Boot up error

Following a major hardware crash my system has been rebuilt. All is well - except that every now and then (today was the first time for a week) it fails to boot up first time and then says on successfully booting that the system has recovered from a serious error.

The data it offers to send to Microsoft is as follows:

C:\DOCUME~1\PAUL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER8ae5.dir00\Mini052807-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\PAUL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER8ae5.dir00\sysdata.xml


any ideas anyone? Please?

Paul

 

If you attach the minidump file to a post someone here might be able to help you. You can go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer to find the error and look into it further. Give this a read also:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263

 

This behaviour has been linked to faulty memory and Nvidia graphics cards in the past.
What caused the crash and what is the condition of the memory?

Do you have an Nvidia graphics card with Nvidia drivers?

Try replacing the Nvidia ones with the native Windows XP ones.

If this doesnt work, rename both files as .txt and post them.

Studio T

 

Excuse my stupidity - I have checked the event viewer but am unsure what you mean by attaching the minidump file!

There are errors in the event viewer at about the time the system failed to boot - there was a "Warning" stating Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 89187007, parameter3 aeac79ed, parameter4 00000000.

and an "Error" which said Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 89187007, parameter3 aeac79ed, parameter4 00000000.

As you can imagine - this means less than nothing to me!

 

The system suffered some kind of internal power surge which destroyed the motherboard, graphics card and all three of my disk drives! The system has been rebuilt by a professional (new power supply, graphics card and disks) who has extensively tested the memory and processor over several days of intensive pressure and swears they are absolutely OK. The new graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (I don't play games!). He has updated all drivers (though presumably with NVIDIA ones).

I am unsure about replacing the drivers (due to lack of competence) but would happily post the files if you can explain which ones you mean, how to find them and what to do with them.

Sorry for the incompetence - difficult when you ask experts and you don't even understand the question let alone the answer!

 

Hi Paul,

Don't count yourself as either stupid or incompetent, you are certainly not, for you know the limits of your expertise.



Studio T

 

OOps pressed the wrong button halfway through the post.



Windows XP has microsoft drivers for your graphics card which are tested and 'guaranteed' to work. It is normal after (re)installation of windows to install the manufacturers own drivers for graphics cards and sometimes the manufacturers latest drivers cause conflicts within Windows.

To test this try to provoke the problem in safe mode (which does not use the Nvidia drivers).

If it does not occur in safe mode get your profesional to install the correct drivers. I suggested Microsoft ones, because this is a known problem and solution in the servicing world. He should do this for free in this case.

If changing the Nvidia doesn't help then change the file extensions on the two files you originally referred to to .txt and post them here.

C:\DOCUME~1\PAUL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER8ae5.dir00\Mini052807-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\PAUL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER8ae5.dir00\sysdata.xml

Studio T

 

One of the difficulties of testing any change is that the problem only crops up infrequently (not that I am complaining about that!). The last time was the first for about 10 days - which makes it very hard to determine the effects of any changes made - and impossible I suppose for the engineer who has actually been very helpful and devoted much time to this machine

As far as the files are concerned I have attached the .dmp file (as a .txt file) but am unable to locate the other one - either in the folder listed or by searching the whole drive. I searched for all files containing sysdata.xml and found nothing.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

the sysdata.xml is merely a human (browser aided) readable form of the error report. I can be deleted if you decline the offer to see what is sent to msoft or to send. However another one will be generated, next time this happens, so you can capture it then.

Meanwhile I will I will see what I can glean from the minidump file.


Studio T

 

Thanks very much. The system has failed to start twice since I last posted - but unfortunately I had of course not seen the comments about the file being deleted. If/when it does it again I will try and get the information. In the meantime I have included images of the blue screen of death (which it did not produce the last time it crashed on trying to boot up despite being set not to autostart) Blue1 is of course the screen the first time and Blue2 the second. After this - it just booted normally though came up with the usual stuff about having recovered from a serious error quoting basically the same two files as before. Hope this is useful. I am reluctant simply to follow the advice from Microsoft on these screens as the problem is so intermittent that I cannot understand the problem.

 

Stop errors 7E and 7F are normally hardware related, in particular memory, although Microsoft also list problems with accessing the boot sector of the system drive.

Did your tech's extensive memory test include the video memory, new or not?
Is/was the new motherboard's 'antivirus' function turned on when Windows was reinstalled and was it a clean install to a new hard drive or a repair install to an existing to get Windows running again?

I didn't find anything useful yet in the minidump, you don't always but I will have another look.

Finally does the problem occur in any of safe mode? / or safe mode with networking? / or vga mode?

Studio T

 

I cannot remember what test programme he was using but as I understand it all components of the system were fully tested.

I have no idea about the anti-virus system (didn't know it had one!) but he knew I was intending to install anti virus software - Kasperski

It was a clean install to a new drive - as all three previous drives were totally dead and would not even spin up.

As the problem only occurs randomly and very intermittently - been fine since the last post and before that it had run faultlessly for about 10 days I cannot tell whether or not t it would happen in any other mode mode.

 

Your problem and its solution are going to be slightly oddball because of the origins. So I am trying to work through elliminiating possibilities.

Bios 'anti virus' was introduced when boot sector viruses were in vogue. They only cater for the boot sector and treat anything which writes to the boot sector as a virus and so interfere with Windows setup which does this. consequently you have to turn off bios av before installing Windows. You could ask your tech about it.

A repair install could have left you with latent problems as well, hence the question.

Lack of problems in safe mode would point strongly to the graphics driver.

So I'll wait for more info.

Studio T

 

After several weeks without further problems the system crashed again 5 or 6 times on trying to boot it up! It then worked fine for the last few weeks then did the same thing again 3 times before booting up OK.

This time I managed to save the sysdata.xml file which can be found here:

www.paulhodson.f2s.com/sysdata.xml

I would be really grateful if anyone can make head sense of this

 

Your sys data file contains only a (long) list of installed devices and drivers. There is no indication of fault.

Did you try safe mode after the first crash? If so what happened?

 

Thanks for trying. No, not on this occasion I just switched off and tried again and on the fourth try it rose again from the dead!

I did try booting up in safe mode the last time it did this and it was successful. However as I had no idea what to do at that point it wasn't much help. I then reverted to normal booting and although it took a couple of goes it then decided to work. I think the problem is that whatever one did at any stage it would be impossible to know if you had cleared the problem as it might simply be coincidence if it then appeared normal as there is no apparent reason for the fact it suddenly works when you have done nothing to sort it out.

Thanks for trying anyway - much appreciated.

 

It is not possible to fully test memory using software alone. Some testing programs are fuller than others, but there are hardware issues that can only be resolved on dedicated memory testing rigs costing thousands of dollars.

That said, immediate positive response to safe mode usually points to a driver issue not a hardware one.
Memory and Graphics cards are favourites for generating this type of problem.
Since memory does not require drivers the focus shifts to graphics.

In safe mode only microsft drivers are used for graphics.
If you can boot with no problems, say 50 times on the trot, to safe mode open device manager and

Hold Windows key down and hit break
choose device manager on the hardware tab
open up the tree to the graphics card.

choose properties and the driver tab
If there is an option to rollback the driver choose it
(since this is a new card there may be no such option)

you can do all this in safe mode or normal mode.

 

Looking again at your minidump it says

"Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for vsdatant.sys
Probably caused by : vsdatant.sys ( vsdatant+44d41 )"

This file belongs to ZONE ALARM. If you have or ever have had ZA it could be you problem. Below is one guy's fix. Try emailing the Microsoft contact




"The problem I was having was an error message at boot up... "Cannot open the volume for direct access". The solution that worked is as follows (which has to do with VSDATANT, even though I uninstalled Zone Alarm long ago, for hardware firewall): [To be fair, the solution was provided by Microsoft Online Help, Dickie Zhao dickiezh@microsoft.com]



1. Configure ZoneAlarm preferences so that ZoneAlarm does not load at system startup. This can be done by running the ZoneAlarm Control Center and clearing the Load at Startup check box. This step is optional, but doing this prevents ZoneAlarm from unnecessarily alerting you to a system change. Keep in mind this setting will only be temporary.

2. Start the Computer Management applet by right-clicking My Computer then selecting Manage.

3. Click Device Manager in the left-hand pane.

4. On the Computer Management menu bar, click View, and ensure that "Show hidden devices" is checked.

5. Click the '+' sign beside the Non-Plug and Play Drivers entry in the right-hand pane of the Computer Management applet to expand these devices.

6. Scroll down to the entry for VSDATANT, right-click it, and select Disable.

7. Reboot your computer. The CHKDSK will then run.

8. After the CHKDSK is complete and your computer reboots, return to the Computer Management applet and re-enable the VSDATANT device.

9. Return to the ZoneAlarm Control Center, re-enable the Load at Startup option, and reboot the computer.

 

Thank you and very interesting!

As far as your first reply goes - I can boot up normally for 50 odd times and not get a problem!

If I roll back the driver (I checked and do get the option) can I later restore the driver I have rolled back from?

As far as the second reply goes - Yes I do run Zone Alarm. (a long story but on the computer that broke I was using the Zone Alarm firewall then bought F-secure AV which would not run with Zone alarm so switched to Kerio firewall. Then I updated to the 2007 version of F-Secure which would not run at all and crashed the computer every time I tried to load it. So - I bought Kaspersky AV - which then said it would not run with the Kerio firewall - so I went back to Zone Alarm! Life is complicated sometimes)

I am tempted now to get rid of Zone Alarm and replace it with another product. I would update to the full Kaspersky product - but they don't sell the Firewll on its own which means buying the whole product if I do! Grr!

Any other suggestions for a new firewall?

 

Hopefully the 'tech' who sold you the nvidia also provided a driver CD with the ones he actually installed.
Never buy a piece of kit without the driver CD. Yes you can reinstall the 'latest ' driver if rollback doesn't work. However the latest is not always best. This is why many manufacturers keep a library of drivers on their websites.

However I would eliminate Zone Alarm first as a suspect. If you can avoid the internet with that pc just turn it off for a while or better uninstall it.
I prefer the ahrdware firewalls in a decent router anyway.

If you get anymore minidumps post them in case there is more info.

 

Have to check my "pile of stuff" for the disc! I have a feeling he may have updated it since when the problems first started anyway.

I will get rid of Zone Alarm - not sure if my wireless router includes a firewall but am checking to see if I can upgrade to the full Kaspersky product.

Really appreciate your efforts

 

Thanks. I have had no more problems since my last post - as you can see this is something of a random problem. However, although I have not rolled back the driver I have taken your advice and un-installed Zone Alarm. I have upgraded my Kaspersky AV software to their full Internet Security package and hopefuly this may have sorted out the problem - we shall see!

Thanks again for your help.

 

Thanks for the update.