Posted on 02/25/2011 10:50:08 AM PST by webschooner
We have two desktops in our household. Just a couple of weeks ago, my wife's WinXP desktop, at that time just under 3 years old (not on warranty), started going blue screen every day at least once, always when she was using it, but you could always reboot it. I took a pic of the BSOD and emailed it to a computer service guy friend, and he said that machine was on the way out, and not worth repairing. We turned off the machine, bought a new computer, then I transferred my wife's data to the new machine.
I wanted to see what her old machine was up to, so I then kept it booted up and web surfed on it regularly. It didn't blue screen even once, but after a few days, it went belly up -- monitor went dark, and I checked the monitor -- monitor is fine, so the computer is a dead soldier. Anyway, issue is solved, wife has new computer, all is well.
Below is pic of BSOD of wife's computer before it passed away, may it rest in peace:
That is just background history which I thought possibly might help with analysis of the issue at hand with my desktop. My desktop, also a Dell WinXP machine, just over 3 years old, has been blue screening off and on for awhile, but nowhere near as frequently as my wife's machine was. When it does, mine only blue screens overnight, when it is idle (I usually leave it on), not when I am using it during the day. It blue screened say once a week for about three weeks, then worked fine for about a month, then last night, blue screened again (I can always reboot after a blue screen). I presume most of the BSOD message is kind of boiler plate, but regarding the error message specific to the machine and the incident -- I notice the message for my machine is very similar to the message for my wife's machine, although some of the numbers are a little bit different.
Pic of BSOD on my machine last night:
My question is this to Windows tech savvy people: does it look like my machine is on the way out and not worth fixing as was my wife's machine? For years I have purchased our computers refurbished on Dell Outlet with same warranty as new. My wife's new replacement machine I bought a week ago was $350 delivered (sans monitor), well equipped, with a dual core Intel chip. Therefore I won't put a lot of money into repairs. Usually we run our machines 5-6 years and upgrade, and they are still running fine at that time, but trouble happened to hit early this time. I don't buy warranties on desktops beyond the 1 year factory warranty that comes with them, so no recourse there.
Any advice on what this specific BSOD (2nd pic) on my machine means would be appreciated. Apple guys who are thinking of telling me to buy a Mac, or Linux guys who want to tell me to load Linux, thanks anyway for the advice, but you will all be ignored by myself. I'm not interested, just as you're not interested in the OS I use. To each his own OS.
Thanks in advance.
Do you run virus scan on your machines?
Do you have a Windows CD ROM?
I buy slightly used refurb Dell’s with XP Pro on eBay. I make sure they are non-smokers and usually get em for $90 delivered. They are fast too.
Yes, I run virus scan daily, AVG Free, also run Anti spyware and anti malware daily, always always.
Yes, have CD Rom
Have you installed any new software lately?
I have an older laptop with Win XP that never had a BSOD until I bought a new camera and installed the camera software on it. Turns out the software uses more memory than my laptop can handle. When I would try to use the program I’d get the BSOD.
When I would put my SD card from the camera into the computer it would also try to start the camera software program and BSOD. I just uninstalled the program and everything is back to normal.
Other than that it could be some bad memory. If you google the error message, you might get some answers.
We have a desktop that is at least 6 years old. My husband was getting that message every time he opened a PDF file from his e-mail account and tried to print it. We saved the PDF file to Documents and when we opened it and printed from it, it worked just fine. I know that we can’t expect this computer to last much longer, but I’m surprised it’s lasted this long being as it went through Hurricane Katrina.
Looks and sounds like you are having an OS corruption problem, but it might be the Harddrive as well.
I would slave the drive over to another machine and do a complete backup of everything you want. Then, I would do a clean re-install of Windows on that drive.
Keep your data backed up on a regular basis and start using the machine again. If you start getting BSOD again on a regular basis, then you probably just have a bad harddrive. A new harddrive would be much cheaper than a new machine, so that is the route I would take if I were you.
One more thing: It’s also WinXP.
A three year old computer.When was the last time you opened it’s case.Computers are notorious dust collectors and dust is what kills computers.
The dust builds up around the CPU and the power supply and it just causes those items to overheat and wear out prematurely.
You should vacuum out your computers case at minimum of every six months.
Their are other causes of trouble overheated DRAM and video cards.
All of these problems could be stopped with only minor housecleaning in your pc’s case.
No new software whatsoever installed, on either the wife’s machine before it died, or on this one.
I’ll try googling the error message, thx.
It is usually a sort of software error somewhere in your computer.
To start with, I would suggest, if you haven’t been doing it, defrag your hard drive. This should be done weekly to keep it clean. Cross-linked files are a sort of software errors.
Clean your registry. I use PCTOOL’s Registry Mechanic to keep my Windows Registry cleaned up on a daily basis.
Clean your hard drive. Go to My Computer, select Drive C:, click on “Tools”, then perform the various disk cleaning chores. Twice a month.
Go to Browser’s “Tools” on the menu, click on “Delete History”. Do this each week!
All these should go a long way to clean up your computer and keep it clean!
I get that second BSOD on boot up once in a while on an XP that is used for music editing and has NEVER been on the internet. I hit the breaker switch on the C/drive and hit load windows as usual when the option comes up after the blue screen and it boots. I have never had a prob with the machine while it is running, only on boot.
If you have the Windows XP disk (not the factory restore disk) you can reinstall the system files by installing XP over the current installation. This will put XP back to service pack 1 and you will have to reload the service packs again from Microsoft.
Thanks.
I am not familiar with how to “slave the drive to another machine”, but I could research that.
I could backup and reformat the hard drive, and had thought of that, but wanted to make sure I didn’t have a hardware issue before I went to all that work. I usually reformat the hard drive every year to year and a half.
After doing a Google search of your error code, it seems you may have a Dell computer -
“The driver cited is ele5132.sys and from everything I have been able to tell this is your Network Card (NIC). Try updating the drivers from DELL’s website.”
You could call Dell and ask for updated driver disk and ask for support on how to install it.
Hopes this helps
Good idea — I’ll open it up and vacuum it out. I don’t think I’ve vacuumed it out since it was new. Thanks!
Try pulling out and re-seating the memory chips.
get carbonite - peace of mind!
get carbonite - peace of mind!
Lots of good suggestions. Thx very much! I’ll try them all.
Drivers are usually the problem with the Blue Screen of Death.
XP introduce something called “Protected Memory Space” to the masses. Earlier, this was only used on Server editions. This means, that a program is only allowed to play in a certain area - it can’t leave. If it tries, the program crashes. So, I don’t think it’s a program.
It could be a corrupted OS, that’s entirely possible; but my first area of searching would be to open the Device Manager and look for the Yellow Exclamation point. This means that WindowsXP is not happy with a driver. Uninstall that device, find a ‘good’ driver and re-install it.
That should fix you.
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