Blue screen of death....

Hi,

Have had numerous BSODs lately in XP Pro.

So far, this is what I have worked-out / tried:

1. Ran Memtest overnight - no problems.
2. Ran Checkdisk -f - no improvement.
3. Windows Debugger of minidumps is not much help - sometimes BSODs without creating a dump (ie before windows is loaded). Dumps I do have suggest its ntoskrnl.
4. Have tried repairing XP (actuall, it reinstalled most of it, and I then put on SP2 plus all patches / updates.
5. Happens almost exclusively when it (the computer) is cold. If it gets up & running, not normally a problem (my daughter can play Sims2 for hours without a crash, but it often crashes when first turned-on.

I thought it might be memory, but with memtest coming up clean, am suspecting the motherboard (with the problem when its cold, figured it might be electrical).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.


Note: A couple of months back, I did a full reformat & reinstalled XP. Have also swept for viruses etc - don't think that's the cause.

 

Have you run a manufacturers hard disk program, to check the hard drive. I had a similar problem, some time ago, and eventually the drive died - so , well worth running to check (Maxtor, and seagate are together now - I have had problems with Maxtor after only 9 months)
The other Windows repair function for dicky files, (have you run it )
sfc /scannow, with XP disc in drive, keep clicking retry, and if files are corrupted, it will replace them.

 

Could be a power supply issue also. If you have access to a new one, I would try that or test the old one. What kind of messages come up with the Blue Screen?????

 

The HDD is a western digital IIRC - I'll see if they have a utility.

The BSOD messages vary - IRQ_NOT _EQAUL_OR_LESS_THAN, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA are common, plus a couple of others that I can't recall (I'd never heard of them before I saw them).

I tried Motherboard monitor 5, and voltages appear stable, but might be worth trying.

 

IRQ NOT LESS THAN errors are usually memory related. Not always, but usually. I'd run a different diagnostic, a bootable one is recommended so it has exclusive access to the different areas of RAM. Try this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Windows_Memory_Diagnostic_d3955.html The download will create a bootable floppy or an .iso file to burn to a CD. Then boot to it and press 'T' for the extended tests and run at least 4 passes.....

hd2k

 

Thanks - that's the one I tried. Left it overnight, and it made 5 passes with no problems.

 

From a previous problem with - IRQ_NOT _EQAUL_OR_LESS_THAN
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=970912#post970912

Have a look at Microsofts

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314063