Blue Screen

have windows XP and have been getting a variety of blue screen STOP msgs.

I have posted in the malware forum (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=185367)
but it was suggested to post here.

I have gotten the blue screen on normal startup, in safe mode and a few of the other startup options. as well as sometimes on shutdown.

on startup chkdsk runs (if i dont get blue screen first) and it says that volume D: is dirty and something about NTFS

if i get into windows sometimes things work alright for a while although i have noticed that some of the desktop icons are generic ones so too some of the icons in the start menu. After a while i find net wont load pages properly and that i cant save or load files or print.

whatever other infomation is required let me know and i'll try give it/find it. there might be some info useful info(specific STOP messages etc) in my otherpost http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=185367

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Yuor problem is memory (RAM).If you have 2 sticks pull out one and run memtest:http://www.majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d1247.html
If it's OK turn off your computer and replace the memory and run memtest for second stick. Post what you have done.Good Luck!!!

 

I'm running memtest86+v2.11 from floppy (my cd drive has been not working for a while).

I've just got red and blue screen with details of my comp and its doing tests. Am I doing the right test?

Im not really sure how this works, what am i supossed to do or look out for?

Thanks

 

Yeah, unfortunately, red is bad. Over in the pass and error columns on the right side, could you relay the numbers? Just curious...

 

Took some time to write this next one, here it goes...

At the top you will see your system specs in the upper left, and the test progress in the upper right.

From the middle down, you will see many columns:

Wall Time: duration the test has been running (hr:min:sec)

Cached: the amount of memory being tested

ResvdMem: reserved memory

MemMap: Memory Map

Cache: usually on

ECC: error correction setting. Only on if your memory is ECC. Most are non-ECC.

Test: Std, standard of course. Not STD, those are BAD...

Pass: How many times the diagnostic has run a full cycle.

Errors: number of errors counted total.

last two, ECC and Errs are for error correcting memory. Commonly used in servers.

There are 9 types of tests this program runs. Not going to list them here.

Next colums moving down the page are as follows:

Tst: corresponding test cycle the program is running.

Pass: pass #

Failing address: memory which has tested "bad", and it's size.

Good/Bad: specifies which address has tested out as such.

Err/Bits: number of "good bits gone bad". :-D

Count Chan: running tally of bad bits.


Hope this helps a bit...

 

here are some of the details from the test"

Pentium D (0.09) 2993Mhz
L1 cache: 16k 18941 MB/s
L2 cache: 1024k 16719 MB/s
L3 cache: none
Memory: 1022M 2611 MB/s
Chipset: Intel i945P/G (ECC: diabled) - FSB: 199MHz - Type : DDR-II
Settings: RAM 266 MHz (DDR532) / CAS : 4-4-4-11 / Dual Channel (Interleaved)

Cached RsvdMem MemMap ECC Test
1022M 68M e820-Std Off Std

after 1st Pass:

wall time: around 19mins
errors: 16640

after 2nd Pass:

wall time around 38mins
errors: 100352 (is my computer doomed?)

it seemed the most errors came when the test was moving inversions

was hard to get details as they kept scrolling

here are two examples:


Pass Address Good Badd Error-Bits
0 00000553c30- 5.1MB ffffffbf fffff7bf 00000800

0 00000558190- 5.5MB 00000001 00000801 00000800


i noticed the address being either 0000055etc or 0000057etc

when i hit space to lock scroll my computer started making loud noises so i hit cr which didnt stop them so i then hit esc and the test started again

again any help much appreciated

thanks

 

here are some of the details from the test"

Pentium D (0.09) 2993Mhz
L1 cache: 16k 18941 MB/s
L2 cache: 1024k 16719 MB/s
L3 cache: none
Memory: 1022M 2611 MB/s
Chipset: Intel i945P/G (ECC: diabled) - FSB: 199MHz - Type : DDR-II
Settings: RAM 266 MHz (DDR532) / CAS : 4-4-4-11 / Dual Channel (Interleaved)

Cached RsvdMem MemMap ECC Test
1022M 68M e820-Std Off Std

after 1st Pass:

wall time: around 19mins
errors: 16640

after 2nd Pass:

wall time around 38mins
errors: 100352 (is my computer doomed?)

it seemed the most errors came when the test was moving inversions

was hard to get details as they kept scrolling

here are two examples:


Pass Address Good Badd Error-Bits
0 00000553c30- 5.1MB ffffffbf fffff7bf 00000800

0 00000558190- 5.5MB 00000001 00000801 00000800


i noticed the address being either 0000055etc or 0000057etc

when i hit space to lock scroll my computer started making loud noises so i hit cr which didnt stop them so i then hit esc and the test started again

again any help much appreciated

thanks

 

here are some of the details from the test"

Pentium D (0.09) 2993Mhz
L1 cache: 16k 18941 MB/s
L2 cache: 1024k 16719 MB/s
L3 cache: none
Memory: 1022M 2611 MB/s
Chipset: Intel i945P/G (ECC: diabled) - FSB: 199MHz - Type : DDR-II
Settings: RAM 266 MHz (DDR532) / CAS : 4-4-4-11 / Dual Channel (Interleaved)

Cached RsvdMem MemMap ECC Test
1022M 68M e820-Std Off Std

after 1st Pass:

wall time: around 19mins
errors: 16640

after 2nd Pass:

wall time around 38mins
errors: 100352 (is my computer doomed?)

it seemed the most errors came when the test was moving inversions

was hard to get details as they kept scrolling

here are two examples:


Pass Address Good Badd Error-Bits
0 00000553c30- 5.1MB ffffffbf fffff7bf 00000800

0 00000558190- 5.5MB 00000001 00000801 00000800


i noticed the address being either 0000055etc or 0000057etc

when i hit space to lock scroll my computer started making loud noises so i hit cr which didnt stop them so i then hit esc and the test started again

again any help much appreciated

thanks

 

Sorry I haven't gotten back to your post as timely as I would have liked.

Your computer is not doomed, you just have erroneous memory stick(s). Try testing each one individually, but your best be would be replacement at this point, due to your symptoms. What happens is, when the errors occur in the memory, the data is not written correctly to the HDD. Basically it's being corrupted.

I don't want to tell you to just go out and replace the sticks without a full analysis. We also want to be sure why these modules (sticks) have degraded.

How long have the sticks been in use?

Do you have a solid surge protector?

Have there been any lightning/power issues with your residence recently?

 

Thats cool, prompt enough for me...

There hasnt been any power or light issues here

I'm not sure about surge protector, how do i check?

Memory sticks are the original ones computer came with, around 3yrs old.

 

Run the Memtest, just to error on the side of caution.

The surge protector outlet strips usually have an LED indicator that says if they are in working order. You do have one, right?

 

Oh ok i know what you mean by surge protector now, some reason i thought it was something on my pc. I dont have one but i can get one.

I have already ran memtest i posted my findings a few post ago, should I run it again? What results in particular should I post?

 

No, you don't have to run it again. I wanted to know the conditions the PC ran under, so I could make a better conclusion.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the root of your problem is the errors from the memory sticks. They will need to be replaced/upgraded.

Before you do any of this, obtain a surge protector for your equipment. If your power company "burped" a little, or there was any electrical disturbance from a storm as recently as six months ago, that very well could be the root of your problem.

You need surge protection for your equipment. Sometimes just the static shock from your body can damage components. And, you may not even notice that usual spark if you do discharge static to a component.

Wrist straps, come highly recommended, or repeatedly touching bare metal parts of the tower, which is not as reliable.

 

I finally got around to changing my ram... No blue screens in the three days since i did the switch. Running memtest yeilds no errors...
Thanks heaps for your help!

I fixed the missing icons issue by simply changing them to large icons and then back in properties.

Chkdsk still runs on startup, get something like this:

Checking file system on D:
The type of file system is NTFS
The volume is dirty

it does 3 stages of scans in which it says everything is ok.

It seems that my comp is booting in sort of a safe mode or something, I have tried setting it to normal startup in msconfig but get following msg:

"Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You need to log on using an ADMINISTRATOR account to make the specified changes"

Even though my user profile is of admin type. Even logging into Adminstrator account i get this msg.

Any help will be much appreciated as was the help i already recieved. Thanks

 

Do you have some password protection mechanism enabled somewhere?

 

You never write what is your computer spec and antivirus -firewall software?(Please?)

 

running windows xp professional and use mcafee, i tried turning off system guard on my mcafee but i still change to normal startup in msconfig without the following message:

"Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You need to log on using an ADMINISTRATOR account to make the specified changes"

 

"When you modify anything in MSConfig, Windows attempts to change the registry settings for everything in the MSConfig list. When Windows reaches the McAfee items and attempts to change them, McAfee prevents this from happening and Windows shows an error. This is a good thing from a protection standpoint, as malware could otherwise use the same mechanism to shut down your McAfee protection.

I would have expected that when I make a change in MSConfig, Windows would only change the settings for the application I tried to change. But that's not how it works. MS apparently doesn't want to modify MSConfig to do so. Hence, the error."

This is from McAfee forum,so I wil suggest to reinstall your McAfee product.So,uninstall your McAfee,restart,modify msconfig (the way you wanted),restart,and installMcAfee again.Good Luck!!!!:major