Physical Memory Dumps

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joshua Horton
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Joshua Horton

Can anyone explain to me WHY Microsoft has allowed its OSes to
comandeer our computers with Physical Memory Dump blue screens so much
and with no noticable effort to fix them? I can hardly work on my
computer anymore without it either freezing up or instantaneously
demolishing anything I've done since my last save (aside: I've been
conditioned by these new OS faults to save every minute and a half,
something I never had to do with Windows 95, or 98 [second edition]).
Can anyone direct me to where I can find the solution to the
multifarious error codes I receive??? Any help would be appreciated.
My hardware company has been of no help, and Microsoft tries to keep
itself so insular as to make it impossible to actively seek any help
from them other than what they put in their obviously deficient
'knowledgebase'.

Please help
 
from the said:
Can anyone explain to me WHY Microsoft has allowed its OSes to
comandeer our computers with Physical Memory Dump blue screens so much
and with no noticable effort to fix them? I can hardly work on my
computer anymore without it either freezing up or instantaneously
demolishing anything I've done since my last save (aside: I've been
conditioned by these new OS faults to save every minute and a half,
something I never had to do with Windows 95, or 98 [second edition]).
Can anyone direct me to where I can find the solution to the
multifarious error codes I receive??? Any help would be appreciated.
My hardware company has been of no help, and Microsoft tries to keep
itself so insular as to make it impossible to actively seek any help
from them other than what they put in their obviously deficient
'knowledgebase'.
Click to expand...

You have either a hardware problem, or some very flaky driver(s)
installed. I twist the tails on my machines fairly hard, and haven't
managed a blue screen crash for months (and when I last did I was
messing with a driver that MS clearly warned me was 'not WHQL
tested/approved).

If you post the blue screen errors message info here, we can tell you
what died. If the machine reboots before you can read it, turn =off=
'restart after failure' in the computer, properties, advanced, startup &
recovery tab.

Is this the same computer that was so stable under Win95/98, or a new
one? If the latter, then you might want to give it some soak testing
with
www.memtest86.com (overnight, at least), and run the Prime95 torture
test (http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm). If it won't pass those, no way
will it run XP stably. If it will pass those, then we'll look for some
more obscure problems.

You can also help your debugging by turning off all the cr&p you are
probably loading at startup (start, run, msconfig, general tab,
selective startup, untick the 'load startup items'), then look at the
services tab, hide MS services, and see what is left, and then run
msinfo32, and look at software environment, signed drivers, sort on
whether they are signed or not (click the column heading) and see what
unsigned ('potentially faulty') drivers you are running.
 
Joshua said:
Can anyone explain to me WHY Microsoft has allowed its OSes to
comandeer our computers with Physical Memory Dump blue screens so much
and with no noticable effort to fix them? I can hardly work on my
computer anymore without it either freezing up or instantaneously
demolishing anything I've done since my last save
Click to expand...

First - you have something seriously amiss if you are getting frequent
crashes. Maybe a bad driver; more likely hardware trouble like RAM
matching or overheating.

But you have something that is crashing - and the system's
'automatically restart' is cutting in. Turn this off: in Control Panel
- System - Advanced, click Settings in the Startup and Recovery section.
There uncheck 'automatically restart'. You can also usefully change the
'write debugging information' to (none)

THen in the Error reporting button, take the Disable option (or leave
reporting on but only report on Operating system matters)
 
Can anyone explain to me WHY Microsoft has allowed its OSes to
comandeer our computers with Physical Memory Dump blue screens so much
and with no noticable effort to fix them?
Click to expand...


What's this "our computers" stuff? Speak for yourself. I have no
such problem on either computer here, nor on any of the other
half dozen or so I maintain.

You very likely have a hardware problem, and your castigating
Microsoft for it is simply wrong.
 
I appreciate all your help. I'll have it run the gauntlets you've
suggested and see if that tells me anything. Also, thanks for the
concise rundown on how to clean up all the sh** running in the
background.

I'll let you know what I find, and will post the error messages later.
 
From past experience, generally the only time I have gotten blue screen
errors in XP it has been hardware related.

Have you installed any new pieces of hardware lately? Also, you might want
to get your RAM checked out, once your
RAM starts getting unstable blue screens are a lot more common.

Phillip
 
Here are some sample error reports:

IRQL_NOT_LESS...
STOP: 0x0000000a (0x00c38730, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x805222cc),

That was yesterday

STOP: 0x000000d1 (0xf7000dc4, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xf710c3a0

Two days ago

STOP: x10000050 (0xa2b92498, 0x00000000, 0xbf8e4a97, 0x00000000)

Four days ago

STOP: 0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0xbf8917ec, 0xecbf7a58, 0x00000000)

Also four days ago

My friend also started having very similar problems recently. Same
platform, different brand of machine.
 
from the said:
Here are some sample error reports:

IRQL_NOT_LESS...
STOP: 0x0000000a (0x00c38730, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x805222cc),

That was yesterday

STOP: 0x000000d1 (0xf7000dc4, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xf710c3a0

Two days ago

STOP: x10000050 (0xa2b92498, 0x00000000, 0xbf8e4a97, 0x00000000)

Four days ago

STOP: 0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0xbf8917ec, 0xecbf7a58, 0x00000000)

Also four days ago

My friend also started having very similar problems recently. Same
platform, different brand of machine.
Click to expand...

So did you try some memory tests yet? Do these 'stop' messages mention
any particular program/driver that caused the 'stop'?
 
Yeah, they mentioned a Synaptics driver that I updated afterwards,
otherwise, no. Today I ran 'memtest' and found that these sections of
my RAM were found to be bad:

0x28f91090, 0x28f91090, 0x285c10a0, 0xfffffffc, 0x28410a0, 0xfffffffc,
0x28b410a0, 0x28b410a0, 0x287010a0, 0xfffffffc

Ok, so, obviously it's my RAM no? So, what to do? I have two RAM
modules, one is 5xxMb the other the standard 256 MB (came with the
computer). How can I isolate the RAM module malfunctioning? Is it
both? Is there any way to 'quarantine' the specific sections and have
them be dis-enabled so that I don't have to ask Compaq or Crucial to
replace my RAM yet again??

Thanks for all your help. Much, much appreciated.
 
Joshua said:
0x28f91090, 0x28f91090, 0x285c10a0, 0xfffffffc, 0x28410a0, 0xfffffffc,
0x28b410a0, 0x28b410a0, 0x287010a0, 0xfffffffc

Ok, so, obviously it's my RAM no? So, what to do? I have two RAM
modules, one is 5xxMb the other the standard 256 MB (came with the
computer). How can I isolate the RAM module malfunctioning?
Click to expand...

Try just the 512 on its own as first step - run the tests again. And
see how the system behaves. Poor matching of modules of RAM is often a
cause of trouble - Windows is very fussy on the point
 
It's the original issue RAM that's having problems. The same error
messages pop up when I run Memtest on the 256mb module. Not so on the
512 that I got from Crucial. So, thanks to all for the help.
 
Well, the unfortunate thing is, yes, I do graphic design primarily.
The 2xx+MB of memory will cut into my productivity some, but I
contacted Compaq, raved about Memtest86 thoroughness & they completely
agreed with my conclusion & will be replacing my de-facto stick.

Now, unfortunately, atop all the hardware issues, it seems my
SYNTP.SYS & i8042prt.SYS drivers are flakey.

I keep getting memory dumps, though now they are specifically (now
anyhow) associated with these drivers.

I have a sense though that the 104+ heat over here is killing my
machine. The RAM was faulty, according to Memtest, the makers of
which I must commend on their thoroughness & reproducability, but now,
my system still blue-screens...though seemingly only during daylight
hours. Call me stupid if you must, but why are Compaq machines so
sensitive? My friend's Dell has no problem in this weather, yet I
crash every 30 minutes I run the machine before nightfall. Is
Compaq/HP simply owned by Vampires??? ;) Seriously though...
 
Follow up for the dissuaders: I have the most recent SoftPaq's &
Service packs downloaded. I've even tried my hand at the hardware
producers even more recent driver fixes...no luck. The only
consitancy seems to be the external heat...so, do I need to rig an
external RAM cooling module to keep my computer running during the
day? Am I out of line in hoping my computer will function at temps
above 98 ok, esp. when my friend's similarly stout Dell laptop do AOK
in the same conditions? Am I hoping for too much?? It seems to me
that somehwere along the line, some conscientious soul would prod
his/her superior to make some statement about temp tolerances...esp
when my diagnostics still tells me that my system temp health is
normal...then proceeds to crash a moment or two later.
 
from the said:
Follow up for the dissuaders: I have the most recent SoftPaq's &
Service packs downloaded. I've even tried my hand at the hardware
producers even more recent driver fixes...no luck. The only
consitancy seems to be the external heat...so, do I need to rig an
external RAM cooling module to keep my computer running during the
day? Am I out of line in hoping my computer will function at temps
above 98 ok, esp. when my friend's similarly stout Dell laptop do AOK
in the same conditions? Am I hoping for too much?? It seems to me
that somehwere along the line, some conscientious soul would prod
his/her superior to make some statement about temp tolerances...esp
when my diagnostics still tells me that my system temp health is
normal...then proceeds to crash a moment or two later.
Click to expand...

Download and run Motherboard Monitor 5, and log the temperatures to a
..txt file .. you'll at least be able to see what is going on. Also try
with the side off the case .. this sometimes helps (and sometimes just
messes up the airflow - I'm afraid it's a 'suck it and see' job).

My home-built PCs are both running happily with a room temperature (last
week) over 90f, and the CPUs at 56/57c, but it does vary from machine
to machine - it may not even be the CPU that goes belly-up .. other
motherboard components, and Disk drives, are equally unhappy if they get
too hot.
 
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