Windows XP woes - constant blue screen

gimpotronitus

Hi,

For a while now, my windows XP installation has crashed with the blue screen, about three times a day. I have repair installed XP and the problem still occurs. I have started up in Safe mode and the crash still happens. I have run memtest86 on my RAM modules and they pass with flying colours. I have installed the debugging tools for XP and debugged the memory.dmp file that XP spits out and since I have tried it, it looks like internet explorer and explorer are the culripts. I am considering getting deeper into the use of the debugger but dont really have time. The Stop messages can be IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL or a thread released a resource it didn't already own etc...

Its a real pain in the ass!! It was not always like this, I do remember a time when my laptop did not crash three times a day. I have also removed loads of drivers for all my hardware and it still happens.

It must be a hardware problem is it? Any ideas ?

neokenzo

Probably have conflicts between your hardwares. Check your hardware for any conflicts. Are you overclocking? When I overclocked too much, I usually get that error too. Anyway, this is what Microsoft has to say about that error.

Karoma

irq port conflict comes to mind first.
recently installed new hardware? (Disable unneccesary hardware in bios)

try Last Known Good Config (Sorry-bit obvious-but just in case..)
does it run ok in safe mode?

KdjaCL

What is your PC ? if your mobo has somfin sharing an IRQ windows might need a special driver for it (usaslly comes on a floppy)


kdjac

neokenzo

To check whether any IRQ's are conflciting, open your "Device Manager". Go to "View" and then "Resources by type". Then click "Interupt Request (IRQ)". All your hardware should have its own IRQ number. Make sure none of them are sharing any IRQ number.

gimpotronitus

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. No IRQ conflicts, they all have their own IRQ's. Also crashes in Safe mode (but takes a lot longer to do so). Have not installed any hardward.

Its a Quaddra DTS Pro 3.06 GHz laptop (http://www.rockdirect.com/notebooks/quaddradtspro2.htm) with a gig of ram and DVD burner upgrade.

Not overclokcing it. It was working grand, but I cant pinpoint down when this started happening. I did change the RAM about 3 months ago but memtest86 gives it the all clear after a 3.5 hour test....

The bitch about it is I am working abroad at the moment and left my driver disk at home, but I shoud be able to get all the drivers from the web.

Going to run pstat.exe, save the output to a file and then get the exception address the next time it goes blue and try and match up the device driver. Cant think of much else to try.

KdjaCL

Event viewer show anything?

I assume you have done a clean install since it started happening and if so would most defintley bet its the RAM.

Laptops are cnuts for wanting a specific ram (the maker wouldn plan on upgrade and if there were it be a specific brand type etc:)


kdjac

The Muppet

It could be a heat Issue either is it well ventilated and do these crashes occur after the system has been running for a while?

Karoma

If you haven't already-physically remove and replace the RAM (with usual precautions)

gimpotronitus

No can do on the sensitive stuff like full re-install and RAM replace/swap since I am on a sensitive project abroad and cant risk anything that could jeopardise it. I would prefer to get blue screens every two hours than lose some data (even though I would do a backup).

Was on to micirisft support and what I have done now is, through msconfig.exe, stopped all the non-microsoft services from starting at startup and stopped all the usual programs in the startup section from running.

If I dont get a blue screen (touch wood), then through the process of elimination I should be able figure out what was causing it.

I was assigning a gig of ram to the jvm on a cerain IDE I am using, I thought that might be causing the problem but, alas, no it wasn't.

So fingers crossed and thanks for all the replies guys.

darkmaster2

I had this problem before with a PC , and moving the ram to different slots fixed it..