Dual-Boot XP-Linux machine keeps crashing

[Hiawatha Bray]

I've just set up SUSE 9 and Win XP SP1 on two separate hard drives. The
Windows drive has a LILO boot loader on it so I can dual-boot.

But ever since setting things up, my Windows installation will simply crash
for no apparent reason. A blue screen with a bunch of text appears, but
vanishes so quickly there's no time to read it. Then it reboots into
Windows, and everything's fine again. I have to remember to save my work
every minute or so for fear I might lose something.

I suspect the SUSE installation caused the problem but I can't be sure. I
can't see why it would have that effect. How can I begin to diagnose this
curious malady? Thanks!

 

[William Hymen]

I've just set up SUSE 9 and Win XP SP1 on two separate hard drives. The
Windows drive has a LILO boot loader on it so I can dual-boot.

But ever since setting things up, my Windows installation will simply crash
for no apparent reason. A blue screen with a bunch of text appears, but
vanishes so quickly there's no time to read it. Then it reboots into
Windows, and everything's fine again. I have to remember to save my work
every minute or so for fear I might lose something.

I suspect the SUSE installation caused the problem but I can't be sure. I
can't see why it would have that effect. How can I begin to diagnose this
curious malady? Thanks!

When you add SuSe to a Windows box, you have to be careful
NOT to touch the c: partition in any way. I recently rebuilt a
training room of 14 pcs to dual boot 2K and SuSe, and I created
the empty non-formated partitions first with disk administrator,
then laid down the suse OS onto these partitions. I chose to
use win2k as the boot manager and added a line to boot.ini using
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm

Hope this helps-

Bill

 

[Hiawatha Bray]

Why would this cause bluescreen crashes? And now that I've done it, what
can I do to fix the problem? Thanks?

 

[jai]

Why would this cause bluescreen crashes? And now that I've done it, what
can I do to fix the problem? Thanks?

You should be able to go into WinXP computer properties (right mouse on My
Computer). You can set it to
not reboot automatically after crash. That will give you a chance to read
the error. Then look it up on MS's TechNet.

Also the system and application logs on WinXp should show something.

I would also try to do a check disk on your C: drive from XP that will fix
and disk errors. Maybe a driver got currupted.

chkdsk C: /F

- jai

 

[Douglas Mayne]

I've just set up SUSE 9 and Win XP SP1 on two separate hard drives. The
Windows drive has a LILO boot loader on it so I can dual-boot.

But ever since setting things up, my Windows installation will simply crash
for no apparent reason. A blue screen with a bunch of text appears, but
vanishes so quickly there's no time to read it. Then it reboots into
Windows, and everything's fine again. I have to remember to save my work
every minute or so for fear I might lose something.

I suspect the SUSE installation caused the problem but I can't be sure. I
can't see why it would have that effect. How can I begin to diagnose this
curious malady? Thanks!

Caveat: I am not running Windows XP.

Does XP crash after the second restart into XP or is it stable from there?
Your statement, "I have to remember to save my work every minute or so for
fear I might lose something." implies more instability than you may be
experiencing. Please, clarify.

If it is stable after an initial crash after booting SuSe, then it
might be a plug-and-play issue.

 

[Darklight]

I get the same problem with xp the way i get around it, is this.
I install win 98 then install suse then i do a upgrade to win xp.
Works every time, but be warned if you first install suse with lilo
then reinstall with grub i found xp will crash hope this helps!!
But if you reinstall with the same boot loader you will get no problems
or you could install the boot loader to floppy disk.

 

[gchris]

I've just set up SUSE 9 and Win XP SP1 on two separate hard drives. The
Windows drive has a LILO boot loader on it so I can dual-boot.

But ever since setting things up, my Windows installation will simply crash
for no apparent reason. A blue screen with a bunch of text appears, but
vanishes so quickly there's no time to read it. Then it reboots into
Windows, and everything's fine again. I have to remember to save my work
every minute or so for fear I might lose something.

I suspect the SUSE installation caused the problem but I can't be sure. I
can't see why it would have that effect. How can I begin to diagnose this
curious malady? Thanks!

If you added a hard drive for SuSe it is possible that the extra power demand
could make your power supply marginal. Also, if a second drive was added,
jumpers on both drives may need to be set. Try unplugging the second drive
and see if windows works normally. If it does, either jumpers or power
is probably the answer.