What Does This Error Message Mean?

[jaroddog]

First off, I would like to say I'm happy to type my first post in such a well respected forum. Second, thanks to all have put time into solving some of the many problems that plague the world of computing. I've looked up many problems on these forums and personally appreciate all the tricks, tips, and fixes.

Now I have a specific question. My computer keeps shutting down. I've got it set to restart automatically so no BSoD appears. But I have checked the system log and here is what I got:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0x00000000, 0xb42f79f4, 0x00000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini120805-01.dmp.

I've had problems playing Star Wars Battlefront from day one. It has crashed my system numerous times. Well, I switched hard drives and installed xp. I was just downloading service pack two download for IT's, since I was going to slipstream a version of windows xp with service pack 2 (I have xp pro 2002 original version). Right as I was about 10 megabytes away from completion of the huge download, my system crashed. I haven't even installed vid drivers yet! That was the last straw! I've ran memtest86 and msoft's memory tester as well with no reported errors. I'm not sure where to go from here, anyone have some suggestions for me?

 

[jaroddog]

Here are my minidumps. Is there anything else I can offer to get some help. I know this may not be the most interesting thread, but can someone use these dumps to tell what the problem is (or teach me how)?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Unfortunately I believe you have some kind of hardware problem.

Both your minidumps crash with a bugcheck of 8E.

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler didn’t catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues (which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade).

One minidump crashes with memory corruption. Faulty ram?

One minidump crashes with a hardware problem?

Possible hardware problems are. Ram/video ram/L2 cache ram of your cpu/mobo/psu. I can`t be specific as hardware errors are very difficult to diagnose.

Make sure your system isn`t overclocked in any way.

Check your mobo for bulging, or leaking capacitors. See HERE for further info.

Regards Howard

 

[luvr]

Not sure if I have anything meaningful to contribute here, but I once had a PC that kept running into bugchecks, and it turned out to be the RAM frequency that caused the problems.

I had installed a 400-MHz RAM stick (thinking that the motherboard supported this), but when I took a closer look into the motherboard manual, it stated that successful operation with 400-MHz RAM was not guaranteed, and depended on the specific type (make and model number) of the RAM sticks.

I subsequently set the RAM frequency to 333 MHz in BIOS, and the problems instantly disappeared. I decided to buy a stick of 333-MHz RAM for the PC, so that I could use the 400-MHz stick in another PC that did support it.

 

[jaroddog]

I think my motherboard looks okay, as far as capacitors go. So maybe RAM? I tested it, and it returned no errors. But would that still be the most likely cause (I'm just wanting your opinion, not the perfect answer)? I'm not sure where to begin... Sigh... Any suggestions?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Yes faulty ram is a possibility. If you have more than one stick of ram in your system try running with just one stick of ram. if you still get problems, swap to the other stick of ram.

Try using a different dimm slot.

Go HERE and follow the instructions.

Try doing a bios update.

Let us know the results.

Regards Howard