faulty.

Your debug reports
Mini011806-01.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : Unknown_Image ( hal!KeReleaseQueuedSpinLock+30 )

Mini011806-02.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : USBPORT.SYS ( USBPORT!USBPORT_EndpointTimeout+199 )

Mini011806-03.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KeReleaseQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+1c )

Mini011906-01.dmp BugCheck 100000D1, {30f2dadc, 1c, 0, 860ebe97}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!NtDelayExecution+87 -> nt!_SEH_epilog )

Mini011906-02.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, f772fd70, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!_SEH_epilog+c )

Mini011906-03.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, f772fd70, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!_IsChild+24 )

Mini011906-04.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KeReleaseQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+1c )

Mini012006-01.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : USBPORT.SYS ( USBPORT!USBPORT_GetEndpointState+95 )

Mini012006-02.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KeReleaseQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+1c )

Mini012006-03.dmp BugCheck 100000D1, {800, 2, 0, 800}
Probably caused by : Unknown_Image

Mini012006-04.dmp BugCheck C2, {41, 85ad5000, 5528, 3ffbf}
Probably caused by : regspy.sys ( regspy+1663 )

Mini012106-01.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : Vax347b.sys ( Vax347b+dca2 )

Mini012106-02.dmp BugCheck 100000D3, {f38d5ec8, 1c, 0, 804d9650}
Probably caused by : swmidi.sys ( swmidi!MIDIRecorder::InitEventList+1f )

Mini012106-03.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KeReleaseQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+1c )

Mini012106-04.dmp BugCheck 100000D3, {f3801ec8, 1c, 0, 804d9650}
Probably caused by : swmidi.sys ( swmidi!MIDIRecorder::InitEventList+1f )

I am not going to argue what is your best virusscanner or which is not. We are using Corporate Norton Antivirus (unmanaged) and have been using this ever since. Never had any problems, also it captures any virus i know of.

Symantec is one of the largest companies regarding to virusscanners with a very good anti virus database. It is not only the virusscanner you are paying for.

When you look at these virusscanners corporate wide, mcafee/symantec (alliance called NAI) and Trend micro are market leaders (which not necessarily means they are the best, i know).

Anyways. It might be faulty hardware, it might be drivers.

I would go for the drivers because of my 6 year experience with computers and bsods and other kind of errors. I have had the complete history from C64, AMIGA, 286 up until the MAC, POWERPC and X400 to chew on.

Now you have heard many different causes which can invoke computer crashes... you also know that most of the errors cant be solved by just "reading the minidump". I have had errors in the past which almost proved faulty hardware (i always work with servers, very fragile environments) but seemed to be drivers after all (in special offending drivers, drivers which bite each other). Also that you state that since you installed SP2 the crashes increase points also in the driver direction.

Thanks for confirming my findings cpc2004.

pcpd425. If you have faulty hardware, then installing sp2 may well exacerbate the problem.

Regards Howard

read microsoft article

please read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137539 for the most common causes of 0x7F bugcheck. Microsoft states it can be hardware but it also can be drivers. So Howard Hopkinso and I may be both right.

As you can see they also propose the process of minimization to determine the exact problem (my initial fix suggestion).

Thanks to all of you...I will try all of your suggestions and hopefully, I will find a solution to this annoyance. It really says alot about each of you to take the time to try determine what is wrong with a complete stranger's computer AND know that you won't be compensated in any way. Thanks again

Be sure to keep us updated.

Regards, and good luck. Howard

Howard, do you play Halo? Mr Hopkinz ?

I tend not to play games at all really.

Regards Howard

I was looking at your computer's specs and noticed that you listed the memory as unknown. I reckon you should try to find out what brand and type of RAM it is and whether it is compatible with your computer or if it's a quality product ie Kinston etc (google will tell you the good ones).

Maybe you should invest in a floppy drive so you can test the RAM.

If the ram checks out OK then I would consider taking the computer back to where you got if it's under warranty and getting them to fix it, or if you are adventurous replace the motherboard.

Any way you really need to check your RAM first to be sure.