Help Needed with a possed computer

The_Pink_Panter

My computer! a p111 800mh, old i know, with winXp installed is giving me a lot of problems lately. What happens is and for no reason the thing just gives me the blue screen of death warns me that windows is shuting down to prevent any further damage to my pc, to remove any recently installed hardware (of which there is none) and to update software and check BIOS all of which i did but the thing just keeps shuting down on me.
At the moment im actually typing as softly as i can to prevent it shuting down, mad or what? What could be causing this to happen?

Sleipnir

god it could be anything, most likely a problem with the hard drive.
WHat does the blue screen actually say? That would be a good place to start in order to find out what's wrong.

The_Pink_Panter

I'll wait for it to shut down again and write down what it reports!
As for the hard drive, i did replace the old and orignal 8gig with a 160gig 2mb cache about 2 months ago, the only thing is i was having a simular but not as frequent problem before the change! there is one thing that i have noticed and that is when im downloading a file at say 1meg or so and you somtimes get a sudden burst of speed it happens more so than at other times, also if im moving large files accros the local network it also gives in, even though its an oldish computer i don't think the thing itself is knackered?

Lump

XP probably throwing a fit because the computer is rather slow.... what are the minimum specs for xp?

John

Sleipnir

\NOt the hard drive so.
Think it's 300mhz recommended and 266mhz minimum.

DemonOfTheFall

I think you can run it on a 133. P3 800 is plenty powerful for XP.

The_Pink_Panter

Just recoverd from what seeded to be a more serious crash.
Heres some of what it reported:
A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
It then goes on to tell me to remove any newly installed hadrware or software and if the problem should continue to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
Then at the bottom theres a lot of technical stuff made up of hex and the like, to much to print here i think.......

The_Pink_Panter

Just recoverd from what seemed to be a more serious crash.
Heres some of what it reported:
A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
It then goes on to tell me to remove any newly installed hadrware or software and if the problem should continue to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
Then at the bottom theres a lot of technical stuff made up of hex and the like, to much to print here i think.......

spudington16

The_Pink_Panter wrote:

Just recoverd from what seemed to be a more serious crash.
Heres some of what it reported:
A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
It then goes on to tell me to remove any newly installed hadrware or software and if the problem should continue to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
Then at the bottom theres a lot of technical stuff made up of hex and the like, to much to print here i think.......

Have you tried Google-ing the error message? Often when I catch a virus or have yet another random problem with XP when I run part of the error message through Google one of the first pages will have an MS page with a solution. Try it and let us know how it goes.

Sleipnir

Could be a hardware conflict although that doesn't happen much with XP.
GO to start, programs, accessories, system tools, system information and then Conflicts/sharing.
Also check device manager by right-clicking My Computer and then manage.
(I'm on win2k here at the moment so the paths to these might be slightly different)

spudington16

Stop 0x000000D1 or DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

The Stop 0xD1 message indicates that the system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. Drivers that have used improper addresses typically cause this error.

Interpreting the Message
This Stop message has four parameters:

Memory referenced.
IRQL at time of reference.
Type of access (0x00000000 = read operation, 0x00000001 = write operation).
Address that referenced memory.
Resolving the Problem
For additional troubleshooting suggestions that apply to all Stop errors, see "Stop Message Checklist" later in this appendix.

Stop 0xD1 messages can occur after installing faulty drivers or system services. If a driver is listed by name, disable, remove, or roll back that driver to confirm that this resolves the error. If so, contact the manufacturer about a possible update. Using updated software is especially important for backup programs, multimedia applications, antivirus scanners, DVD playback, and CD mastering tools.
For more information about Stop 0xD1 messages, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. Search using keywords winnt, 0x000000D1, and 0xD1.

updated and comaptiable drivers are very important when running XP. Check your hardware with the HCL www.microsoft.com/hcl If you hardware is not on the list it does not mean it won't work it just means it hasn't been tested by Microsoft and they won't Guarantee it to be compatible. If it not on the list check the manufacturer's website fo an up to date XP driver, if they don't have one you may be out of luck. This goes for motherboards and the bios too.

po0k

Reformat, reinstall with Win2k SP4.

Also, check to see if your IDE controller (probably running this on a 440BX chipset? PIIEX4 Southbridge?) and BIOS version support 48-bit LBA.

Could well be that the amount of stuff on your hard drive is reaching the 137Gig barrier and things are starting to go wrong.

DemonOfTheFall

That IRQ less than or equal to thing seems to be a fairly generic BSOD. It's the only one i ever get for a variety of reasons. Like if I use clockgen while winamp is running I get it, or if I install windows with the wrong ACPI layer, or I overclock too high. Or a heat related BSOD. They all give me that error code too.

The_Pink_Panter

Ok - all is looking pretty good at the moment, with the advise obtained here i was able to locate the problem to a wlcard, even though id tryed to update the drivers manualy through Xp it always came back and told me the drivers installed were up to date.
Went to the 3com web site and found new drivers for sp2 and new firmware, downloaded and installed both and all seemed ok untill it went down again, but this time the thing just restarted itself, no horrible blue screen this time.
When it restarted i had a warning about my firewall causing problems so i went to the site and there was a new (somewhat late) update for sp2, unistalled the old installed the new, done the necessary configs and went to work.
Put the thing through its paces, way above anything id normally use it for, 5 hrs of it in total and not a whimper out of it, so fingers xx
Sound as a pound lads....