Hardware Malfunction

[Sean Kelly]

I am running XP home edition on a Pentium III, 600 MHZ,
with 384 Megs of memory. The system constantly crashes
with the message "Hardware Malfunction, you system has
halted"

I have updated the drivers on all the hardware devices:
ASUS V8170 DDR Graphics Card
Sound Blaster 128 PCI Audio Card
Intel CC820 Mother Board
etc, etc, etc.

This never happens on start-up, only when running an
application, and it can be any application!

Any help would be appreciated..as I have tried everything
I can think of at this point in time!

Sean

 

[PaulM]

Hardware Malfunction Results in System Error Message
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];315223

 

[Bob Day]

1. Make sure your CPU and case temperatures are OK.

2. Shut down your computer and turn off power at the
surge protector or unplug it. Take the standard
protections against static electricity.

3. Open up your computer and dust it out. Make sure
all your CPU and case fans are working.

4. Reseat all the modules and cables inside your computer.

5. Do a hardware reset of your CMOS and set up your
BIOS again.

6. Run a full set of hardware diagnostics. ("diag378.exe",
downloadable from ftp://ftp1.dell.com/diags, after a few
complains, will run on most non-Dell computers.)
You should get zero errors.

7. Run "memtest86" (download from http://www.memtest86.com)
to thoroughly check out your memory. You should get
zero errors.

-- Bob Day