[Lexsar]

I am looking at a Dell Dimension 8300 running XP Home SP1. 2.8Ghz with 512MB RAM. I have switched out the RAM with a known good strip but still getting same error. I can boot up in Safe Mode but when I try to boot normally, it crashes just after login. Any ideas?

[Rockn]

Did you install anything recently like software prior to the problem? If it will boot to safe mode and not Windows without error it could be a startup process or a hardware driver.

The BSOD normally has some information in it that will point you in the right direction.

[Lexsar]

Originally Posted by Rockn

Did you install anything recently like software prior to the problem? If it will boot to safe mode and not Windows without error it could be a startup process or a hardware driver.

The BSOD normally has some information in it that will point you in the right direction.

This is actually not my PC. I was told that there was nothing new installed, software or hardware. They didn't even know if it would boot into Safe Mode.

I did reseat the video card, modem and soundcard when I was switching around the RAM, but still get BSOD when trying to boot into Normal Mode. It gets to the login screen, when you click on an account name, it logs into the desktop but then crashes.

The BSOD message is rather general, doesn't really give any info to go on...

[Rollin' Rog]

I can run a debugging utility on the dump files if you do this:

1 > create a new folder on the desktop and call it "dumpcheck" or whatever you like
2 > navigate to %systemroot%\minidump and copy the last few minidump files to that folder.%systemroot% is normally c:\windows. They are numbered by date. You can paste that address in address bar to get there.
3 > close the folder and right click on it and select Send to Compressed (zipped) Folder. Please do NOT compress them in .rar
4 > use the "manage attachments" in the "advanced" reply window to upload that zip file here as an attachment.

This might point us to a 3rd party driver causing the error, if one exists for it.

Since almost all bugchecks can be caused by faulty ram, I would recommend you perform memory tests.

Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Memory

Windows Memory Diagnostic
Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory

[Lexsar]

Originally Posted by Rollin' Rog

I can run a debugging utility on the dump files if you do this:

1 > create a new folder on the desktop and call it "dumpcheck" or whatever you like
2 > navigate to %systemroot%\minidump and copy the last few minidump files to that folder.%systemroot% is normally c:\windows. They are numbered by date. You can paste that address in address bar to get there.
3 > close the folder and right click on it and select Send to Compressed (zipped) Folder. Please do NOT compress them in .rar
4 > use the "manage attachments" in the "advanced" reply window to upload that zip file here as an attachment.

This might point us to a 3rd party driver causing the error, if one exists for it.

Since almost all bugchecks can be caused by faulty ram, I would recommend you perform memory tests.

Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Memory

Windows Memory Diagnostic
Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory

I'll work on posting those dump files. BTW; I not only swapped around RAM within the machine, I also took it all out and tried starting it with a brand new strip of 512MB that I had on hand, still BSOD...

[Lexsar]

Rollin' Rog; I have attached a zip file called Dumpcheck.zip to this posting containing the last dumpfiles from today and yesterday. Let me know what you think. THANKS!

[Rollin' Rog]

Wow, that's a lot of crashes for 2 days. I've looked at a bunch of them and most are of the "unknown image" variety. Others are core drivers that suggest an underlying hardware problem.

It could be overheating, bad drive, bad cpu, bad ram (I know you've shuffled them around), or a bad PCI card. If you have any PCI cards you can remove (sound card?), I'd do that..

I don't think your Dell desktop has any support for temperature monitoring but verify the fan is working atleast and make sure it is clean.

Also, I'd run eventvwr.msc and look at the System log and see if you have any "disk" errors there indicating bad blocks.


Have a look at the motherboard and see if you can spot any "bad caps":

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

Make a software tester for the ram, boot with it, and test that anyway.

[richard94]

Try installing another copy of XP. If this copy works then it is a software problem. If not, it is a hardware problem.

[Lexsar]

Originally Posted by Rollin' Rog

Wow, that's a lot of crashes for 2 days. I've looked at a bunch of them and most are of the "unknown image" variety. Others are core drivers that suggest an underlying hardware problem.

It could be overheating, bad drive, bad cpu, bad ram (I know you've shuffled them around), or a bad PCI card. If you have any PCI cards you can remove (sound card?), I'd do that..

I don't think your Dell desktop has any support for temperature monitoring but verify the fan is working atleast and make sure it is clean.

Also, I'd run eventvwr.msc and look at the System log and see if you have any "disk" errors there indicating bad blocks.


Have a look at the motherboard and see if you can spot any "bad caps":

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

Make a software tester for the ram, boot with it, and test that anyway.

I did start memtest86 and ran it all night with no errors on the original memory. I took a quick look at the motherboard and saw no issues there but I'll look at more closely. The CPU fan does run, I verified that. The inside of the case does not look terribly dusty, CPU cooling fins are very clean.

I'll run that eventvwr.msc as soon as I get a chance and report back. THANKS!

[Rollin' Rog]

Although the bugchecks don't look like a software problem, since you can boot in Safe Mode -- try a "clean boot" in normal mode:

CLEAN BOOT TROUBLESHOOTING technique XP

First, restart in Safe Mode (tap the f8 key promptly on startup and choose the Safe Mode option from the boot menu).

In Safe Mode –

Run msconfig and select the "Services" tab. Check "Hide Microsoft Services" and then disable the rest. Also uncheck "load startup group" on the general page.

See this link for detailed information:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;310353

Now restart and test the issue at hand

If no problems, run msconfig and recheck half the disabled items on the Services tab. Test again. If the problem recurs, UNcheck half the items you just checked to narrow down the culprit.

If the problem didn't occur, check the other half, so all the Services are enabled -- proceed to do this on the startup tab as well.

Get the idea? You want to isolate the problem to a specific startup if possible.

Note: if you already have items unchecked under msconfig > startups and are in “selective” startup mode – you should note what these are before beginning. They will need to be de-selected again.

[Lexsar]

Originally Posted by Rollin' Rog

...In Safe Mode –

Run msconfig and select the "Services" tab. Check "Hide Microsoft Services" and then disable the rest. Also uncheck "load startup group" on the general page.

Now restart and test the issue at hand

If no problems, run msconfig and recheck half the disabled items on the Services tab. Test again. If the problem recurs, UNcheck half the items you just checked to narrow down the culprit.

I first tried another known good video card just in case that was the culprit but still same BSOD.

I went into msconfig in safe mode and did as you suggested above. Tried booting into normal mode, same BSOD.

[Rollin' Rog]

Is there a sound card installed on this system?

Although the bugchecks did not identify the error as occuring in a known module -- I did note the error address was nestled among sound drivers.

I'd pull all the PCI cards not required for booting.