BSOD

[ElJerid]

From this morning, while booting into XP,one of my PC's shows a bsod with
the message "Page Fault in nonpaged area", Technical info: stop: 0x00000050
....
I can go into the Bios, but booting in safe mode is failing with same
message.
I tried to repair XP by booting from XP CD, but after restart, same message.
I changed RAM and video card, same result.

Next step should be to reinstall XP, but because this is a hell of a job, I
would like to know if there is a way to be sure if the problem is hardware
or software related.

Thanks for help.

 

[Gerard Bok]

From this morning, while booting into XP,one of my PC's shows a bsod with
the message "Page Fault in nonpaged area", Technical info: stop: 0x00000050
...
I can go into the Bios, but booting in safe mode is failing with same
message.
I tried to repair XP by booting from XP CD, but after restart, same message.
I changed RAM and video card, same result.

Next step should be to reinstall XP, but because this is a hell of a job, I
would like to know if there is a way to be sure if the problem is hardware
or software related.

The most practical way to do this is to run your entire machine
without the use of the installed software.
Your options --using freeware-- are:
Knoppix (http://knoppix.net/) or
BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/)

If at least one of those runs fine, you have Windows to blame.
If they both fail, look for bad hardware.

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

From this morning, while booting into XP,one of my PC's shows a bsod
with the message "Page Fault in nonpaged area", Technical info:
stop: 0x00000050 ...
I can go into the Bios, but booting in safe mode is failing with
same message.
I tried to repair XP by booting from XP CD, but after restart, same
message.
I changed RAM and video card, same result.

Next step should be to reinstall XP, but because this is a hell of a
job, I would like to know if there is a way to be sure if the
problem is hardware or software related.

http://www.updatexp.com/stop-messages.html

Use a memory tester to check your system RAM. Also, make sure that
you are not overclocking.

 

[ShafferTech]

in message




http://www.updatexp.com/stop-messages.html

Use a memory tester to check your system RAM.  Also, make sure that
you are not overclocking.

If all else fails, and you have access to another computer, try using
the UBCD. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ download the iso, burn it,
then boot from it. It has tons of diagnostic tools from Memtest to HD
Fitness Test to CPU Burn in.

 

[AdenOne]

Memory - you get this error if there is a problem or if using many
sticks of differing sizes or speeds. Memory errors are the only time i
have seen that error. Try using one stick at a time, to find which one
is at fault, or borrow \ buy a new stick and try that.

 

[kony]

From this morning, while booting into XP,one of my PC's shows a bsod with
the message "Page Fault in nonpaged area", Technical info: stop: 0x00000050
...
I can go into the Bios, but booting in safe mode is failing with same
message.
I tried to repair XP by booting from XP CD, but after restart, same message.
I changed RAM and video card, same result.

Next step should be to reinstall XP, but because this is a hell of a job, I
would like to know if there is a way to be sure if the problem is hardware
or software related.

Thanks for help.

As others mentioned try running an alternate "live" OS, and
boot/run memtest86+ to test the memory.

It seems more likely a software problem but I would also
check hardware using software, drivers, things like the
video card fan. The curious part is when such a problem
starts with no other changes to the system (or were there
some you haven't mentioned yet?), though even something
seemingly innocent like defragging the hard drive can cause
file corruption if the memory has errors.

You didn't tell us much about the hardware, only software
with this being a hardware group. You might add details of
the hardware and also post this to a WinXP newsgroup.

 

[Rookie]

As others mentioned try running an alternate "live" OS, and
boot/run memtest86+ to test the memory.

It seems more likely a software problem but I would also
check hardware using software, drivers, things like the
video card fan. The curious part is when such a problem
starts with no other changes to the system (or were there
some you haven't mentioned yet?), though even something
seemingly innocent like defragging the hard drive can cause
file corruption if the memory has errors.

You didn't tell us much about the hardware, only software
with this being a hardware group. You might add details of
the hardware and also post this to a WinXP newsgroup.

So far I have experienced bsod due to video ram being faulty and system
ram being faulty. The problem with system ram is that you may get bsod
and all kinds of problems, and at the same time having memtest86+ show no
errors at all.

IMO, memtest will show an error only if the memory stick has some serious
flaws. IOW, you may have faulty ram and still have memtest run
successfully.

 

[ElJerid]

Thanks to all for the suggestions.
I think the follow up could be interesting for many of us...
After trying many of them without succes, I decided to check the HD
partitions and booted from Partition Magic floppies. My partitions were
present and still had my partition names, but all the partition letters had
disappeared !
I then rebooted from Win 98 diskettes in order to repair the MBR. After
that, the partition letters were visible again, but booting from the HD into
Win XP was still impossible.
Finally, I made a new installation of XP on another disk and connected the
problem unit as slave. This allowed me to see the disk completely and I
realised that my personal user folder in Documents and Settings was
completely empty!!!. This had the smell of a virus... but my PC was
protected with Avast pro, ZoneAlarm and a hardware firewall...
I made a complete disk scan with Symantec, AVG, Avast, Spybot, Sophos
Rootkit, Spyhunter, AdAware. No viruses found. Finally I did a scan with the
Webroot Free Antispyware and Virus scanner.
A huge collection of registry entries, dll's, exe's and more were found and
they all seemed to be related to Virtumonde. They could also be deleted.
Needless to say that I preferred to format the disk.
The evident conclusion is that we are never protected. The value of any
security software changes permanently, and it's a good idea to do regular
scans with different softwares.

 

[Gerard Bok]

Finally, I made a new installation of XP on another disk and connected the
problem unit as slave. This allowed me to see the disk completely and I
realised that my personal user folder in Documents and Settings was
completely empty!!!.

As it should be. You made a fresh intallation. With new users.
And as the installation was fresh, D & S for that 'new user'
should be (almost) empty.
Please note, that although you may provide the very same
credentials, Windows will never ever identify you as 'the same
old user from a previous install'. Unless you violate the Genuine
Advantage rules, that is

Using the proper procedure, chances are that your old data is
still present. And retreivable.

The evident conclusion is that we are never protected. The value of any
security software changes permanently, and it's a good idea to do regular
scans with different softwares.

I don't deny that one

 

[ElJerid]

As it should be. You made a fresh intallation. With new users.
And as the installation was fresh, D & S for that 'new user'
should be (almost) empty.
Please note, that although you may provide the very same
credentials, Windows will never ever identify you as 'the same
old user from a previous install'. Unless you violate the Genuine
Advantage rules, that is

Using the proper procedure, chances are that your old data is
still present. And retreivable.

No, it should not be ! The fresh install was on another disk, as written
above, and this allowed me to see the problem disk, where the my personal
user folder was empty!