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.
This is a software problem, likely a corrupted or unstable driver. If you are technically saavy with XP the system event log should show which file is causing the error; replacing it with an updated driver might solve the issue.
Windows XP has crashed
I am the blue screen of death
No one hears your screams
I'd try unplugging the computer, opening it up and "break and make" all connectors. Clean it out too.
Thanx much! I will go to Dell’s support site and try to update the network card driver.
First Run ChkDsk to see if you have any file errors.
Also go to the Dell website and see if they have any updated drivers for your machine.
http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php
It may be the network card software or the network card circuitry overheating. It may even be dirty connectors on the network card (assuming you have one). If there is a separate network card, Remove it and run the computer for a while to see if you can still get BSOD. If not, replace the card and see if BSOD comes back.
There are a bunch of things that can cause BSOD, including low voltage from the power supply, bad connections on RAM and plug-in cards and malfunctioning hardware.
When you have the computer open (and off) you might want to remove and reseat the RAM modules as well.
As another poster said, the camera on my laptop was causing the issue. I have disabled it and never had another blue screen of death.
You may have a version of Reader that was loaded over an old one. I had a similar problem with Acrobat (the editing version).....you pretty much have to completely remove the old version then install the new one pristinely. It also messed up the opening of my Excel files directly when double clicking a file...
Thanks. Went to Device Manager. No yellow exclamation points, so no drivers there that it is indicating it is not happy with.
I’ll try uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Acrobat. Thanks.
Your issue could be due to hardware issues (small amounts of ram to old drives getting ready to crap out) or poor patching (are you on the latest SP and updating all your apps?) or a combination of both. If you machine was something custom built then one could justify upgrading the hardware components but if its an "off the rack" clone, its easier to get a new box.
OK, will do. Thanks!
I got that screen after viewing some shows on the Internet movie database site. Can’t say for sure it happened there but I don’t usually watch shows online.
I’m thinking you got a virus. I had to do a full restore, but everything has been fine since. That’s been over a year ago.
You can get one that is over 10 times as powerful as your 8 year old clunker, for about $400. They also transfer all files easily from computer to computer. If your hard drive is still good, you can load it in a spare tray us use it for backup on your new machine. The current machines are awesome with serious graphics/storage performance.
Win. 7 is also a great security based OS. Add the free Security Essentials fire wall and virus program, and you will beat the socks off of Norton or McKafee and not pay another dime on first rate, updated protection. Best of all, you can kiss your “Blue Screen” blues goodbye.
Just a thought......
>>Looks and sounds like you are having an OS corruption problem, but it might be the Harddrive as well.<<
That was my thought as well. With the exception of my very first computer, which had a bad mother board from day one, every computer I’ve had that had a “non-sofware” problem was always a hard drive going TU. The most annoying was when I backed up the primary hard drive only to find out it was the secondary that was going bad. Lost everything on it.
But I’m voting for bad hard drive. Always look to the moving parts for the problem.
You could make yourself a Linux live CD (Knoppix, e.g), change your BIOS settings to boot from the CD and boot from the Linux CD. (Doesn’t mean you’re going to switch to Linux, just using for diagnostic/rescue purposes). If you can’t boot off that disk, I’d suspect hardware issues. If you can boot up from the CD, you could copy files over the network (if you’re networked) or burn to disk.
Someone previously mentioned memory. I’ve had blue screen problems in the past that were caused by bad memory modules. (Windows trying to load some part of the OS or driver into bad memory address). If you have multiple memory sticks, try booting with just one stick. Try for each memory stick to see if any or all get Windows to boot for you.
>>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 have an XP machine that I use for music editing, also never been to the internet on it. It is a Pentium 3 from 2000 that still works great.
Most of the time when I saw these it was drivers or failing RAM, but it's been awhile and the memories are fading. I just rebuilt a 9-year-old XP box from its original SP1 release - 150-odd patches, two service packs...I'll be asking the user nicely to upgrade to Win7 on her next machine. LOL!
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