| zebelkhan |
What does this mean?
My sister,s old PC has all of a sudden started to crash with blue screen. It randomly happens after a little use, and for no particular reason it seems. It is okay after reboot but happens again some time later.
Here the message on the screen:
Stop: 0x00000050 (0xe1d67000, 0x00000001, 0x00000000, 0x00000001)
Page_fault_in_Nonpaged_area beginning dump of physical memory dumping physical memory to disk in windows 2000
She has AMD K6-3 running Win2000 with all updates, about 640meg of RAM. It was running fine with this config for a long time then the problem started
So where should I start looking? RAM? Hard Drive? Mobo? OS? Apps?
Thanks for the help I know is coming my way! :) |
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| Gonzo |
My first thought is hard drive. Does it every have any issues starting from a cold boot up?
If seen this sort of error before and the hard drive was the culprit. If not that then memory issue but given its proven itself over time memory typically doesn't fail over time, hard drives do. |
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| mgthe3 |
640 ram? That's an odd number.
Try to do a check disk on it. Swap the ram sticks out. Yank one at a time. |
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| MrDisco |
| Is the fan still working on the power supply? Some are quiet enough that you may not even know. I've seen that type of behavior when a fan goes out and the computer basically overheats and blue screens after random intervals of use. |
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| GMTURBO43 |
Since it is configured to create a dump file - it should write it to C:\windows (or whatever the win install directory is)\memory.dmp. This could be a hidden file - so set your preferences to show hidden files. If you can't find it do a search for *.dmp
Anyway...you can open this with notepad and it MIGHT give you a good idea of where to start.
Or you can download WinDbg from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/ddk/debugging/
It is a bit of a pain to use unless you do it all the time. It is cheaper than blindly replacing parts though. |
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| GMTURBO43 |
| 640 MB of RAM. Chances are the computer came with a 128 stick and someone added a 512. |
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| ekaxel |
| Win2K has a lot of problems with some application software. It could just be a crash caused by some SW incompatibility. I had a lot of this until I switcked to WinXPPRO. It all went away..... |
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| hasaanbhutta |
quote:
Originally posted by ekaxel
Win2K has a lot of problems with some application software. It could just be a crash caused by some SW incompatibility. I had a lot of this until I switcked to WinXPPRO. It all went away.....
Windows 2000 is so far the best and most reliable operating system ever came out from Microsoft. it is stable and has the least crash rate.
However, coming back to zebel's problem.
check these sites.
first
Second
hope this helps! |
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| ekaxel |
"Windows 2000 is so far the best and most reliable operating system ever came out from Microsoft. it is stable and has the least crash rate."
Yes, but Win2K was designed as a business application, like NT, and is not always guaranteed compatible with home consumer applications. I had to switch to Xp just because a lot of my applications wouldn't run reliably (or in some cases at all) on win 2k. |
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| Eric L. |
| Never used 2000, but I am pretty happy with the stability of XP after upgrading from ME. Its still not as stable as my linux box, but I do use my PC a lot more so I don't mind so much. |
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| Kris |
Interesting discussion. I went path: W95, W98 (both terribly unstable!), NT (huge improvement but at that time laptops were slooooow), W2K, and now XP home edition for home and XP professional at work.
I like XP. The only problem is that our corporation is going crazy about network security. Latest security update (I received a personal ID card with magnetic strip, passive chip – can be read by RFTI readers, active chip – has to be connected to a laptop all the time in order to access network resources) the boot up time from less than 1 minutes to well over 5 min. But then again I can be anywhere in the world and still access my emails and other resources residing on corporate network.
What ever we say NT, W2K and XP are quite good operating systems. Can’t complain too much. |
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| chita1987usa |
Blue screen appeared in my computer (Windows XP) with error similar to what you stated. The driver went south. Dell is notorious for driver crash.
Since I'm not a computer wiz... called Dell Computer (since it happened within the year) and they walk me through recovery process..... uninstall everything and reintalling everything. Total time spent on it 5 hours. Not to mention the aggravation of being patched through different people from different parts of the globe. I finally got through a tech wiz (mind you from the Philippines... I guess Dell have a Tech support there). Problem solved and have not got a blue screen since.
On the side note, the IT consultant here in my office said that Windows 2000 is the most stable. |
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| special-k |
RAM *can* go bad over time, especially if there are unstable voltages coming from the power supply (cheap power supply, or old one with componenets that are wearing out, etc.) or if the voltage regulators on the motherboard are getting old, etc. RAM can suffer from electron migration.
I suggest getting a copy of Memtest86+ , burning the bootable CD and booting the computer from it. Let it run it's gamut of tests, that should tell you if RAM is a problem.
This could also be one of many of the following:
- Loose heatsink on CPU or dead CPU fan, overheating is a likely culprit in older machines
- Dead fan in power supply -- overheating power supplies become less stable and voltages can become unstable / erratic.
- Data corruption on hard drive due to bad ram, poor CPU cooling, etc. The drive only writes what it's told to write, if a bad bit of data came from the CPU and/or RAM, it gets written to the disk and then you've got a problem
- Hard drive itself is going bad
- Motherboard is getting flaky
- CPU is getting flaky, due to improper cooling, unstable voltages, etc. See above comment regarding electron migration. It DOES happen.
Considering you can pick up a brand new computer from Dell for like $299, I wouldn't recomment putting a whole lot of time / effort / money into fixing this box. You can get a new box, pull the hard drive (assuming it's not gone bad), put it in the new system (as a slave) and pull all the important data off of it. |
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| zebelkhan |
Thank you all! I knew I was asking my question from the right crowed! Keep suggestions coming please....:6:
Here is what I plan to do:
1- I will first try the CPU or power supply overheating check as it is the easiest!
2- Then run a disk check as it has no problems on a cold boot but could have bad sectors or data I suppose. The problem is that the blue screen pops up half way through the check so it can never complete it.
3- Then will try RAM check
4- Then will go after the OS and drivers.
5- Hard drive replacement and upgrade to XP will be my last options. I don't even know if this system meets XP requirements to do an upgrade to XP...
6- If all fails, replace the damn thing!
Can anyone think of anything else? Thanks again... :8: |
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| hasaanbhutta |
quote:
Originally posted by zebelkhan
Thank you all! I knew I was asking my question from the right crowed! Keep suggestions coming please....:6:
Here is what I plan to do:
1- I will first try the CPU or power supply overheating check as it is the easiest!
2- Then run a disk check as it has no problems on a cold boot but could have bad sectors or data I suppose. The problem is that the blue screen pops up half way through the check so it can never complete it.
3- Then will try RAM check
4- Then will go after the OS and drivers.
5- Hard drive replacement and upgrade to XP will be my last options. I don't even know if this system meets XP requirements to do an upgrade to XP...
6- If all fails, replace the damn thing!
Can anyone think of anything else? Thanks again... :8:
check the video card as well... i was reading through your error description with windows xp (i know ur using W2K) and it seems like and issue with the video card driver as well.....
so add it as step 4 and increment the following step #s.... |
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| zebelkhan |
| Yes. I forgot. Thanks. |
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| jaak |
My first reaction would be to reseat all the connectors. So peripheral cards and RAM would all get pulled out and put back in. Once.
Connector quality is not as stringent on many components, as it used to be... It can be a source of failure.
Running some software to test things, with the machine busy so the CPU's temperature is elevated (Heavy duty graphics game in demo mode would be good.) will help flush out temperature related issues.
I would not discount an OS corruption either.... If nothing seems to sort it out, you may have to use the OS repair capabilities to replace files, and then go back to the MS website and do the updates over again.
Win 2000 is NT5 and was called that in development until shortly before it's release. The fact that 2K will not let you load substandard apps, is not that bad, but yes, XP has the best of both worlds, with the heart of NT and the connectivity of 95/98. |
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| zebelkhan |
quote:
Originally posted by dmako
Google it first i.e. the error code you may find something.
Like:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=894278&sd=RMVP
The blue message is not exactly the same but this is definitely worth checking into. Thank you. |
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| special-k |
quote:
Originally posted by zebelkhan
2- Then run a disk check as it has no problems on a cold boot but could have bad sectors or data I suppose. The problem is that the blue screen pops up half way through the check so it can never complete it.
You can boot off the Win2K installer CD in recovery mode, drop to a command prompt and run a chkdsk from there, then you won't have to worry about it blue-screening in the middle of your check.
If it blue-screens in the same place every time you run the check it could be a bad sector on the disk. Try grabbing a hard drive utility from the manufacturer of your hard disk -- for instance Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate all have diagnostic utilities you can download from their website and run a scan on your disk to find out if there are bad sectors. |
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| jaak |
I may print this thread out as a troubleshooting aid...
Or I could save it on my PC, but that would be stupid....:D |
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| mgthe3 |
Hey special K....sounds alot like what I was offering (chkdsk).... swapping out ram is also very easy to do. Chkdsk has got me outta some hairy stuff many times. Swapping ram also has quickly shown if it was good or not. Been fixin puters for 30 years, I've seen it all, from card and tape punches to robotic 6000 tape libraries.
NT, runs great as long as you stick to MS office apps.....veer toward stuff like ESRI....oh dear, BSOD city, and almost all the time it was a serious Blue Screen of Death--reload time.
2000....if you stay a 2000 shop and never move the DC's up to 2003 they're fine. There are many bugs between the two, but XP pro purrrrrrs.
Both my kid's machines and mine are XP pro, and believe me, there is a whole lot less reloadin goin on. Just give an 11 year old and a 14 year old machines on cable to download with, that's a trial by fire by God.
:) |
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| jaak |
Similar here... I've got XP Pro on everything, except for the family room which has MCE, and the servers, which have been on the server version of 2K for years and are literally ignored while they quietly do their tasks. I think I log in to them remotely about 3 times a year, just to check up on them. In the meantime they do everything asked of them, flawlessly.
But of course, load garbarge apps on, and turn off the computer instead of doing proper shut downs and the next thing you know, it's unreliable junk.
I was surprised to hear my digital design application engineer tell me he still has one of his machines on 98. But all he uses it for is email. Fast starting up and shutting down and works. I hate 95, 98 and ME, as they all suck when you start to load down the OS (What do you expect from co-operative multitasking!). But he had me there...
Now windows version one.... That was an OS... er, sorry, shell.
6 floppy disks (5-1/4"). Still have a copy of the development kit, on my shelf. I've thrown out everything in between, but I just couldn't part with that!
I still miss Reversi... ;) |
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| GMTURBO43 |
When the machine is booting up - right after POST and very shortly in to the Win2K splash screen start hitting F8 obsessively. :)
This will bring you to a prompt to start with 8 different options. I'd start with 'safe mode' and run check disk from there. This will load minimal drivers and the machine SHOULD boot. If it doesn't - you're pretty hosed.
There might even be an option for safe more with networking? This could be good if you need to download drivers or anything. |
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| zebelkhan |
| So many good suggestions. Will try some this weekend. Thank you all. :6: |
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| ekaxel |
| A lot of references to "junk" applications. The applications I had trouble with on Win2k were all proven mainstream video editing and DVD burning applications that worked fine everywhere else they were used. |
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| special-k |
quote:
Originally posted by ekaxel
A lot of references to "junk" applications. The applications I had trouble with on Win2k were all proven mainstream video editing and DVD burning applications that worked fine everywhere else they were used.
Unless you've recently changed something about the system configuration, such as adding new software or installing a new version, etc., I wouldn't worry too much about software compatibility being the issue here. With a random problem creeping up like this, unless you've made a recent software change, it's usually one of the other things that we've covered in the thread here. |
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