Daily blue screens on eMachine - Windows XP SP3 error ID 1003

[EllyP]

I have a client that is having daily blue screens. The error is Page fault in non paged area. Stop 0x00000050 (0xA6144D24, 0x00000001, 0x805B627C, 0x00000000)

His PC is an eMachine T6524 with an AMD 64 Athlon 3500+ @ 2.19 GHz, 3 GB RAM.

Nothing has changed on the machine hardware or software wise. I've scheduled a time with him to run memtest and hard drive diagnostics next week ( plus all of the recommended BSOD stuff such as dusting, drivers,etc.). I have attached some minidump files and am hoping someone can help me decipher them in advance of taking the client's computer offline to see if they point in a particular direction.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Elly

 

[Route44]

Of the five I read (the most recent) four of them were 0xD1 errors and these are usually caused by faulty drivers though mismatched or faulty RAM can also be a cause.


The other one is 0x50AGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Requested data was not in memory. An invalid system memory address was referenced. Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video RAM) or incompatible software (including remote control and antivirus software) might cause this Stop message, as may other hardware problems (e.g., incorrect SCSI termination or a flawed PCI card).

Only one of your 0xD1 files specifically cited anything and in this case it is the AVG driver avgmfx86.sys. We have seen more than our share here concerning problems with AVG.

 

[EllyP]

Thanks - that's helpful. I'll start with testing the RAM, lose AVG and check for misbehaving drivers. I have an appt for next Tuesday with this PC - will let you know how it goes.

 

[EllyP]

I removed AVG and installed MS Security Essentials and reinstalled one device driver that was not loading properly. The PC went for a few days with no BSOD so thought we got it, but then started again
I then tested the RAM (overnight with Memtest - no errors found) and also ran chdsk for good measure - all OK.
I've attached the latest minidumps along with a few prior to the ones I attached earlier. I'd appreciate any more insight these can provide.

Elly

 

[Mark56]

Hi EllyP, Route44 is on vacation so I'm jumping in and hope I can help you.

Looking at the last few BSOD's I think there is a good chance that Memtest has missed something which is not uncommon.

3GB is an uneven amount of RAM, what is the configuration of the memory sticks, is there a mixture of different size sticks. PC's run best with equal amounts of Ram in each channel. If there are unmatched sticks being used that could cause issues.

You should ask exactly what sticks are installed, the make and frequency, and what sticks are in each channel.

If the PC has matched pairs then ask the OP to run the PC on one stick at a time, removing all the others. They may find that the crashes only occur with one of the sticks.

Looking at your first post the client states they are having "daily blue screens" the dates on the minidump files show they are far less frequent than that, about 3 to 7 days apart. Are thay also having regular freezes which would not result in a blue screen appearing? that would also suggest a memory problem.

 

[EllyP]

Hi Mark56 - thanks for jumping in.
I will pull all but one stick of RAM and do some trial and error. As for the frequency - I have all the minidumps from May (12 total) - some days there were several BSODs, While I agree the reported daily blue screens were more like every 2 or 3 days - I bet 2 a day a couple of days a week seems like a constant thing! He did say it typically was in the morning when he first logs on that he has the problem - then after the restart it goes OK the rest of the day - but he loses about 20 minutes in the AM going through that process. Also he hasn't mentioned any lockups.
I'll post back later next week after we've had a chance to swap RAM in and out.

Thanks

 

[Mark56]

Ok, and don't forget to observe what sticks are fitted, and in what channels.

 

[EllyP]

Hi,

No Blue Screens with the original 512 MB chips taken out of the system. I moved the remaining 2 1 GB chips to the slots 1 and 2.

I also noted that our user had a usb hard drive plugged in that I removed at the same time as the RAM.

I've since put the RAM back into slots 3 and 4 and have been a couple of days with no blue screen. I've advised to give it another day and then plug the drive back in - we'll see if that goes OK.

 

[Mark56]

Sounds encouraging. The system will be at optimum performance with an even amount of RAM in each channel. If only using two sticks they are best fitted in either 1 & 3 or 2 & 4.

It could be the USB hard drive that is causing the problem but that would be unusual unless it has a major fault on it.

 

[EllyP]

Let's call this closed. The user hasn't had a blue screen all week so doing a little RAM roulette seems to have taken care of it. He hasn't said if he has used the USB drive again, but I agree that it seems unlikely that it was the cause.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Mark56]

Sounds like it is fixed and your welcome.