XP BSOD issues

[Rollingskies]

Hi guys,
I'm working in an office and am the only one who knows much about computers. However, this one computer my colleague uses has gone beyond me. It keeps crashing and restarting. The computers here are at least 5 years old.

I turned on the Blue screen of death (was just restarting automatically before) and obtained the error code which I'm sure is exactly the same as what I also have got from event viewer a few days previously.

Because it is an office computer and not mine, there are limitations with what I can do although I have full admin rights.

The error code is: 0x00000024 (0x001902FE, 0XF7A11A90, 0XFA11AC, 0X805298ED).

I have run check disk properly yesterday (it took about an hour).

Any help appreciated. THanks

 

[EDO219]

If the 0x00000024 error message is accurately reporting the reason for the BSOD to you, then it is likely an issue with the ntfs.sys file.

Let me see if I can find a guide for repairing it ... here ya go.

 

[Rollingskies]

Thanks, trouble is I'm not convinced that it is though. Not least because I haven't seen any mention of that. Doesn't that error code direct a more knowledagable user to something more specific? Maybe not.

 

[EDO219]

hehe Personally, I thought it was a bad HDD, but you said that chkdsk has already been tried. The four hex parameters in brackets don't really tell you as much as you might suspect. Here's Microsoft's page on the matter.

 

[Rollingskies]

Thanks, I've been suspecting that too.
Today is monday morning and the computers are never turned off. I arrive in the office to be greeted by the BSOD.

This time it says:
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT.

The error code says:
STOP: 0x0000004E, 0x00000099, 0x000000... etc

After researching this in google and coming up with this thread (below) I'm suspecting the RAM.
(thread removed due to lack of posts)

Anymore words of wisdom, before I ask my boss if I can pull his machine apart?

 

[Rollingskies]

I'm going to try and post the link (delete space) and add a dot after the www :
www annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1034931646

 

[EDO219]

I should warn you, my brain is quite worn out currently so I might miss some thing here. lol

However, ... ah, now I forgot what I was going to type! Oh yes, you've probably already tried this but if you have not, then use the boot from last known good configuration option. Else, the issue may yet be your RAM, although it is still possible for a corrupt OS to present that error.

If the machine has two or more sticks of RAM, then you could try removing all but one stick and see if the machine is henceforth stable. If it BSODs, then try running it on just the other RAM stick. It is unlikely, albeit possible, that both sticks have failed simultaneously so if the PC crashes regardless of which RAM stick is in, then the issue may be the HDD or a corrupt OS.

Either way, I would run a few malware/ virus scans once you get it up.

 

[Rollingskies]

Thanks. Yeah I did already do the Ram remove and test and still got the BSOD, I'm testing the othe one though at the mo. Not holding up much hope TBH. The machine has been resurrected as a 'problem machine' before my time for a new employee. I think it needs a complete reinstall anyway, if this RAM test doesn't work I'm just going to tell the boss it needs a reformat pending possible hardware failure.

 

[EDO219]

Yeah, good idea. I do a clean reformat on all of my machines at least twice a year, so I can't imagine how slow a machine must be that hasn't been reformatted for several years. hehe

Out of curiosity, is the HDD partitioned at all?

 

[Rollingskies]

No the HDD isn't partitioned, but I think I may have found out what the problem is. Took out one Ram stick and still had the BSOD. Replaced the one removed and took out the one left and no BSOD's for two days. So I'm in the process of trying to identify which of the two slots and/or two sticks is at fault. Its operating rather slow though on 512mb.....