Bizarre behavior in WinXP Event Viewer

Windows XP Home SP3 - this is a new PC (more or less) with new CPU, new RAM, new motherboard, clean WinXP Home SP3 installed about a week ago. The owner of this PC is saying that he's receiving BSOD errors. So I went to the Event Viewer > System and looked for any crashes. I found none ( :confused ) but right when I get to the end of the log, an error pops up saying "The Event log file is corrupted" and puts a little red "X" on it the "System" entry. However, if I close the MMC, then re-open it, I can again view the entire System log until the very end, when it errors out again.... any thoughts? I don't want to clear the log unless absolutely necessary....

THANKS!

 

Thanks Tim!! That was FFFAAAAAASSSTTT!!! Like scary fast!

One thing (though it probably doesn't matter) is that the Windows is actually Media Center Edition SP2 - NOT XP Home SP3. OOOOPPPSSS!!! :-o

 

MCE just has some extra components compared to vanilla XP Pro or Home, the kernel is still the same, obviously there was no SP3 for MCE.

 

OK - I ran the tool, and I'm getting a "file in use" error (screen shot attached).

Any ideas?

 

Try rebooting in to safe mode and running it.

 

Ahhh yes . . . ye olde safe mode . . . good idea . . . however, just to add more fun to the mix, I'm also getting a BSOD 0x0000000A on one out of 4 or 5 boots ups... I'm installing SP3 now. Why? Seemed like a good idea, so why not? Right? After the SP3 install finishes, I'll try the fix in safe mode, then I'll run diagnostics on the RAM and HD to see if they might be responsible for BSOD, and maybe I'll update all the drivers too....

 

I didn't think SP3 was for MCE, but apparently I am wrong.

Your testing plan sounds rigorous and thorough. Good luck with it.

 

Before starting all the testing, I decided to run BlueeScreenView which is a handy little app that shows you which files are (most likely) responsible for the crash. The first file listed was the NDIS.sys file (which has a hand in Windows networking) and the 2nd file listed was RT2500.sys which is a driver file for one of many different wifi cards (in this PC it was a Linksys card). So, I naturally deduced that the wifi card or wifi driver was bad. I powered down, unplugged the power cord, pulled the Linksys wifi card out, and powered up. I have now booted 6 times w/o any BSOD, so I'm pretty sure the Linksys card (or its driver) was responsible.... now to get the Event Viewer straightened out.

 

Have you tried replacing the card and reinstalling the driver? Just in case the driver was corrupted, not the card was bad.

 

The owner of the PC has opted for a clean install of Win7 x64, so after I format and install the new OS, I'll try installing the wifi card again and we'll see how it goes. If it causes an issue with Win7, then I guess we'll know for sure that the Linksys card is faulty. It was pulled from an old Dell that had a failed motherboard (popped capacitors indicating possible power problems) and it may have been damage while in that system. . . . unlikely, but possible.....

Thanks to all that helped!!! You guys rock!!! :dood

 

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