Blue Screen problems

[husky86]

I’m running XP Pro (SP 3) on a AMD-based laptop (2 GB RAM).

XP is crashing at least once a day. However, instead of providing me with
the standard “blue screen of death,†the blue screen does appear, but just
briefly (a couple of seconds). Thereafter, the computer restarts.

When it gets to the desktop it displays an error message saying that
“Windows cannot find ‘http://oca.microsoft.com/resredir.aspx………’â€

The actual error message/link is quite long. As you know, oca.microsoft.com
is Microsoft’s error messaging control center.

Under such circumstances, what is the best way that I can begin to determine
what is actually responsible for causing these repeated crashes?

 

[brandon dub]

to see more details opn the "run" dialog by either:
1. win key + r
2. start > run
type this into it: eventvwr.msc

or
3. copy this into the addresbar of an open window:
%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s

once it launches look around for the culprit. You can get more info on
errors by double clicking them, on the proprty page youll see a link for
'more help'.

Youll see error codes which you can look up on the internet or download this
utility (like a chm/help file) from here:
http://gregorybraun.com/MSWinErr.html

or just post back some error codes here and Ill help you out.



once it launches

 

[ManyBeers]

I’m running XP Pro (SP 3) on a AMD-based laptop (2 GB RAM).

XP is crashing at least once a day. However, instead of providing me with
the standard “blue screen of death,†the blue screen does appear, but just
briefly (a couple of seconds). Thereafter, the computer restarts.

When it gets to the desktop it displays an error message saying that
“Windows cannot find ‘http://oca.microsoft.com/resredir.aspx………’â€

The actual error message/link is quite long. As you know, oca.microsoft.com
is Microsoft’s error messaging control center.

Under such circumstances, what is the best way that I can begin to determine
what is actually responsible for causing these repeated crashes?

Well I can't help you with diagnosing your crashes butI can tell you how to
stop the autorebooting. Right-click My Computer select the Advanced tab in
the Startup and Recovery area click Settings
and in the new dialog box uncheck "Automatically Restart".

 

[Ronaldo]

Go to Control Panel \ System \ Advanced Options \ Start and Recovery \
Settings \ System Error \ uncheck Auto Restart... The next time you get the
blue screen, the computer will not restart and instead will give a message
with error number that you can use to search for specific information.
Also select the 64KB memory dump size for the debugger information...

 

[brandon dub]

well thanks for coming out "many beers"!!

the guy already said "When it (loads) to the desktop.." which means its
booting just fine but if that WAS what was happening then hed have to disable
it by pressing F8 before the windows boot screen appears and select 'turn off
auto reboot'.

regardless of how badly placed it is still good advice, everyone should have
that "off" by default.

 

[brandon dub]

crap it wasnt my intention to rip on you, you reminded me that I forgot to
mention that windows bsod errors are usually reported in
C:\ (root) or
C:\windows (%windir%)
as a log file (.LOG). you might be able to see the error there if you cant
reproduce a BSOD.

sorry for the spam

 

[nass]

I’m running XP Pro (SP 3) on a AMD-based laptop (2 GB RAM).

XP is crashing at least once a day. However, instead of providing me with
the standard “blue screen of death,†the blue screen does appear, but just
briefly (a couple of seconds). Thereafter, the computer restarts.

When it gets to the desktop it displays an error message saying that
“Windows cannot find ‘http://oca.microsoft.com/resredir.aspx………’â€

The actual error message/link is quite long. As you know, oca.microsoft.com
is Microsoft’s error messaging control center.

Under such circumstances, what is the best way that I can begin to determine
what is actually responsible for causing these repeated crashes?

Read this post and let us know your Event Viewer error log.
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...5dc71973d43c&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1

Open a Notepad, customize or minimize to the taskbar as you will need it
later for this step to copy the error message on it.
Open a run command and type in:
eventvwr.msc click [OK] you will get the Event viewer control Panel.
click on each of these:
Application
System
Security
Look in the right Pane/window for error message with red (X) or Yellow
exclamation mark /!\ , double click each one to get more info about the
causer.
On the Event error properties message you will see:
Up Arrow
Down arrow
Two pages
Click on the two pages to copy the error message then bring up the Notepad
you opened earlier and right click on the first line and select Paste from
the list, this will paste the error message on a Notepad.
Please don't duplicate the error message one of each kind will be sufficient.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Please we need just the error messages with Red (X) and don't repeat the
error, just one of each kind and post them back in your next post.

HTH,
nass

 

[John John (MVP)]

Why was the advice badly placed? It was completely appropriate for the
OP's problem.

John

 

[brandon dub]

It was properly placed, It was my fault for not notticing Husky86 saying "the
computer restarts".

To Husky:
Check the %SystemRoot%\Minidump directory (or whatever it says in the system
dialog Ronaldo mentioned)

Use debugging tools to view the mini.dmp file

How to read the memory dump files
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q315263

 

[husky86]

Thanks very much for everyone's assistance on this! Much appreciated!

I was able to determine from the XP reporting that it was the graphics card
driver that was causing the problem. I have updated the latest drivers (ATI)
and it seems to have solved the problem.

If I experience any more problems with this issue I will be sure to report
them here on this post.

Thanks again!