Help Troubleshooting a Critical Error

[Greg]

I am having a problem with intermitent Critical Error (Blue Scree) and
don't know the best place to start in order to isolate it. I know the
most logical place to start would be the last software or hardware
change, but my problem has manifested during a period after I lost my
hard drive and spent a the better part of a week getting the system up
and running again. I just don't know what software or hardware
introduced the problem.

As I have stated the problem is intermittent and I haven't been able to
nail down a pattern that would lead to it happening. For example last
night the system was operating fine and I turned the monitor off to go
to bed. This morning the Blue Screen was there when I powered up the
monitor. The only thing that runs at night is some backup scripts, but
I ran those scripts manually this morning with no error, and they ran
automatically the night before last with no errors. It has never
happened in the middle of working with an application.

There have been some changes to my system since I restored it from
scratch and where it had run before without a critical error for almost
a year.

1. A new hard drive.
2. I was unable to recover my nearly expired edition of Norton
Internet Security 2005, so I am running Norton Anti-Virus CE (Corporate
Edition) and using the Windows Firewall.
3. I have installed Norton Ghost 9.0 and its required companion
Microsoft.Net 1.1 (I think it is called)
4. When I built the hard drive I set up a small dedicated partition to
serve as the Swap File.

Another possible related issue is (also intermitently) when I shutdown,
I sometimes get a brief error message flashed across the screen "The
application could not run because Windows is shutting down."

I realize that I may be rambling here. If there is any specific
information that I should try to provide to help isolate, please let me
know. Thanks for all the help you provide in these forums.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Could you please post the Stop Code from BSOD?

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Greg]

Will,

Can't at present. The next time the error occurs I will get that
information and post it here.

Thank you very much for your interest and your reply.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

It will be easier if you Disable automatic restart on system failure. This
should help by allowing time to write down the STOP code properly.
Right click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select
Properties, Advanced, StartUp and Recovery, System Failure
and uncheck box before Automatically Restart.

Enable automatic restart on system failure after you have captured /
copied and pasted the message in a further post here.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Greg Maxey]

Gerry,

Yes that is already disabled.

I left the system in the same state this morning when I went to work as it
was in last night when I went to bed. This morning I get up to the BSOD.
This afternoon I come home and everything is still normal. I don't know
when it will occur again, but when it does, I am ready to record the stop
code.

Thanks.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

The earlier error is mostly recorded in a different format in the
System log in Event Viewer.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event
Viewer. Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. This will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report
complete with links into the message. Make sure this is the first paste
after exiting from Event Viewer.



--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Greg Maxey]

Will,

The error occurred just a minute ago while I was clicking around in Windows
Explorer.

Here is the stop code:

Stop: 0X00008086(0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Also I determined that the shutdown error is prevelent if my system has been
running for awhile. The reported error is:

"regedit.exe DLL Initialization Failed The application failed to
initialize because the window station is shutting down."

I find no relevent entry in the event log.

Why would the registry editor attempt to initialize on shutdown?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

Have you investigated a possible virus infection:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Greg Maxey]

Gerry,

No joy. I am running the latest update of Norton AV CE. That key is not in
my registry.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

"Microsoft.Net 1.1 (I think it is called)." If this is what you mean
update to Microsoft® .NET Framework Version 2.0.50727.42.
This fixed some bugs.

What happens if you stop running the scripts unattended?

"When I built the hard drive I set up a small dedicated partition to
serve as the Swap File."

How many hard drives? If you only have a single hard drive what
you have done is contrary to perceived best practice ( however
some areas of management of the pagefile can generate heated
debate ). Try leaving a 50 mb page file on the C partition.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Looking in Google suggests it may easier to follow the regedit
lead than the Stop Error message.

You can embark on a full clean of the machine to remove all
malware, if any, and run HijackThis. It would then be best to post
the log to a specialist forum.

Install and run HijackThis:
Download HijackThis (Freeware)
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/

Finally run HijackThis and post the HijackThis log to the HijackThis
forum here:
http://aumha.net/

You will need to register with Aumha to be able to post.

Another possibility is to study what loads at startup.
This programme is a good source of information:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Greg Maxey]

Gerry,

No problems last night. Scripts ran fine and machine was running normally
this morning.

I will explore these other suggestions as time permits. Off to work for
now.

Thanks for your interest.

Greg

 

[Greg Maxey]

Gerry,

How do you upgrade Microsot.Net Framework?. I see that the program is
installed in CP>Add Remove Programs, but I don't see a place to launch it on
the Start Menu.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

Try Start, Help and Support, Keep your computer up-to-date with
Windows Update.

If your using Automatic Update you're probably not getting offered
all the updates i.e you are only getting those rated "Critical".

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Greg]

Gerry,

Will do when I get home. I read the piece on the Swap File and will
probably elect to just move it back to the C:\ drive.

 

[Greg]

Gerry,

I am giving up and will rebuild the drive/OS from scratch.