winxp stop error. please help before i throw my rig outta window!

Yes I google and got lots of stuff - but it doesn't tie in.

Since I first put together my current main rig about 6 months ago, i've been getting a Windows Stop error, about once a month. But lately its becoming more and more frequent and today I can't even get into Windows. It is the same error codes each time.



Sorry about the size, but my laptop has no image edit facility.

various websites report that it is caused by a faulty device driver/faulty hardware or dodgy memory. MS KB articles point to memory and device drivers. So taking out cards one by one till only vid is left didn't solve. Swapping in a different vid card didn't fix either. Changing memory dim pairs nope. Reinstall windows twice. Nope. Also tried different/older drivers for hardware. Tested different bios settigs inc 'Fail Safe Defaults' and 'Optimised defaults'

MS also suggested to download and run a memory tester which I did and left running for five hours last night. No errors found at all.

MS also suggest to download and run a kernal debugger which I have done but there are no files in C:\windows\minidump - its empty! How can I get the dumps? (and don't say immodium!)

Please help!!!!!

Hardware specs in sig, expanding:
P4E Prescott 3.2 @ 3.2 (I have sorted temps now - 48 idle)
2GB 4x Crucial 184 pin dimm 64mx64 ddr 3200 unbuff np cl3
Video Connect3D Radeon 9800Pro and Asus Geforce Fx 5200 and Hercules Geforce 2 MX 400
Maxtor Diamondmax9 sata 80GB (all other drives currently unplugged)


Please?

Almost every time this has happened to me, it is memory. It also could be a failing HD, is your pagefile on the C drive? I would start running with one stick of memory then move up to 2, then 3 and so on. I would also download memtest and run that. Is this happening at stock speeds or are you OC'd?

When I first assembled I had a Fujitsu ATA66 drive, and it crashed on that one. Later I upgraded to a sata one and still crashed. Everything is at stock speeds, memory timings are at the moment conntrolled by SPD.

I'll try changing memory out like you suggested.

I tried each dim in slot on by itself, then one dim in different slots, pc crashed on each slot.

So either its not the mem or I have somehow ended up with four bad dims (from 2 suppiers).

Sometimes I can run seti or prime for hours on end, day after day, other times like today i click on start and it crashes, ...or even move the mouse a little... then be it'l fine for half hour then crash again. then it could be ok for a few days... its just too random.

I forgot to mention that its XP Pro on SP2, all Windows updates installed.

have you looked at your psu rails to see if there is a serious flux? also did you try diff RAM chips altogether. If you do not have diff ram then maybe try loosening the timings.

I used to get these and 0x00000077 (KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR) errors randomly as well. I'm almost positive that it was because I was drawing too much power from my PSU, which would make the machine crash. I can't say for certian since I've only had my new PSU for a few days, but I have yet to recieve a 0x00000077 when I heavily load my system (on my old PSU, defragging both drives at once garunteed this error ), and so would assume that the 0x000000C2 error is fixed as well (I never could find a way to trigger it so I can be certian -- it happened much more randomly than the other one, though usually in the same kinds of circumstances).

You seem to have a fairly beefy PSU, but if it's from a bad company, it might not be powerful enough and could be the source of your problems. If you can find a more powerful PSU try that, or if you can't, try running a second PSU just to power your HD and CD drives.

JigPu

Timings are already at 3-8-3-3, wont get any looser!

I tried to calculate the combined power as discussed in the PSU thread, but im no mathmatician or electrician.

Written on the side is
+3.3_____+5_____+12_____-5_____-12_____+5VSB
28A______35A____30A_____0.5A___0.8A____2.5A

Its made by COLORsit (no i've not heard of them either).

Its powering 2 sata drives, 1 pata, 1 iomega zip 100, 1 travan 20, one cdr/dvd +rw and a floppy but i've had the problem with the minimum amount of devices/cards plugged in. I also had the problem with my last psu, a 400W Zalman unit - which I thought was causing the poblem by being under powered. It was def kicking out lots of heat under load.


MBM5 reports (when I eventually got windows running)


How does that look? I have no idea between a what and a watt, im no electrician!

You should maybe just reformat the HDD and reinstall Windows XP, because ***STOP: 0x000000C2 BAD_POOL_CALLER , according to Microsoft is probably because of buggy software.

Reguarding RAM, the above BSOD is probably NOT caused by a RAM malfunction.

If you have a RAM problem, you probably would get the following mentioned BSODs instead:

***STOP: 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA

--or--

***STOP: 0x0000004E PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

Reinstalled windows with no hardware plugged in (apart from vid and hdd oviously), and seemed stable, slowly added hardware and tested. All was going well unitil I installed the final card (SoundBlaster Audigy) and installed drivers then the problem came back. Took the card out and the problem is still there. Formatted again and left out the Aud, and touch wood it's been ok for a day now!

It must be the drivers because this card works in my other pc. Used drivers on cd that came with and drivers downloaded from creative...?

Thanks for your help everyone, Hopefully this is fixed now...

just one more problem to sort out (but i'll save that for later!)

Cheers