General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages
If you can't find a specific reference to your problem, running through the
following checklist stands a good chance of resolving the problem for you.
This checklist is also usually the best approach to troubleshooting some
specific Stop messages, such as 0x0A and 0x50.
Examine the "System" and "Application" logs in Event Viewer for other recent
errors that might give further clues. To do this, launch EventVwr.msc from a
Run box; or open "Administrative Tools" in the Control Panel then launch
Event Viewer.
If you've recently added new hardware, remove it and retest.
Run hardware diagnostics supplied by the manufacturer.
Make sure device drivers and system BIOS are up-to-date.
However, if you've installed new drivers just before the problem appeared,
try rolling them back to the older ones.
Open the box and make sure all hardware is correctly installed, well seated,
and solidly connected.
Confirm that all of your hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility List. If
some of it isn't, then pay particular attention to the non-HCL hardware in
your troubleshooting.
Check for viruses.
Investigate recently added software.
Examine (and try disabling) BIOS memory options such as caching or
shadowing.
NOTE: When a STOP message occurs, Windows can create a debug file for very
detailed analysis. To do this, it needs a workspace equal to the amount of
physical RAM you have installed. If you resize your Win XP pagefile minimum
to less than the size of your physical RAM, you will get an advisory message
that your system may not be able to create a debugging information file if a
STOP error occurs. My advice is to go ahead with this change if you want,
but simply remember the limitation so that you can change it back if you
need to troubleshoot STOP messages. Some general troubleshooting principles
are suggested in the Resource Kit for approaching STOP messages overall.
