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BSOD on startup

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8 replies

by mayuresh

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Hi ppl

I've been having this problem with 2k and XP for sometime now, and i can't seem to figure out what seems to be the problem.

When i boot my comp, 2k/xp just locks up and dislays a blue screen with:
Hardware Malfunction
Pls contact ur...blah
The system has halted

THis happens quite early in the 2k/xp boot up sequence. This however does sometimes go away if i boot to Me, drive my ducati around silverstone and then return to boot into 2k/xp. :)

My comp is a Celeron 366 with 128 sdram, a sis agp card and an ess soundcard and a 40gig hdd.
No lancard, modem etc.

I currently have 3 os's set.
Me, 2k and red hat. I'm using xosl as my boot loader.
All other os's like Me, Linux run without a probelm. Ndd does not report any Disk errors. I tried a few memory tests, and they all were fine.I'm using the default drivers for my display and sound.
It's only 2k and Xp which have a problem.

Any ideas why? I've done multiple reinstalls etc etc...
no luck.

Your help much apppreciated.

Mayuresh

8 replies

by dmiles

Could be a hardware driver problem that maybe accessing memory at startup,check the details of the BSOD and it will point out the cause for the stop message
1)Check for hardware conflicts
2)See if the video card is compatible
3)You may have memory accessing problem during startup
Check to make sure you have updated drivers for hardware

by mayuresh

Hi Soulrider.

Thank you for your reply.
I will be looking up for upgraded drivers for all my hardware.
Also, how do i look up a BSOD's details. Is there a file dump etc.

mayuresh

by timthetoolman

Hi,

Due to the fact it happens so early in the boot, I'd say 2K was still doing its hardware detection phase.

I reckon its a combination of a timing problem and the actual method the 2K uses to do the device detection (as opposed to 98 or Linux)

A motherboard BIOS update may help but you've probably already looked at this.

Check your BIOS settings for things like "Quick Boot" and disable it. Let the BIOS do as much hardware checking as it can...at least it may give you more information.

My motherboard has an Clear NVRAM setting (clears the Extended System Configuration Data) which is where the BIOS stores its information about the PnP devices you have. Setting it to yes forces the boot to reload this information.

It also has a "PnP aware OS" setting that appropriately can be set to cause the BIOS to initialise all the devices at boot (rather than just the ones it needs to boot with).

Are you overclocked? You could also try reducing the clock rate to "normal" and see if that makes a difference.

Cheers,
Tim.

by mayuresh

Hi Tim.

Well first I better clear up a kinda important thing that i should have mentioned earlier, but forgot.
I get this BSOD either very early in the boot process(happens in 2k and XP) or i get it when i've logged in and working normally (happens mostly in XP)
Once i noticed that i kept getting this error when i was opening a specific image in Photoshop. Happened thrice. All 3 times i had to hit the restart button. Any other image opened fine.
Also, this one time when i was trying to access something in my settings folder, i kept getting the bsod. Happened twice or thrice and then went away. All these problems are more prominient with XP. 2k mostly does not give these kinda problems once logged on.

Also I will try and get updated drivers for my bios, as well as my hardware but i doubt if my prehistoric bios is still supported. I hav'nt overclocked my processor and i'll also try out those other bios changes that you have suggested.

Thanks again.
I will post shortly on how these changes work out.

mayuresh

by timthetoolman

Hi Mayuresh,

Yep, with the extra info, it sounds much more likely to be a driver or firmware issue. Win2K and WinXP have very similar drivers.

I hope you can find updated drivers for your "prehistoric" components! :-)

Cheers,
Tim.

by mayuresh

Hi..

The driver update did solve the problem for 1 week. But now it's again raised it's ugly head. I get atleast 1 BSOD a day on startup and even of i leave my comp locked for 15 minutes, i come back and it's a BSOD :(

Any more suggestions.

Mayuresh

by timthetoolman

Hi Mayuresh,

I think the first thing to decide once and for all is whether its hardware or software related...

Has Linux ever crashed? Do you use it much? Could you try to leave it on with Linux running one evening for a few hours if you dont use it much?

I'd also download a utility to stress your machine - maybe one of those benchmark programs? Memory, disk, video, the whole lot. You should be able to find one at www.tucows.com

I'm now tending to think its hardware related as it happens in both Win2k and WinXP. If it ever happened in WinME or Linux, that would pretty much seal it.

The other thing is... what is the message on the BSOD? Does it mention VxD or VMM or something else?

Cheers,
Tim.

by mayuresh

My winMe and linux run just fine. Me might crash sometime, but mostly it's coz of my impatience.
Memory is not a probelm. 2 memory checking progs returned no problems.
I'll try out my friends new display and sound card. Maybe they are the culprits. I don't think my motherboard is crashing. Just a hunch. I'll give siSoft Sandra a go as well.

Thanks a bunch.
Will keeping posting on how things develop.

mayuresh

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