Dell Dimension crashes a lot

[Gregg Hill]

Hello!

I have a friend whose Dell Dimension 4600 crashes a lot and varies between
the following STOP errors.

STOP 0x0000004E (0x00000099,0x00012082,0x00000003,0x00000000)
PFN_List_Corrupt

STOP 0x0000000A (0xFFE0F9C0,0x000000FF,0x00000001,0x804E2GD0)

STOP 0x0000008E (0xC000001D, 0x804E1345, 0xF8B13D94, 0x00000000)

It also does not wake up when in standby mode. She has to hold in the power
button. Tapping the power button does not wake it up, nor does keyboard or
mouse input. I have downloaded and run Dell's diagnostics and Microsoft's
RAM tester. All tests pass. I have updated all drivers and BIOS to latest
versions, I have also re-installed XP Home SP2.

Temporarily removing the antivirus software does not help. She has a
keystroke-logger installed (I am Big Brother) and I am wondering if that
could be the problem. I asked her to remove it, but I was wondering if
keystroke-loggers can stop a system from waking up.

Software is:
XP Home SP2
All critical updates
Norton Antivirus 2005, fully updated (also does it with it removed)
AOL 9
Office 2003
I am Big Brother keystroke logger (15 year old daughter...gotta be careful!)

System has 512MB RAM.

Thanks for the help!

Gregg Hill

 

[Alias]

Norton Antivirus 2005, fully updated (also does it with it removed)
AOL 9

No wonder you're having problems. Reinstall, and don't put either Norton or
AOL on the machine, both are pieces of sh*t.

Alias

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

This was written for Win2000, but the problem and solutions are the same:

How to Troubleshoot a "STOP 0x0000004E PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" Error Message
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291806

One of the possibilities is bad or failing ram. If you want to check the
memory, there are free programs here:

http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Gregg Hill]

Alias,

Your solution is, well, not one. I have Norton Antivirus 2001 through 2005
on dozens of computers with no problems at all. Second, the client is a home
user and has AOL for their service, always has had it, and does not want to
change. Their previous computer had both NAV and AOL and did not crash.

I was looking for constructive input, not the typical "it's sh*t" cop-out.
Thanks anyway!

Gregg Hill

 

[Gregg Hill]

Rick,

Thank you for your response. I had already been through that article and
when the RAM was tested with Microsoft's RAM tester, it passed even the
extended tests when run for an hour. Most bad RAM I have seen is usually
pegged within a few minutes by the MS tester.

I finally got off a long tech support call with India...I mean Dell...and
they still refuse to believe it is their equipment. A friend of mine had the
same type of problem, re-installed OS, etc, to no avail. He finally got Dell
to replace the unit and has not had a problem since, even with the same
software re-loaded.

I will go to her house again next week and have Dell call me "to do some
troubleshooting."

Gregg Hill

 

[Alias]

Alias,

Your solution is, well, not one. I have Norton Antivirus 2001 through 2005
on dozens of computers with no problems at all.

So you think.

Second, the client is a home user and has AOL for their service, always
has had it, and does not want to change.

No wonder their computer is messed up.

Their previous computer had both NAV and AOL and did not crash.

Crashing isn't the only problem that can occur with AOSmell and/or Norton
malware installed ...

I was looking for constructive input, not the typical "it's sh*t" cop-out.
Thanks anyway!

Gregg Hill

Anytime and I stand by my statements. You need to rid the computer of
malware (AOL and Norton) by reinstalling XP, using a real ISP, a real Anti
Virus and Firewall.

That said, you obviously only want help on your conditions so I will not try
any longer.

Alias

 

[Gregg Hill]

Alias,

"So you think" tells me that you would not believe me no matter what is
said. You are obviously always right and the dozens of users I know who have
one or both of the products are obviously just misinformed that their
computers run flawlessly. Apparently, their lack of crashing, lack of
slowness, no general system instability, all those things are signs that
their "malware" is of course causing problems, but those problems are so
well hidden that they never show up as any system problem. What a ludicrous
statement you made.

Of course crashing is not the only problem, but it is the problem here.
Proof of the matter is that the person about whom I posted had NO trouble
with crashing on their old system. They upgraded because their old system
would not run Office 2003 and only had 128MB of RAM.Yes, I have seen
problems with AOL, but this system is the same as the last one except for
the hardware and OS, (last one was a clone with 98). The shiny Dell should
be more stable, not less.

I did not ask for help on my conditions, I asked for constructive help. Your
blanket implication that AOL and Norton are the reason for all the world's
problem is ridiculous, especially in light of the fact that the previous
system had the same software and ran just fine.

I dislike Amateurs On Line as much as anybody (especially version 8...now
that was CRAP), but I am not foolish enough to ignore the fact that it is
not always the cause of the concern.

Who would be the makers of this "real" software your recommend? Maybe I
should just tell her to use a "real" operating system, too.

Gregg Hill

 

[Gerry]

Hi, Gregg, I too have been a user of AOL and Norton Internet Security for
the past 10 years and not having any problems with either.
The only twist came with installing SP 2 and not being compatible with the
Easy CD Creator 4 & Direct CD. After switching to Sonic's DLA everything is
super.
Gerry

Alias,

"So you think" tells me that you would not believe me no matter what is
said. You are obviously always right and the dozens of users I know who
have one or both of the products are obviously just misinformed that their
computers run flawlessly. Apparently, their lack of crashing, lack of
slowness, no general system instability, all those things are signs that
their "malware" is of course causing problems, but those problems are so
well hidden that they never show up as any system problem. What a
ludicrous statement you made.

Of course crashing is not the only problem, but it is the problem here.
Proof of the matter is that the person about whom I posted had NO trouble
with crashing on their old system. They upgraded because their old system
would not run Office 2003 and only had 128MB of RAM.Yes, I have seen
problems with AOL, but this system is the same as the last one except for
the hardware and OS, (last one was a clone with 98). The shiny Dell should
be more stable, not less.

I did not ask for help on my conditions, I asked for constructive help.
Your blanket implication that AOL and Norton are the reason for all the
world's problem is ridiculous, especially in light of the fact that the
previous system had the same software and ran just fine.

I dislike Amateurs On Line as much as anybody (especially version 8...now
that was CRAP), but I am not foolish enough to ignore the fact that it is
not always the cause of the concern.

Who would be the makers of this "real" software your recommend? Maybe I
should just tell her to use a "real" operating system, too.

Gregg Hill

Alias,

Your solution is, well, not one. I have Norton Antivirus 2001 through
2005 on dozens of computers with no problems at all.

So you think.

Second, the client is a home user and has AOL for their service, always
has had it, and does not want to change.

No wonder their computer is messed up.

Their previous computer had both NAV and AOL and did not crash.

Crashing isn't the only problem that can occur with AOSmell and/or Norton
malware installed ...

I was looking for constructive input, not the typical "it's sh*t"
cop-out. Thanks anyway!

Gregg Hill

Anytime and I stand by my statements. You need to rid the computer of
malware (AOL and Norton) by reinstalling XP, using a real ISP, a real
Anti
Virus and Firewall.

That said, you obviously only want help on your conditions so I will not
try
any longer.

Alias

"Alias" <aka@[notme]maskedandanonymous.org> wrote

Norton Antivirus 2005, fully updated (also does it with it removed)
AOL 9

No wonder you're having problems. Reinstall, and don't put either
Norton or AOL on the machine, both are pieces of sh*t.

Alias

 

[Ed]

See if this helps.....

STOP 0x0000004E (0x00000099,0x00012082,0x00000003,0x00000000)
PFN_List_Corrupt

0x0000004E: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
This indicates that the memory management Page File Number list is
corrupted. Can be caused by corrupt physical RAM, or by drivers
passing bad memory descriptor lists.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/w2kmsgs/439.asp

STOP 0x0000000A (0xFFE0F9C0,0x000000FF,0x00000001,0x804E2GD0)

0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or
software. Use the General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages checklist
above. Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode
process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did
not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL)
that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other
processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmd_stp_hwpg.asp

STOP 0x0000008E (0xC000001D, 0x804E1345, 0xF8B13D94, 0x00000000)

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler
didn’t catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues
(which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d..._12795dee-19a9-4461-a135-bbb882b81455.xml.asp



Regards,
Ed

 

[Gregg Hill]

Gerry,

Thanks for the tip!

Gregg

Hi, Gregg, I too have been a user of AOL and Norton Internet Security for
the past 10 years and not having any problems with either.
The only twist came with installing SP 2 and not being compatible with the
Easy CD Creator 4 & Direct CD. After switching to Sonic's DLA everything
is super.
Gerry

 

[Gregg Hill]

Status update:

After running several memory testers, including Memtest-86 v3.2 and
Microsoft's Windiag, I still came up with nothing. I installed WinDbg and
looked at all 122 memory dumps and most pointed to hardware. I ran
Memtest-86 again last night for two hours without a failure, then let it run
overnight. I looked this morning and it had 10 RAM failures. Dell is sending
out new RAM.

Gregg Hill