What is happening?

First off, I hope this is an appropriate section to ask for some technical help. I've been having a slew of problems recently. I think I've had 6 blue screens or so in the past 2 days. And I constantly get benign error dialogs saying Windows Explorer has stopped working and Windows Host Process has stopped working. I can't even go 30 minutes without Counter-Strike crashing, which isn't such a big deal but is definitely irritating. Some Blue Screen's ive been getting...

Stop: 0x0000050 PAGE_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Stop: 0x000001A MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

There has been some others but I'm unsure how to post logs and/or dump files which may help more if someone could explain how to do that you'd probably get more information out of that.

As far as whats causing it I'm bewildered.
My guesses are:
Bad driver Install(s), I thought that when you updated your drivers they would uninstall your old ones until yesterday when i was scanning my computer and I saw it scan the windows/nvidia folder and it was scanning all my past drivers as well. But after I installed the 180.48 drivers a few days ago the problem has gotten worse.

I was suggested by a teacher at my school after I asked her about the problem to scan my computer with a program called housecall because she seemed to think that it was bits and pieces adaware/spyware etc. that were left behind by a program I used to remove them.

My last thought is that its a bad stick of ram. I've always had a fear ever since I completed building my computer that I had a bad stick of ram. I'm not sure why but I believe it's because ever since the first month I've had the computer it seems like it will get a BSOD once a month or so and I've never understood why completely, but it seemed like the BSOD's always pointed to bad memory. Unfortunately I do not know enough about the causes or meanings of BSODs. But naturally when I tried to research what the cause might be the situation of others was always one of they could only boot there computer and use it for about 5 minutes before it was BSOD but my situation was never that severe.

If anyone can I'm desperately need of someone who can help me identify the problem and hopefully provide me with a solution. As I stated somewhat unclearly before I've always had blue screens and other problems.

System Specs: Windows Vista 32bit
Q6600
EVGA 8800gtx
4gb of Ram

Any other information needed please let me know. I have no restore points around the first month or two when I first got this computer which is really unfortunate, So, while restoring is an option I don't think it would have a very big effect. And before it is suggested to just revert back to older Video Card drivers, I've had these sorts of problem forever. And while the problem might be reduced a bit by reverting, I believe there is something else going on. Thank you to all who read this novel (Sorry about that) hopefully someone can help me, it is getting sorta ridiculous.

First thing is to download memtest, burn it to a cd, boot to that cd, and run it overnight if necessary. You may get errors right away, but if not, run it for at least 8 hours. Sometimes it takes awhile for errors to appear.

Report back with the results and we can go from there...

I can do that. Do I need to download the bootable ISO or the Bootable binary?

bootable .iso then burn it to a disc as a .iso(not data file). I use imgburn for .iso's

Why when i put a blank cd in and select burn a file to disk does it keep asking me to format the disk first...

What are you using to burn the disc?

Do you have DLA???? if so turn it OFF

Don't forget to check for dust in the computer!

I put the disc in select burn files to disc using windows it says prepare disc without thinking about it i hit ok without looking to see that it was Live file system. And judging but what you guys are saying it needs to be Mastered.
Is this correct?

download imgburn and use that to burn the .iso I don't think Vista can burn it properly.It has to be specifically burned as a .iso, or it won't be bootable.

This looks exactly like either a RAM or HDD problem. I would first run the RAM diagnostic like suggested - instructions are below.

If that comes back without any errors, you'll then want to run a HDD diagnostic from your HDD manufacturers website.

If you are overclocked revert to default settings and confirm you don't have any problems at default, then tweak your settings to a point where they seem more stable - overclocks that aren't stable can have these same symptoms. If you aren't overclocked, its likely failing hardware which one of the tests above should resolve. Let us know where you get, or let us know if you have trouble doing what is suggested.

Colton H said:

I put the disc in select burn files to disc using windows it says prepare disc without thinking about it i hit ok without looking to see that it was Live file system. And judging but what you guys are saying it needs to be Mastered.
Is this correct?

Click to expand...

You must use an application which supports writing iso's to CD. This is a special kind of burn, different than what the built-in windows burning software is capable of - the built in software can only write files to disc as files, not actually burn an iso IMAGE onto the disc.

I would recommend ImgBurn - its capable of burning an ISO project.

Instructions here:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

Please, please, please, make sure that you're using memtest86+. And responders, please, please, please make sure that you recommend specifically 86+--plain old 86 will NOT function properly on modern hardware.

*&#$*&@#% Windows for not having native ISO-burning facilities built-in.

As always, if you are not yet at stock, please go back to stock and see if problems persist. While you're there, you might want to consider stress-testing your system at stock to verify stability. (And please don't install your OS while you're overclocked.)

Captain Newbie said:

*&#$*&@#% Windows for not having native ISO-burning facilities built-in.

Click to expand...

Cap,

This is why I always have a floopy drive in any computer! Memtest 86+ (v1.70 in my case) fits on it nicely as an ordinary boot disk.

Thank you for all the help you guys. Sorry for my incompetence. Got home today and there was another blue screen. 0x000008E i believe. I will run memtest 86+-- as mentioned I will let you guys know the results.

Colton H said:

Sorry for my incompetence.

Click to expand...

I don't think anyone here was born with all the knowledge it takes to troubleshoot, and operate a computer. There's nothing wrong with not knowing something. We're all here to learn ;^)

Oh my.. I knew it was more than a gut feeling.

There was also two other lines of red hex that most have been moved down or off the screen when these popped up. I have a picture of those two but to be able to upload these images ^, I had to lower the resolution on the camera. The others ones are still in a much higher resolution... much too high for tinypic that is.

Try setting everything back to stock speeds, and rerun memtest. If you get errors again, try boosting your vdimm up by .1V. If that doesn't fix it, I think the ram's just bad, and it's time for a rma, or new ram.

Edit:
Also check each stick individually, and in different slots.

Colton H said:

Oh my.. I knew it was more than a gut feeling.

There was also two other lines of red hex that most have been moved down or off the screen when these popped up. I have a picture of those two but to be able to upload these images ^, I had to lower the resolution on the camera. The others ones are still in a much higher resolution... much too high for tinypic that is.

Click to expand...

Colton,

Are you running Memtest at stock speed or your overclock speed?

I have not overclocked my ram at all.

Is it synchronized with the FSB? I don't remember the multiplier for the E2140. I had an issue I posted in the memory section where 2 slots would run at a faster speed than 4 slots filled would. My fastest speed was still underclocked, but the ram didn't like running like that, so I had to slow it down :^/